sam and the city

Climb every mountain...

Good day faithful readers. Do you ever feel small? Do you ever feel really, really small? Not because you've been belittled, but because you're in the presence of something so big that you feel totally insignificant, like a speck of dust. I think that the ultimate way to experience this feeling would be to go into space and look back at the Earth and see how small even that is in comparison with the universe as a whole. For the normal person however I think that the best way to gain this sort of perspective is to go into the mountains, which is exactly what I did on the weekend.

On this particular occasion I went walking in the Pyrenees. After stopping off at the top of the Col de Tourmalet, as every cyclist must for the obligatory photo next to the sign and big statue of the cyclist, I was dropped off down at the bottom of the mountain to begin my walk along the GR10.

The walk started off very well. However, so busy was I taking photos that I didn't notice when the path split and I continued to follow the guy who was walking in front of me. It was only after climbing nearly 300m to a reservoir that I didn't remember being on my route that I realised that I had gone astray! The silver lining was that from my very high vantage point I could clearly see where I was supposed to have gone and as such was easily able to climb back down again and take the correct path.

It took me 4 hours (including the 1hour detour to the reservoir) to reach the highest point of my walk, the Col du Madamete (2,510m). It may have been the altitude, it may have been the lack of fitness, it may have been the fact that I'd climbed an unnecessary 300m already, but whatever the case I can assure you that by the time I got there the "go up" muscles in my legs were certainly starting to complain. I therefore decided that I would take the chance to have some lunch in a spot with views that any restaurant would pay big money for and rest for a bit.

When I got going again I was very happy to know that it was going to be basically downhill all the way to the finish. I was also happy to find that the southern side of the mountain was substantially less rocky than the northern side, and with views down to the lakes far below it made the distance go by quite quickly. Meeting my parents, who had driven around the other side of the mountain and walked up to meet me, and having someone to talk to also made the distance go by quicker. It was something of a let down however when I found that I was still walking an hour after my Dad told me that we were just about at the car! Nevertheless, we made it.

The walk in total took just over 7.5hours, so by the time I got back to the car the "go down" muscles in my legs were also complaining and I was well and truly ready for a good sit down. I don't know why it is, but I seem to always be happiest when I engage myself in activities that cause me to be totally physically exhausted. So when you take this along with pleasure I gain of just being in the mountains, I think that you could say that it was a pretty good day out.

posted by sam @ 10:44 pm