A short walk in the Pyrenees

We went out for a little walk today. I have to specify that three of the four in the party are hard-core Pyrenean walkers, leaving me feeling a little inadequate. G has suffered a broken leg and broken/replaced hip in recent years, and he's still better at going up hills than I am (but I'm faster going down!). We started out taking the "easy" option of walking up a ski run, which was as steep as you would expect it to be. Then there was lots and lots of zigzag climbing, and no flat bits, up to a pair of typically Pyrenean lakes. We ate our lunch on the edge of one of them, the Estany del Diable (Devil's Lake). I don't know what's devilish about it, but A dropped her hardboiled egg into it, and it swiftly sank into the murk never to be seen again. The many tadpoles might have enjoyed it, except it still had its shell on.

There was a knee-crunching walk back down; I was not foolish enough to believe that the bar at the bottom would be open, so I wasn't disappointed when it wasn't. We drove back to Bordes de Graus and had a beer or two on the terrace instead ... while we'd had glorious sun on our walk, it clouded over so rapidly that it was raining before we'd finished our beer. Later, we had an apero of some puffballs S had collected on our walk, quickly fried with garlic, and then dinner in the borda's restaurant and an earlyish night.

Stats: 8 km, 600 m climbing, 5 hours or so.