GR11 - Day 11 - to Sallient de Gallego

We started off thinking we would do the variant. We started off but soon lost the marks and as well, the path we were following was overgrown and unpleasant. After a half hour we decided to live up to the promise we made to stay with the GPS route, so off we went. The route was beautiful, wide, easy on the feet, an easy grade, spectacular scenery. Oh, how I was glad we had changed our mind. With such an easy going, we probably made up the lost time. We were headed for a huge cirque with high cliffy walls. It seemed hard to believe that we would find a pass somewhere in there to get over on the other side. We got to the end and went up and up the switchbacks which were not visible from below. Whoever made the path sure knew what he was doing. I didn't even feel pooped at the top. On the other side of the pass, we made a lunch stop at Ibons d'Anayet. It started sprinkling a bit. We had a hard time finding the path. There were too many red/white marks and some didn't seem to go in the right direction. With the help of the GPS, we finally found our trail. When we made it down to a ski station which we thought was Formigal, we were confused once again. It started hailing and we were fortunate enough to find shelter until it passed. Because we thought we had passed Formigal, we had trouble finding the route. Finally we followed the road and arrived at the real Formigal and the instructions finally made sense. As we reached a gas station, it started raining. We went inside to have a beer and look at the Guidebook more carefully. No sooner did we start on our beer than the hail started falling in earnest. Everything was white. Were we ever glad that we were inside. Then it poured buckets. When it finally relented, we were just putting our packs back on when Manolo rolled in. He experienced being pinched by the hail. We sat down again and when we finally went on our way, the rain had stopped. We walked on another half hour to Sallient de Gallego. We had been underway 11h30. The odd thing is that we weren't tired! We found a nice hotel, did the usual wash up and went out for supper. Sallient de Gallego is a very picturesque town, very alpine looking with most buildings out of stone with wooden balconies filled with red flowers.