An unscheduled detour (lost?) - Pics de Vallhivernos

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http://www.justgiving.com/gesarmor4peakspyrenees


Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.  ~Ray Bradbury

Standing ................................................here.. and looking down to the first lake, where I took the picture of the moraine in the last entry,  it doesn't look as bad as the Una y demi horas, sangre, sudor y lagrimas would like to testify to!  Reaching the grass track was no small comfort.  
The picture above is looking back over my shoulder, but it could have been in any direction.  On the map and in reality there were lakes everywhere.  Add to this the fork in the path caused by a branch line in the GR11 and  where you're standing,  is not where you should be standing.  Signs were sent to me! Alas I ignored them.  My subconscious nagged and prodded and poked my seeming self: "that lake is too long"; "that cabana is not on the map" but the most irrational sign was the sudden appearance of nettles everywhere.  Their acrid perfume rose up and soiled the sweet air, the nettle avoidance tic entered my gait, the area took on the look of waste land between an allotment and a railway siding in Stockport.  "Vuelta capullo!!" it screamed. [(gracias Eñaut!!)]

I had a map and, with the appearance of a 15 acre reservoir on my left where a deserted farmhouse should have been, I decided it was time to look more closely at it.

This photo is borrowed from danirando-wifeo.com. (Google-images) The battery on my phone was getting low and I had dopped my cam-corder in the toilet at Refugi de Colomers! (luckily it wa..) I had stopped at that brand new refugio for coffee etc (I know, I digress) and sat outside in 45 degrees of heat eating a sandwich and looking with amazement on runners of the Carros de Foc stopping to have their arrival ticked off as they completed a run between nine refugios.  The record was nine hours and something!!
http://www.carrosdefoc.com/esp/la-travesia.html This link shows the route with approximate times - 24 hours! Billy Wizz lives.

View of the old Refugio de Colomers taken from the heli-pad of the new one.

Where was I? Studying the map, weighing up whether to return and pick up the original trail or be adventurous and take the - unknown to me at the time- 'north face of the Eiger route'.  Ok, I exaggerate, but please remember as you read on, your blogger is no experienced climber, is the wrong side of 50, alone, and on his back, lest ye have forgot, sits a 13kilo rucksack shaped albatross.