Birthday in the Mountains

Pic Perdiguere

As is the custom, each year at the end of September we hope to celebrate my birthday by a mountain walk. This time, I had a plan and it involved 3 days of hiking and a couple of nights in a refuge, since it is getting a bit chilly now.

A friend who we met on a previous walk, Sheri suggested that the area above Lac D’Oo is stunning and worth an explore so after getting a map we booked the refuge and headed off for 3 days of fun in the mountains with stunning weather, long days, great views, good scrambles, a lovely refuge with only 6 of us staying there so dorm to ourselves result not having to contend with snorers.

First day was over 2000m of ascent but once we were past the popular Lac D’Oo we hardly saw a soul which was great. I struggled with leg cramps for a couple of hours and meant that progress was slower than planned. Finally got to the refuge at 650pm and told dinner was in 10 minutes! We had a chat with the guardian re a scramble route the next day which is always good to get the local info.

Day 2 was stunning weather again, we wanted to do a scramble ridge up on the Spanish border and to climb Pic de Perdiguere 3222m also hoped to take in another peak Crabioules but looe rock and lack of a rope stopped that POA. Wow what a fab day, scrambling up over a few peaks following the ridge line and amazing views both on the French and Spanish side. Managed to find the path back to the refuge making a lovely loop.

Day 3, birthday day, we decided with the cloud to descend and do a lower summit on the way back to the van. Skies cleared though very quickly until we reached the van and the clouds came in, perfect timing. Had a lovely day on the hill with my hubby could not have been nicer.

All was lovely and then we hit Lac D’oo on a Saturday and it was mobbed hundreds of people trundling!!!!!

Back to the barn with a stop at the auberge, Rene and Anouk had a bottle of pink bubbles in the fridge for me which was very kind and Clive and Peter joined us too so a lovely finale to our 3 days away. It was then back up to the barn, more bubbles, cards, pressies, foie gras, prawns and cheese. A perfect end to 3 birthday bashing days! Thanks Al for sharing with me and making it a very memorable birthday.

Categories: Summer 2018, The Project Tags: Tags: