GR11 - Day 31 - to Arans

Leaving the Refugi de Baiau is quite strenuous. You have to go up a steep scree gully which we got wrong on the first try. So, we had to come back down. We lost 20 minutes or so. You couldn't go fast at all and always risked sliding backwards. It was so steep in places and with all those loose small stones, you would wonder if it was humanly possible to get up there! Needless to say, I was happy to see the top. The next few steps then brought us into Andorra. Then the descent started. It was long, over 1400 m, but not too bad. We arrived in Arinsal early. It's also a near vacant ski resort. We had an expensive beer and decided to go on to Arans after all. We just managed to hit the grocery store before they closed at 1:00. A good thing we were in the trees because the next 500 m were really steep. Quite a surprise for me. The other side was equally steep going down. We arrived in Arans too late for menu del dia. Now we had to wait until 8:00 to eat. It gave us plenty of time to wash both ourselves and our clothes. Now we smell sweet once again...