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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