Pyrenees vacation - Hike 3, Coll de Noell to Amélie-les-Bains

Despite a few unclear hiking directions on Day 2, we felt pretty good heading into Day 3.  We again got up early, thoroughly translated the instructions from German at breakfast, and put water in the backpacks.

Today we would be heading mostly north, further into France.  On the Google Map below, you can already start to see the Mediterranean Sea and our final destination of Banyul sur Mer.

One unique part of this day's agenda was that the hike would start outside of town -- they provided a taxi to get us to the starting point.  Day 2 ended in Prats-de-Mollo, but Day 3 started in Coll de Noell.

The taxi basically dropped us off in the middle of a dirt road.  50m further, a hiking path veered off right.

The first hour or so had a completely different environment than the pine forests of Day 1 and 2.  It seemed much drier here, dominated by grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs.  And the sun was really beating down.

For a while were were hiking along farmer's paths, and slong some woods that were small deciduous trees.

Eventually, we ascended beyond the farms and up to the peaks that we had to cross in order to reach the next town.  These mountains were a little more dramatic that what we had seen so far.  You can see the narrow trail heading up to the first apex - we would have to do two of these today.

Looking back, the hiking path snakes its way back and disappears over the ridge we had just climbed.

The second peak was even more photogenic.. and we had some company!  Two Frenchmen had already arrived and were having lunch.  We said hello, and opened our packs for food and water too.  The guys were NOT doing the Wikireisen tour -- they just lived in the area and were having a nice day in the mountains.

As we started the descent towards Amelie-les-Bains, the way became quite rocky.  Oddly, this was more difficult to do that a grudging incline.  But we took it slow and steady, and so far all directions looked good!  No problems... yet.

Eventually, through a clearing we could see a town in the valley below - presumably our destination.

Unfortunately, this is where the directions failed us again.  For you doubters out there, check out all the hiking we have done in Germany and Austria - and I promise we double check and backtracked twice... but there was a turnoff the directions noted we should take that did not exist.  So we kept on the main trail and headed down towards the town (that's Frau A coming down the trail, below).

We did arrive in town... but unfortunately about an hour walk from the part of town where our hotel was.  We asked a man driving along the road to clarify directions - not so easy with our terrible French.  However, his eyes lit up when he saw the name of our hotel, and he motioned to get in the car.  Why not?

Yet again, fate dealt us a great hand.  This man was friendly (singing to himself in the car) and dropped us off right at the hotel!  That was nice, because it gave us some time to shower before dinner.  I took the chance to take photos of the locals playing bocce next to the river, outside of our hotel window.  My favorite is the man in yellow shirt, tie, and hat.  He liked to be the judge rather than play the game.

So ended Day 3.  Mostly on track, with an instructions problem towards the end of the day that landed us an hour outside our destination.  But we had some luck again, and all worked out well.  It was another day of hiking 12km, ascending 650m, experiencing the Pyrenees, and ending with a nice dinner - we slept well again that night.

As you'll read in the next post, Day 4 had more dramatic surprises in store for us...