Day 7: 18 August: Col de Tharta to Refugio Belagua

The weather was really bad the entire day. There were no visibility, a strong wind and and from time to time heavy rain. There was no way we could climb up to Pic d’Orhy (2017 m), we had to wait to reach over 2000 m. We were forced to take an alternative route.

We had really bad weather the entire day, I was happy to not hiking alone, Anika and I managed to keep the mood up together. There was no way we could climb to Pic d’Orhy, we had to take the alternative variation. We were walking in the cloud for the entire day so even when it wasn’t raining it was wet.

At the Cabane d’Ardané (the end of day 7 in the guide book), unmanned hut, we took a break and had a late lunch and some warm tea. I tried to dry my tent but it was very humid so not really any point. We discussed if we should stay the night. Neither of us was tempted to stay or even leave. The hut was quite ok, situated very nicely in a valley with a stream. It also had a fire place.

There were someone camping nearby. We later found out that it was Tasha who had decided to stay in the tent for the whole day, avoiding the bad weather. If we knew we might have stayed. In the end we decided to try to reach the Refugio Belagua, about four hours ahead.

We continued to walk in the rain. At some parts it was really muddy and slippery. At some place dangerous so we had to be careful. After some hours we finally arrived to the Refugio. They had room for us, I wanted to eat there, Anika preferred to cook her own. At the dinner I met the Dutch team again. Indeed a nice surprise, And we could return the headlamp, they were very grateful. The Dutch group has grown, two girls had joined them, Eva and Dara.

We had a nice evening before getting some sleep.

And sorry, due to the weather I didn’t take any picture, accept for one of myself in the rain, the picture is so misarable, so I’ll spare you that one.