Things to do, people to see...
Although rest days give you a rest from walking, there’s a lot to do. Yesterday involved a bit of exploring the village, some shopping, kit-maintenance and an afternoon by the pool, while today we’ve had a trip into Vielha for some more serious shopping.
While the four of us were by the pool yesterday, Klaas and I went through the next section and worked out which route we’re going to take, primarily so we could calculate how much food to buy. We’ve adapted some days from my book to end in slightly different places and used the route from Klaas’s book towards the end of the section, which saves us a day. Unfortunately the only places we can get food are a single refuge and a restaurant near the end of one of the days, so we’re going to be carrying way more food than before.
I’ve got a few freeze-dried meals I brought from the UK specifically for this section, so it will be good to get rid of them. They’re going to be supplemented with the usual evening meals of couscous and cup-a-soup, with muesili for breakfast, and bread, cheese and chorizo for lunch. On top of that there are energy bars, nuts and boiled sweets to snack on, so hopefully there’ll be enough calories to get me to L’Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre on July 25th, when we get to our next shop.
In an effort to build up some spare calories I ended up eating five meals yesterday. It’s quite strange feeling totally bloated and patting your stomach, only to discover it’s still completely flat! If only it was always this easy…
One of yesterday’s meals was a farewell to Lucy and Ross, who left Arties early this morning to head to Barcelona. We had a great meal at a lovely pizzeria, including some free shots of cassis from the waitress, which went down very well!
Today I’ve only managed three meals, but they were all pretty big, especially lunch. I discovered last night that Di and Doug (the couple from Hobart that I met in Lescun) were also going to be in Vielha today, so we had lunch with them and swapped tales of derring-do from the first three sections.
Apart from resting, the main reason the route heads to a village every now and again is to replenish food supplies. This time there are other things too though - toothpaste, suncream, loo roll, fuel and liquid soap are all close to the end. Until now I’ve been using a single bottle of biodegradable soap to clean me, my clothes and my pan, but no-one in Vielha has ever heard if such a product. Instead, I’m going to have to rely on using shower gel from now on, and hope it doesn’t cause the marmottes too much inconvenience.
While in Vielha we’ve also shipped Klaas’s crampons off, bought him some new boots and bought me a rucksack cover. Although my stuff lives in waterproof “dry-bags”, the rucksack itself soaks up a lot of water (its about 20 years old and not as water-repellent as it once was) and the cover should prevent that.
We’re taking a rather luxurious 3-day break here, so tomorrow is another rest day, then we set off on Saturday, hopefully fighting fit. Tomorrow we’re going back to Vielha (it’s only 10 minutes down the road) for a few more things, and to post home some more kit so we’ll be able to carry all the food.