Pyrenees vacation - Hike 2, Molló (Spain) to Prats-de-Mollo (France)

After the experience on our first day of hiking with the Wikireisen package, we decided to be a bit more careful.  In retrospect, were are spoiled by the incredibly well marked and managed hiking trails in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  We blindly assumed that hiking trails everywhere are so well signed.  Of course, the problemn could lie with the Wikireisen directions themselves... we'll see.

The second day's hike would take us across the border from Spain and into France's Pyrenees.  There is a nature reserve nearby (see map below) and the scenery promised to continue to be gorgeous.

In the spirit of caution, Frau A and I got up even earlier and spent a long breakfast translating in detail the hiking instructions.  We would manage the twists and turns more carefully today, even if it took some of the relaxation out of the experience.  Better than being lost in the mountains.

After we had made copious notes, we departed from the hotel in Mollo.  Incredibly, the very first instruction was unclear.  It said to "exit the hotel and turn right".  The problem:  the hotel sits on a street corner, and there are two exits!  Therefore, depending on which exit you took, you would take a different direction.  We weren't sure if this was hilarious or depressing, but it was casting doubt more and more on the directions from Wikireisen.

Fortunately, we figured it out quickly and headed down into the valley - with pretty views of the town church.

Today, we would be heading downwards first, and then go up and across a mountain to Prats-de-Mollo.

For the first hour -- after the first instruction, anyway -- things were going smoothly.  We identified every intersection and turn, and were rewarded with signs comfirming our path and position.

Unfortunately, we came to an instruction that said to turn right and follow the covered path.  Of course, the covered path went left at the Y-junction.  We guess correctly that the covered path was more important than right/left indication, but confidence was not high in the directions at this point.

The covered path was very rocky but beautiful.  At least that was worth the moment of confusion.

We emerged by an old mill alongside a small river.  Really nice.  Like the day before, we were basically alone on the trails, with complete peace and quiet (but nobody to ask for confirming directions either).

After crossing the river, we started the day's ascent.  After 1.5 hours we could look back over the valley.

Sure enough, we ran into more mountain horses.  (I.e., another stop for Frau A to take photos!)

After another hour ascending in the woods, we reached an elevation that was clear and grassy.  Right in front of us was a stone marker -- we had reached the Spanish-French border!  Still on track for that day too.

The weather was again beautiful, so we decided to have our lunch here along the border, in the sun.

Even better, signs continued to confirm that we were following directions correctly.

So we crossed into France and started the descent into Prats-de-Mollo, again going through the woods.

An hour later we walked by a farm with two donkeys - wish we had brought sugar cubes for them.
They were much more curious than the horses or cows, and not afraid to come right to the fence. 

Then in the early afternoon, we emerged from the woods with a view of our destination.  We could see the church and fortress dominating the hill on which the town sits.  Very satisfying.

We entered the town through the old stone wall & gate.  Very cool.  Frau A had to take some photos here.

Walking past the old walls was a great reward for the day's hike...

...plus there were some smaller churches that looked lovely.

We had one more arch to go through, and then on to the hotel, for showers and then dinner.

Day 2 was pretty satisfying.  There were some glitches in the hiking instructions that continued to give us pause.  But we made it, had gorgeous scenery and photos, and lots of fresh air.  Just a great day.

As you'll see in the next posts, the ominous signs of bad instructions turned into real problems... but we found a way.

Pyrenees vacation - Hike 1, Setcases to Molló

In the prior blog entry, we introduced our "individualized" trip:  an organized 5-day hike from the edge of the Pyrenees to the Mediterranean coast.  It was structured by a travel company (a different hotel booked each night), but we would actually execute it on our own - no guides or groups.

The first hike was from Setcases to Mollo, both in Spain.  (Although you can already see the French border on the Google Map below.)  It's not the high Pyrenees, but still a hike of 650m ascent over 13km in that day's plan.

Below was the sign that greeted us at the start of the day.  This trail section is part of the major GR11 route across the Pyrenees, so we hoped that it would be well marked with the red/white stripes the whole way.

Our first steps were across a mountain stream, with the same flowers we saw in town (Setcases) on the bridge.

After 30-45 minutes of immediate incline, we reached a relatively wide, flat, grassy track through the woods.
We stopped frequently to take photos of the peaks across the way.  It was a beautiful, blue day in Spain.

The woods here were dominated by pine trees and rough shrubs along the trailside.

One thing we did NOT expect was to see cows in the mountains.  We learned, in fact, that the locals let them graze freely and just round them up a few times each year.  They were quite skittish and afraid of people.

The next surprise was to see horses in the mountains, also roaming freely.  As with the cows, people here let them take care of themselves and find them a few times each year.  What was a little disturbing to Frau A is that the horses are used for food!  (We'd seen Spanish dried horse meat on menus in Munich, and here they were.)

They were very nervous as well, but we snuck through the trees for a few closer photos.  This one was young and liked to stay close to mom... but still curious of us nonetheless.

To help people track them down, many horses wear bells like the one in the photo below.

In the next photo, you get a much better view of the wide, grassy train we were following.  No problems so far.  Until this point, we were following the GR11 and would see the red & white stripes marker periodically.

We caught this guy sharing our path, but he beat it as soon as we came around the corner toward him.

At this point, we could look back and see how the trail wound its way around the side of the mountain.

We then came to a point with a great view across the Pyrenees - peaks are far as the eye could see.  This is where the instructions told us to leave the GR11 (to take a path down to the next town).

Frau A took this chance to pose with the horses that were sharing our lookout point.

Unfortunately, things started to go poorly from here.  Our printed map and turn-by-turn guide sent us onto this narrow dirt track.  That was fine, except the instruction (remember, printed in German) told us to look for a fence on the left, go through the gate, and continue on the trail to Mollo.

We never found the fence, and therefore not the gate, and therefore not the path to Mollo.  We backtracked twice and checked each direction carefully, but just could not figure it out.  These cows couldn't help, unfortunately.  At least the weather was perfect - not too cold or hot for extended hiking.

It's funny.  Even though she's tired, somewhat lost, and it's getting on towards dusk, Frau A still wants to take photos of animals!  She would have taken one home with her, if it were possible.

At this point, it was starting to get dark.  We spent a LOT of time taking photos, and after backtracking twice to try and find the turnoff that the instruction said we should follow, we put away the cameras and headed to one place we knew existed and hopefully find some help.

Because this was already early October, peak season for hiking was over.  There were almost no people on the trails with us.  Fortunately we remembered passing a small turnoff into a national park, where earlier we had seen a few cars.  We hiked there as fast as possible... and luckily found one family left.  They were having a picnic.  Frau A asked them for help in Spanish.

Unbelievably, they offered to drive us to Mollo - where they are from.  They did not know the fence and gate the instructions mentioned, but since we had already hiked 15km (and probably 1100m total ascent) we didn't feel guilty about accepting their offer.  We had hiked more than in the plan anyway!

Ironically, it was a great way to end the day.  Their kindness was a reaffirmation of how nice people can be.  On the other side, we learned that we cannot trust the given directions from Wikireisen blindly.

The next hikes proved to be just as "interesting"... coming soon.