Catalonia - from France border to Gosól | club75
Intro
Our Trekking through Europe from 2017 led us through many countries - Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, about which I have already written twice and I will write at least one more time, France, to which I also sent you twice in my posts, and Spain. Perhaps I should say "Catalonia and Spain" instead, to respect the independence aspirations of the Catalans. Today's entry will be about the episode Cerbere - Gosól.
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Crossing the border and first experiences in traveling with a dog
Shortly after leaving Cerbere - the last town on the south-eastern coast of France, we took a light walk to Spain - or rather Catalonia, a region with its own autonomy demanding independence. We were excited that we will finally be able to test our Spanish language skills, but that excitation ended with disappointment. Catalan is totally different and we were unable to understand even a single word. "Well, we will have to wait for the language test", we thought, and accepted the communication difficulties.
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But not only the language was a problem for us in Catalan towns. "Gossos no", which means "no dogs" - the same sign appeared in practically all public places. We didn't understand it at first, so we were quite surprised when bus drivers refused to let us into the vehicle with our dog... In one of the tourist information, we found out that there is even a law that prohibits taking dogs on buses unless they are muzzled and in a container. Discrimination against dogs covers the whole spectrum - from the ban on entering the buildings to hanging the whole town with hate posters that showed a person tramping dog excrement, with a moralizing inscription in Catalan. Surely, we didn't understand a single word from them, but we can imagine it was written probably something like "do you want to experience this every day?". Greetings to the people of Pont de Molins - yeah, I'm talking about your town :)
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Fortunately, there were no such problems with trains as with buses. We could travel with our dog and the only problem that was worrying us was related to all trains being late for at least one hour.
In Catalonia, we traveled through four regions until we reached Gosól - from the coastal Alt Empordà, through Garrotxa, Ripollès to Berguedà. There are national GR trails with white and red markings, general orange, cycling, and local trails associated with interesting places in the region. Everything is perfectly marked, so you can go into the forest with a backpack on your back and enjoy the closeness of nature. The routes are beautiful. If you are ever in that region, you must necessarily walk a dozen or so kilometers in one of them. More importantly, they are also empty. We walked for hours on most trails without meeting anyone. Sometimes a mountain biker passed us, maybe a car drove closer to the town, but otherwise nobody.
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Access to drinking water was a big problem during the march. Most rivers and streams at this time of the year are dry. Even in the riverbeds that carved the massive canyons of Garrotxa, the narrow river struggles to dry up in a few hundred meters and complete its course. Our preparations, therefore, had to involve a few kilograms of additional luggage in the form of many bottles with drinking water.
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Starting with Figueres, all the small towns we visited were very old: many were founded in the early medieval period, churches and monasteries undamaged during wars retained their Gothic or Romanesque architectural style. Like for example in Sant Llorenç de la Muga, a medieval town with walls around, 4-star hotels and exclusive restaurants, and on the other hand Vallfogona de Ripollès, where there is not even an ordinary shop. Another interesting old town was Castellfollit de la Roca with information signs every step of the way telling the story and geology of the region. This town located its historical center on a basalt cliff, which was built around 200 thousand years ago when lava flowing from a nearby volcano Olot met the waters of the Fluvia River. Characteristic basalt structures - vertical columns of stone in a regular cross-section, create a high wall and a beautiful landscape.
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Interestingly, it was in the vicinity of Castellfollit de la Roca that I first met with an information board about the panorama of the peaks surrounding the town, adapted for the blind. The shapes of the hills were marked with raised lines, differently those closer and those in the distance.
A very important thing that I also noticed is the ubiquity of AED defibrillators. In every town, in an obvious place (near a church, a larger shop, or a local community center), there is a box with such a device.
The common on our Catalan route were symbols of support for the independence of the region - flags hung on balconies, doors, and windows. The autonomy sentiment was related to the upcoming independence referendum - the referendum in which later the Catalans unequivocally supported liberation, but that was ignored by the Spanish government.
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We ended this part of the journey in Gósol. Mountain shelter near the highest hill in continental Spain - Pedraforca. For the next two weeks, we were working there as volunteers, visiting the area at the same time, but that is a completely different story.
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Thank you very much for sharing your post in Steem-Travelers. We enjoyed reading it a lot :)
Every human being who lives on earth cannot be separated from the dependence between one human and another, even with nature, plants and animals though. It's an adventure that can teach us a lot in this life. Thank you for sharing your adventure story. I like your writing style and review, it gives motivation to adventurers. Have a nice day.
Dear leader.
The pictures have been quite beautiful.Have a wonderful day. Your trip was a lot of fun.
#Travelers-say
El catalan es dificil hasta para los mismos españoles y pensar que quieren imponerlo. Me fascima España por sus espectaculares pueblos y arquitectura de la época medieval, seria maravilloso estar alli. Que mal que los perros sean tratados tan mal. Admiro mucho que hayan salido con su en todas esas aventuras de viaje, es un gran gesto de amor por su mascota. Bendiciones para usted. 🙏
#travelers-say