As I was awoken by the sound of bells I was snapped into reality of being stampeded in my tent by hundreds of mountain sheep as I quickly unzipped my tent and looked out I found it was a mother and her foal. They stared at this half naked human like a child ponders my head before informing me that I am bald. They finally ignored me and continued to chew on the fresh rain filled grass.
As I packed up my tent it was a little later than I expected but earlier than I had starts the previous days. I swung the bag of lead on my back but was stopped in my tracks before taking a step. Above me were 30 or 40 birds of prey (eagles I suspect) frozen in the air high above the ridge above me. Not really frozen you understand just riding the thermals and wind with the precision of a formula one driver, this was by far and away one one most awesome things I have seen in my life. I continued on passing a multitude of hunting towers and hides along the was. The weather was much better than yesterday but there was a strong headwind really slowing me down. As I crossed a field full of mountain horses one approached me. No sooner had I stroked her nose s presented her belly to me. After giving her belly a good rub I continued walking and my friend decided to follow me.
A couple of hours later I came across two German guys coming in the opposite direction just a couple of days from the end of their journey. "We don't have to leave until the 20th" of the said. "We're just going to walk slowly and party". "I wish I was you I thought". We passed some chit chating about their route through Catalunya. Turns out they decided to walk over Puigmal to Puigcerda rather than go around, a route I have done myself in the past. After a while I wished them well but I had a whole extra stage to cover today after bailing yesterday.
As I filled my water bottle and dipped my cap into a fast running cold water river a couple passed me walking at a pace I couldn't understand. Way faster than me they were already disappearing into the distance as I stood up.
Ten minutes later I was sitting in an Alburgue drinking Coke and eating Haribo. Sitting next to me were the couple who had blasted past me earlier, turns out the guy was from the U.K and the woman was Swedish. As usual there was chit chat but now were ready to leave. I started a near vertical ascent with them sure in the knowledge that soon they would rapidly lose me like they had before but after 20 minutes I realised that like a racehorse they we pacing me. As we ascended yet another near vertical hill the usual evening mist rolled in. As we reached the summit there was some discussion over which direction we should go (visibility was down to a couple of meters), I had both my GPS and my phone GPS open, they had maps and a compass and before long we were moving on. Is we descended into town we went out separate ways wished each other luck and said we might see each other tomorrow. As I sit here today we didn't, once you lose people on this trail they are gone, its a sad but understandable part, this is not the Camino Santiago, this is the GR11.
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