Today’s highlight was meeting a shepherd (berger) at Col d’Irau.

From my bivy site I started the morning’s climb without eating much breakfast, so by the time I made it to Col d’Irau I was pretty hungry. I saw a cheese shop on my map earlier, and here in front of me a large sign with a sheep on it confirmed this.

Following the sign, I ran into a couple doing the GR 10 whom I’d met 2 days earlier, so I asked them if they were interested in my plans to get cheese. We approached the little house together, and rang the bell. Out came Charles, the shepherd who was a bit surprised to see us. Apparently he had not gotten too many visitors this summer.

Luckily Tristan and Tania were with me because I could not understand a word of the shepherd’s Basque-accented French. We tasted and bought some of his sheep’s cheese, which was one of the best I’ve had.

The shepherd then invited us into his kitchen for some coffee, and we obliged.

The rest of the day’s hike was rather uninteresting, but I was already super satisfied with the morning’s events. At the Pic d’Occabé I parted ways with Tristan and Tania and went on ahead towards Iraty.

On this way to Iraty I passed through a forest where people were picnicking and looking for mushrooms. I discovered that camping options were not ideal, so I called the Chalets d’Iraty to book a stay inside the gîte for 15 euro. I had a meal in the restaurant with some fellow hikers, my first sit down dinner of the trip so far!

Bivy after Kaskoleta to Chalets d'Iraty - 15.02km and 1051m gained.