Sue and Martin's Big Adventure
Day 29 - Monday 23 August 2004 - Stage 23 (continued)
Postcard Summary
Attentive
hotel to Luchon
Woodland walk, then campsite & stocking
up chores, plus halftime celebrations – 2.75 hours, 14 km, 200m ascent
A short day at last. Whilst Julie took the bus, we enjoyed a
lovely walk on old lanes and footpaths to Luchon, where the path arrived in one
of the backstreets! Lunch in the park,
then clothes were washed before the afternoon storms started. Strolled along the main street later,
stopping for a beer and deciding to have a rest day tomorrow (a whole one!) to
celebrate being half way across! So the
‘stocking up chores’ were considered but not actually executed – the next stage
is quite tough and remote, and the weather has taken a turn for the worse.
Diary Entry (by Martin)
Nice breakfast at the attentive Hotel des Spigeoles in Oô.
Julie elects to
bus it to Luchon and the hotel owner helps to guide her to the 9.40 minibus, on
which she is the only passenger for the picturesque half hour journey.
Meanwhile, Sue
and I set off along a pleasant contouring footpath in the direction of Luchon. Path
number 78 seemed to take the right direction, though we left and re-joined it a
couple of times.
It was cloudy
but warm, and very pleasant strolling along shady mossy lanes with relatively
light loads.
Hardly anybody
about - a couple of mountain bikers, and a few other people as we entered Luchon.
It got quite sweaty as we rose steeply through a field for 50 metres.
Having left Oô
at 9.15, we first sighted Luchon, bathed in thin sunshine through gathering cloud,
at 10.30. But it took until 12 noon to finally drop steeply down to the town
and rendezvous with Julie outside Tourist Information. Lots of mountain bike
route signposts on the way - there are some good routes from Superbagnères
(1800 metres), reached by gondola. Luchon even has sturdy, elaborate, scooters
for hire to daredevil descenders.
After some
unexpected 'ups' and some severe 'downs', Luchon was gained - a busy town - the
largest by far that we will pass through. We bought the usual nice lunch -
baguette, goats cheese, tomatoes, pâté, fruit, drinks, etc and enjoyed it on a
park bench by a duck pond before adjourning to Camping Des Thermes, where Julie
had found a camping spot next to a noisy works. And then we had a rest /
planning afternoon and eventually decided to stay here another night. Effectively
a 'half term holiday', as we are almost exactly that in both time and distance.
The weather
deteriorated, with a couple of thunderstorms, before we adjourned for a
third walk into Luchon (fourth for Julie) for a nice meal at Caprices d'Efigny
restaurant, with some Olympic athletes in the background at an earlier bar, but
no sign of any Brits!
Stats
and route (Viewranger):
14
km, 350 metres ascent, 2.75 hours
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