Besalu
Let's be honest; captivates us break with the established . Get rid of any ties to live without rules, without schedules and wander without a route to lose ourselves in remote places until we merge with nature, or savor cities until we satisfy our appetite.
Freedom is the goal of any journey. It seduces us but at the same time it scares us . And it's time to tame ours.
The motorhome, the mobile home , symbolizes that idea of freedom. Freedom to go and stay , sleeping and waking up; to live in short, and to do it when, where and how you want. Who can resist?
We don't, so let's get a map , let's set a course and become owners of the road.
Fageda d'en Jordà Forest
Northeast of Catalonia, where the plain gives way to the Pyrenees , emerge ancient volcanoes lined with forests so leafy that it is difficult to find the light and small medieval towns outcrop where the magma used to.
We are talking about the region Garrotxa, in Girona, a good starting point.
To conquer the region of the volcanoes we will turn to the masters of autocaravaning: the group Erwin Hymer . Pioneers since 1931 with the first caravan and leaders in Europe with more than 55,000 vehicles sold per year, from the economical Carado, functional Bürstner or exclusive Niesmann+Bischoff . Its headquarters are located in Vich, north of Barcelona, to collect our mobile residence and start our garrochina route . Our new home for the next four days will be a Bürstner Ixeo Time 30 Edition.
We received a master's degree in ten minutes on how to govern this glittering behemoth . Draining water, battery operation, heating, refrigerator, kitchen, bathrooms... even how to connect the mobile to play music, let's not forget.
Rapeseed field in Santa Pau
We hit the road heading north after the course of the Fluviá and in three-quarters of an hour tunneling through mist-shrouded wooded hills we reached olot , capital and our base of operations in Garrotxa.
OLOT, SPLENDOR AMONG CRATERS
Six hundred thousand years ago, fire and lava shaped the landscape that we know today as the La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park (120 km2) . Embedded between basaltic lava flows, the river fluvia It runs through the extensive plain where forty craters burst forth, surrounded by the foliage of beeches, holm oaks and oaks that occupy three quarters of the territory and hide fairy-tale landscapes. Perfect for exploring in a motorhome, of course.
Olot (34,000 inhabitants) appears in the midst of so much exuberance surrounded by four volcanoes . We parked “our” Bürstner and walked through the streets to delight ourselves with the modernist facades of Pujador House, Escubós, Gassiot or Gaietà Vila.
**At the Garrotxa Museum (€3)**, we discover the pictorial works of the Landscape School of Olot and in Los Santos (€3) , his prolific craftsmanship of imagery, which will surprise even the most impious.
Olot, capital of the region
Living among volcanoes is part of the daily life of the people of Olot . The most brazen is Montsacopa , a 100-meter cone that rises above the city center as if nothing had happened. From the cemetery we climb the rocky path to the top of this 120 meter diameter crater where the hermitage of Sant Francesc and two watchtowers.
Here the locals take their dogs for a walk, the young people rest in the sun and the tourists contemplate the panoramic view of the region. We begin to get used to the idea that we are not only surrounded by volcanoes (asleep, but volcanoes) but we are inside one.
With this idea in mind we went to the Park Nou, on the southern edge of town, searching for answers. The Castany's Tower, a beautiful modernist chalet inside a botanical garden, it houses the **Museum of the volcanoes (€3)**.
Is this the place to learn all about eruptions and earthquakes and to plan our expedition in motorhome in the area . The video that is projected of the girl talking to the Montsacopa volcano is most illuminating.
The Croscat suffered constant mining operations
THE NATURAL PARK OF THE VOLCANOES
With the lesson learned, we return to the Bürstner to take the GI-524 towards Santa Pau and discover the volcanic heart of the park. Five minutes away, in the Can Serra area, we find a splendid place to spend the night and to explore on foot, or by horse cart (€9), the paths that are lost in the immensity of the Fageda d´en Jordà . East beech forest, magical or macabre , depending on the time, absorbs the traveler in its abundant forest that sprouts on the lava flow of the croscat volcano , the largest in the entire peninsula.
For years the crater suffered constant mining extractions (gredals) that left it looking like a 160 meter cake covered with vegetation and cut with a knife. Following itinerary 15 on foot From the park you reach these impressive clay pots, restored in 1995, from where you can see the multicolored epicenter of this sleeping giant.
On the other side of the road, the Santa Margarita requires a small but demanding climb (20 min) to reach the top of its imposing cone full of oaks . From here we will contemplate and descend to its crater four hundred meters in diameter converted into a beautiful meadow, ideal for a picnic or a visit to the Romanesque hermitage that gives its name to it.
If all this is not enough for us, we will bet on the **hot air balloon flight (from €160)** to have another point of view of the largest volcanic landscape of the peninsula.
Gredales of the Croscat volcano
IN SEARCH OF THE MEDIEVAL
We return eagerly to the Bürstner and the GI-524 until we reach the town of Santa Pau, 5 km ahead, that receives spring adorned with yellow strewn with rape everywhere. We parked next to one of these fields, without losing sight of the medieval center, to visit this Historic-Artistic Complex presided over in the distance by the castle of the **Baronía (13th century) ** and by the Bous Fair inside, one of the best preserved medieval squares.
We dedicate the photo session that it deserves before enjoying a camper lunch on our improvised porch with products from the area, such as fessols (beans) from Santa Pau , **black bull (sausage) ** and Cofat format from the Xiquella cheese factory . To top it off, what better than a shot of ratafia , the star liquor of the place.
Remember: here there is no agenda, no rules or rush. The sun shines, a gentle breeze blows and the idyllic setting invites us to stay. We don't even think about it.
Santa Pau
Our medieval journey takes us back to the Fluviá valley towards Besalú . From the A-26, north of Olot , screaming for our attention is a huge hill shaped like a ship's prow over the river with medieval houses stacked on top.
The basaltic cliff of Castellfollit de la Roca It is one of the orographic wonders that this natural park offers us, formed by two superimposed lava flows. From the footbridge over the Fluviá we contemplate the old quarter, suspended on top of that 40-meter-high volcanic wall, whose residents do not know vertigo.
Basaltic cliff of Castellfollit de la Roca
Our trip comes to an end in Besalú , beautiful medieval village 12 km from Castellfollit, outside the limits of the park. We leave the Bürstner in the motorhome area to cross the iconic Roman bridge over the omnipresent Fluviá and wander through the cobbled alleys of this walled complex to the Plaza Mayor, the Palau de la Cúria Real or the Jewish quarter ( call in Catalan) .
We have already tried it. We know what it feels like be the true owners of our freedom on a journey through one of the most amazing and unknown regions of Spain. Now we just have to ask ourselves: when the next?
Besalú, the jewel of the Middle Ages