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28.12.2014: Montserrat as seen from Carena del Cellers

It has been more than 5 months since my last post. Regarding excursions worth mentioning, nothing really exciting has happened. On a more personal level, however, the birth of our son, last September, certainly marks a before and after in Elisabet's life and mine. The fortunate event also asks for a bit of commitment, which in turn results in rather few opportunities to leave home for a day or two or even six hours at a stretch.
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Els Ermitanets

Panoramic view southwards from a point close to Els Ermitanets

This time I wanted to explore an area I had come by on one of my previous trips that brought me to Les Balmes Roges. At one point, the forest road offers five different paths on which to continue. Number one and two, I tried the last time: the former being a narrow one to my right, which led me to the summit of a hill known as Puig Gili, and the latter being the one that actually brought me to Les Balmes Roges. This time, I was eager to find out what the three remaining possibilities had to offer.

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Puig de la Balma

Power line at Coll de la Creueta

My last bike trip went to a regionally well known, albeit visually little spectacular, rock shelter known as Puig de la Balma. I had it on my to-do-list for months, if not years, but because of my priorities and available motivation always decided against it when it came to choosing a suitable biking destination.

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La Brèche de Roland - The Roland Gap

Col de Sarradets: Summits, Sarradets Mountain Hut and Roland Gap to be seen

It must have been 10 years, since my friend Ernst first mentioned La Brèche de Roland to me - The Roland Gap, a huge natural gap in the mountain ridge that separates the French Gavarnie Valley from the Spanish Ordesa National Park. Since then, I had caught a glimpse of it from considerable distances every now and then, but never had I actually made it there. Some months ago, when Xavi and me were talking about a possible mountain trip for the summer, I proposed one, that not only would cross the gap, but also would make use of the Sarradets mountain hut, located in the very vicinity of it, and even would include the ascent of some 3000m peaks close by.

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The Delivery Girl's Bum

Sign post close to Monistrol de Montserrat

The Delivery Girl's Bum (El Cul de la Portadora) had caught my attention years ago and from the moment I first saw it, I felt an inexplicable urge to make it mine. Some three years ago, I had explored the area around her Bum, but the moment I had wanted to draw in for the final attack, so to say to lay hands on it, it unfortunately began to rain. Not wanting to mount no Bum in slippery conditions, defeated, I withdrew from my undertaking.

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Le Bondidier

North-Eastern panoramic view from Pico Cordier, Gregüeña lake in the centre

Last October, Xavi and me climbed the 4 Alba summits. Now, we wanted to ascend some peaks of the next mountain cluster of the same mountain range. That cluster is made up of Punta Delmàs, Pico Mir, Pico Sayó, Pico Le Bondidier and Pico Cordier. Since we preferred not to repeat the route, which passes by the Renclusa mountain hut, this time we chose Puente de Cregüeña as our starting point - a route a little longer and with an altitude difference of 500 additional metres. We therefore opted to start walking as soon as we'd arrive there, which was Friday at 9.45 p.m.

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Can Putxet

Eastern panorama from Puigdoure summit

During my previous bike trip to a nice rock shelter known as Balmes Roges, I caught a glimpse of yet another abandoned estate in our local natural park: Can Putxet. It's not that I hadn't been aware of it, but it never really caught my attention. The other day, though, my glimpse at Can Putxet was from a different angle and suddenly I felt I should further explore it. Yesterday, I gave it a try.

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Carcassonne

Full moon over Carcassonne

Years ago, I remember, I usually felt some unease, when in France, probably because I don't speak any French and therefore somehow felt vulnerable there. Since Elisabet dominates French almost as a native, things are different now, and some days short of Eastern we went on a short holliday to our Northern neighbour country.

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Balmes Roges

View from Puig Gili

Not only another biking article, but even another biking article to a rock shelter... this truly gets monothematic. The Balmes Roges (Red Rock Shelters) are a well known landmark in our local Natural Parc, I had never been to. Last Saturday, however, I decided to have a look at them. My trip, again, got me into the vicinity of "El Farell" first, where this time I took a left turn I'd never taken before. The path then led me by a number of "tines", which could be described as bowls, basins, or a kind of silos, which until, say one hundred years ago were either used as fermentation tanks during the production process of wine or for storage of the finished beverage. The god of wine, Baccus, by the way gave name to the district I'm living in (Bages). Apart of the "tines" I additionally was offered nice views of my favourite abandoned estate around: El Farell.

 El Farell estate and surrounding

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Balma de l'Espluga

In the Natural Parc of Sant Llorenç, there are numerous caves, the deepest of which goes down some 120m into the washed out conglomerate rock. That cave is called "Avenc de l'Espluga", avenc being the Catalan word for vertical cave. As a matter of fact, it is the cave I've visited most times, and every time me and my caving companions went there, we passed at least one night in a cosy rock shelter close by, which bears the name "Balma de l'Espluga", Balma being Catalan for ....... rock shelter, exactly! Since I hadn't been there for years, I thought it would be nice to go there by bike.
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Laurel

Clochán close to "La Serra"

At home we ran out of laurel leafs. Since laurel (or bay, as I just learned) forms part of our common vegetation, I took my bike to get some. Instead of getting it from a cemetary close by, I looked for it in a more remote place and so could combine my expedition with a nice bike trip.

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A trip around Montserrat

On my previous trip, I went to the Montserrat abbey by bike. That trip was part of a circular biking route I had found in a book, and which goes the whole way around Montserrat, starting and ending point being Marganell.

Better part of the Montserrat round trip

Last Saturday, Xavi and me decided to bike a little, and so it came, that I proposed the Montserrat round trip. Although the description marks it as hard, with only 40km it's not a very long trip. It's the up and downs of more than 1000m of accumulated positive altitude difference, that increase difficulty. Instead of carrying our bikes to Marganell by car, we started the trip from my village and so added some 12 km of distance and maybe 200m vertical meters. 

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Montserrat by bike

Some cool guy blessing my bike 

A bike trip I had had in mind for quite a while goes to the Benedictine abbey of Montserrat, an abbey being a monestry of a somehow higher rank within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

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