Midweek Hikers

 Unfortunately also the most meagre harvest; the madroños on the sunny Barcelona side were small and hard, only the ones in the most sheltered spots over the ridge had madroños which were fully developed. Oh well, enough for a couple pots of jam and a flammkuchen.

An unambitious but pleasant morning stroll starting from El Papiol into the south-western part of the Collserola, checking out the Escletxes de Papiol and joining La Rierada, Collserola's only permanent watercourse. That said, it was suffering from the drought, with the stream disappearing a few hundred metres before reaching the famous little waterfall. HIKERS: PEZ K3 MIX TRANSPORT: R4 train to and from El Papiol / Molins de Rei ROUTE: Linking these two routes: https://senderismeentren.cat/2015/10/26/120/ https://senderismeentren.cat/2015/05/12/106/ HIGHLIGHTS: The town of El Papiol with its castle was surprisingly nice.  Some interesting houses on the way, one with three different dogs... A very interesting poop with a blanket of beautifully coloured fungus. PHOTOS: Montserrat from El Papiol Les Escletxes A very interesting poop La Rierada Doggy house

 HIKERS PEZ  PAU

This wild valley leading down to Figaro provided the backdrop for one of the first modernist novels in catalan ('Sots Ferestecs'), whereby a priest exiled from Barcelona to this unforgiving rural backwater (albeit nowadays seemingly a stone's throw away) struggles to win over the local populace, who are instead in thrall to a local prostitute. The priest loses the struggle. Sounds dark. HIKERS: PEZ K3 MIX TRANSPORT: Rodalies R3 from Barcelona to Figaro; same line on way back but many trains just shuttle between BCN to La Garriga. So it's easier to find frequent trains back arriving at La Garriga. THE ROUTE: From La Garriga, we head past an interesting masia which looks like it still has people living in it. There is a huge 'lledoner' tree ("mediterranean hackberry"), a pond with lots of frogs, and St. John's Wort growing in abundance along the path. From there the path quickly gets wild, and without the GPS it would be hard to follow. We hear crash...

HIKERS: PEZ  K3 MIX TOMO TRANSPORT: Barcelona to Sant Feliu with Sagales bus number 202, leaving from Pl. Tetuan (<1hr). Return with Rodalies R3 from Figaro. THE ROUTE: PHOTOS: Enjoying the view at Sant Miquel del Fai View from La Trona View from the top of Sot del Bac Cheeky robin down by the waterfall in Sot del Bac Funky houses in Figaro

 HIKERS PEZ MIX

The greatest adventure to be had within an hour of BCN - Montserrat's wild south side along the PRC-78. HIKERS: PEZ K3 MIX TRANSPORT: Bus to El Bruc (company: Hispano Igualadina) leaving from Maria Cristina (~40 min).  Return from Monistrol de Montserrat with the FGC line R5. THE ROUTE: Leaving from El Bruc, we head over olive fields to the foot of the mountain, where we have a little sramble up. From there we pass by the enormous Cova de la Arcada and then on to the Torrent de les Grutes, with it's small equipped section (like a little ladder). We pop out near the crest close to Coll de Porc and then join the PRC-78 to make our way along the south side of Montserrat. The way wends along, with a lot of scrambling and steep rocky paths. Eventually we are led to Montgros, where we take a detour to the peak to enjoy the views from this big fat needle of rock. Down the very narrow Canal de la Salamandra leaves us close to Coll de Migdia; we take it and pass to the north side of the...