Walking in Catalonia Day 3: Garriguella and Mediterranean Tortoises
Staying at Can Coll is a very different experience compared to staying in a hotel, as you enter you walk straight into the dining room and kitchen of a family house and you’ll feel more like a long lost cousin than a paying guest. Our room opened into a small and pretty garden, full of tables and chairs and quirky ornaments. Inside, it was prettily decorated with a huge collection of painted ceramic holy water fonts. After washing off the dust of track, we headed straight back to the restaurant Can Batlle for a fantastic meal of fresh monkfish, artichokes and asparagus with more local wine from the vineyards we had walked through only hours before.
We left later than planned, the sun high in the cloudless sky and began the slow uphill trek up to the ridge surrounding Garriguella. Despite the ascent and heat, this was a lovely walk, each corner a new view as you climb and climb. Soon the olive groves merged into wildflowers and pine trees, occasionally a yellow sign warning of beehives before they came into view, entire bee cities amongst the flowers. The whole ridgeway was scented with honey, it was easy to see why Spanish honey is said to be from a thousand flowers.
Almost at the highest point, a lone cyclist passed us, working so hard he had no breath left to say ‘hola!’ he nodded acknowledgement without pausing. Minutes later a group of horse riders galloped into view, our fellow guests from Can Coll. We stopped to take photos and waited as they dismounted to take a steeper route down to the coast whilst we walked on.
Here we made our biggest mistake with our notes, overthinking the directions and stepping over a wire fence a little too early to a perilously steep route down. Once we realised our mistake there was no way back up, so we continued (slid more than walked, mostly on our bums, laughing nevertheless) taking what we hoped was the right direction towards Vilamaniscle and arriving at the bottom of the village out of sheer luck. It was a pretty descent, despite the steepness and we could at least pass on our experience to the fellow InnTraveller a day behind us. Once we had found our bearings in the centre of the village, we followed the guidance notes with more care for the rest of walk, through more vine groves and fields before appearing as dusty as the day before and heading straight into the same restaurant to recover with a plate of garlicky chipirones and yet another local wine.
Later in the evening, in search of something to eat and drink we popped into the local wine cooperative intending to take something back to the garden at Can Coll but decided to linger in the restaurant area outside. This is a perfect place to discover the local wines at very reasonable prices by the glass as well as excellent food. The terrace filled rapidly with local families and children. We raised (several) glasses to celebrate the work of the local wine growers and tortoise experts as the sun set over the ridges we had climbed.
The following morning we helped ourselves from a generous breakfast buffet (and a particularly lovely homemade apple cake) and sat in the garden, sharing experiences with other travellers over coffee whilst surrounded by flowers. Our host Emilia, was charming, we chatted together in a combination of my stumbling Spanish and her much better English with the odd word in French thrown in.
Setting off a bit earlier to avoid the heat (an unseasonal heatwave affecting all of Spain), our first stop was the Albera Tortoise Breeding Centre, who are trying to increase the numbers of the last natural population of the Mediterranean tortoise. As the only visitors we were shown around by a dedicated expert, whose passion for these animals was infective, learning about how these creatures live and why they are so endangered. The centre is housed (appropriately) in a sanctuary, the chapel's cool interior also worth a visit to see the painted plaster walls.
We left later than planned, the sun high in the cloudless sky and began the slow uphill trek up to the ridge surrounding Garriguella. Despite the ascent and heat, this was a lovely walk, each corner a new view as you climb and climb. Soon the olive groves merged into wildflowers and pine trees, occasionally a yellow sign warning of beehives before they came into view, entire bee cities amongst the flowers. The whole ridgeway was scented with honey, it was easy to see why Spanish honey is said to be from a thousand flowers.
Almost at the highest point, a lone cyclist passed us, working so hard he had no breath left to say ‘hola!’ he nodded acknowledgement without pausing. Minutes later a group of horse riders galloped into view, our fellow guests from Can Coll. We stopped to take photos and waited as they dismounted to take a steeper route down to the coast whilst we walked on.
Here we made our biggest mistake with our notes, overthinking the directions and stepping over a wire fence a little too early to a perilously steep route down. Once we realised our mistake there was no way back up, so we continued (slid more than walked, mostly on our bums, laughing nevertheless) taking what we hoped was the right direction towards Vilamaniscle and arriving at the bottom of the village out of sheer luck. It was a pretty descent, despite the steepness and we could at least pass on our experience to the fellow InnTraveller a day behind us. Once we had found our bearings in the centre of the village, we followed the guidance notes with more care for the rest of walk, through more vine groves and fields before appearing as dusty as the day before and heading straight into the same restaurant to recover with a plate of garlicky chipirones and yet another local wine.
Later in the evening, in search of something to eat and drink we popped into the local wine cooperative intending to take something back to the garden at Can Coll but decided to linger in the restaurant area outside. This is a perfect place to discover the local wines at very reasonable prices by the glass as well as excellent food. The terrace filled rapidly with local families and children. We raised (several) glasses to celebrate the work of the local wine growers and tortoise experts as the sun set over the ridges we had climbed.
Note: This walk was the third day of the holiday "From the Pyrenees to the Sea" offered by Inntravel, specialists in slow holidays. I received a discount for writing about this trip but all views are my own. If you enjoy stunning country and coastal walks with views that take your breath away then this trip is for you.
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