We drive to Gorge Caranca the well familiar road to Mont-Louis and leave the car in parking place near the very start of the gorge. We take the path that goes by the left side of the gorge. It is early in the morning and our side is in the shadow – hence it is rather chilly. The gorge is very narrow with vertical cliffs at both sides of the Caranca stream. The path goes steep uphill. We notice that the path at the opposite side is a groove carved in a vertical cliff. This looks rather dangerous. Then it gets interesting at our side as well – metallic plank-ways fastened to the cliff, wire bridges and so on.
Gradually the gorge gets wider. We continue to follow the path uphill for an hour or so while the gorge gradually transforms into valley. Then we decide to turn back which we do after having some rest.
We go back by the opposite side – by the groove we noticed earlier. The path is wide about a meter. It looks much if you forget that you are close to an abyss hundred meters or so high. Still not so scary as it looked from the opposite side. The track follows the groove for a kilometer or so.
We spend in the gorge about 8 hours. Height difference – 900m.
We drive to Col de Jau pass for the second time. No clouds today. The pass is some 14km drive from Mosset. We start to walk at 8am to Caillou refuge. The track follows the country road to and a little bit after the Caillou. Further the path goes through woody terrain full of rhododendrons and other beautiful flowers. When the path leaves the wood, the cold wind gets more power and we have to take on the windbreakers.
We are not alone on the path – we count some 20 other hikers and 5 wild goats. Madre summit is 2461m high. A gorgeous view to the neighboring summits from the top. The next one is Roc Negre (the Black Cliff). We conquer this one as well.
We reach home at early afternoon. Take bath and have lunch and then off to Villefranche for the St. Johns feast. The feast begins at 8pm when one lights the main torch. Then children come with the smaller torches and light them from this main one. The children then go with the burning torches in a march around the town. This does not look safe at all. The fire drops down from the torches and an old lady just shakes the hand and says “dangerous”. Time passes when the torch procession is back. Then the bonfire is lit and the feast proceeds.
We drive to look what happens in Vernet les Bains. When we get there we see that in the main square the bonfire is already burning and the children with torches march around the bonfire. The dance band is playing, the host sings and talks. The songs are in French and English, people dance. We watch and listen for a while and then proceed to our village. There are two bonfires in Fillols. Children are jumping over the smaller one. Near the bonfires tables are served. Food and drinks in abundance. About 30-40 villagers are there – a lot of people for the small village.
We decide to take a rest after the exhausting Canigou adventure yesterday. The perfect time for the Traine Jaune. We go from Villefranche de Conflent to Font-Romeu. This is more than half of the total route. Takes about two hours in one direction. The train passes a number of beautiful mountain villages (i.e. Olette).
We leave Villefranche de Conflent at 9.05am. The train has 4 carriages, one of them open-air. We take the open one – to enjoy the views. The views come with a lot of freezing though. I get a fellow-traveler – a grasshopper, it drives on my hat for about an hour! Perhaps to see his family 🙂 The train runs through 16 tunnels and a number of beautiful bridges. It goes upwards all the road – from 400m in Villefranche de Conflent to about 1600m. It gets colder as we move upwards. This does not ruin the good humor of the travelers though. At one of the stops the group of 5 Germans join us in our section. Everybody takes shots, greets the drivers passing by. The drivers honk, the trains conductor answers. Everybody enjoys. On a way back our neighbors are a group of French seniors. When entering the tunnel they yell. While in the dark somebody makes a posture (like lies down on a bench with legs up in air). When the light comes back others take shots and everybody has fun.
Font-Romeu train station is an hour walk from the town. An hour walk upwards the steep road. Before to do this we visit the world’s largest and most powerful (as the tourist prospects say) solar furnace. The wall of the main building forms the main mirror. In front of it on the mountain slope stands more than 60 mirrors – heliostats. that tracks the sun light and reflect it to the main mirror. The main mirror accumulates all the sun light into one point. They say that the temperature there reaches about 3000 Celsius. The furnace is used for the scientific research, in particular for NASA.
We take a guided tour inside the main building and then proceed to nearby Odeilo. Odeilo is a typical for Pyrenees village with an old church, steep narrow streets. In the very center of the village stands large bonfire for the St. Johns feast. Next we go through the village to Font-Romeu that turns out to be a contemporary tourism and ski center. We even did not manage to find something like the old center. We spend here a hour, then move back down to the train stop and go to Villefranche de Conflent. We are back in Villefranche in around one and half hour – obviously it is easier to drive downhill. There is a bonfire near the walls of Villefranche as well. Looks like everybody has get ready for the feast. We stop for a while in Vernet-les-Bains to take a shots of the castle and then drive home.
On a way home we stop to look at the castell of Vernet les Bains.
We have decided to go for Canigou summit today. The height difference is 2km – rather tough for a day (we have managed 1.4km so far in one go). Fortunately the track starts right near our doorstep and we can start early enough – at 6.45am.
It is cloudy when we begin to go. Still it is clear already that there will be a hot and sunny day. The path starts on the right bank of the Fillols stream on one of the streets of the village. It ascends through the woods to the 1838m high Col des Voltes pass. When on the pass we have already climbed more than half of he height difference (1100m). Further on we go along the mountain road to the Cortalets refuge. The road has considerable traffic – the jeep taxis take tourists from the villages below to the Cortalets refuge. There are 6-8 passengers in a taxi. Means – there should be a lot of people up on the summit.
Cortalets is situated 2060m above sea level. We have managed to get there in 4 hours. On can see from the distance that the path above is full of hikers. We join the others to ascend the summit. The path is rather easy to go. The abundant sunshine is balanced somehow with the strong and cold wind. In less then 2 hours we are on the summit. Some 50 men are already there. Most of them Catalans, perhaps. The famous Canigou cross is ready for the feast – Catalan standards unfolded, bonfire prepared. Everybody adds to the bonfire faggots they have brought to the summit and takes shots in front of the bonfire.
The view around is stunning – summits, mountain villages. We see Prades, behind it is Perpignan and the Mediterranean. Having had enough views we find the unoccupied shelter from the cold wind and have some rest. Then we head off in a long way down to Fillols. The sun still shines without mercy. After we pass the Cortalets the cold wind is gone and it gets hotter and hotter. We are totally exhausted when we reach Fillols. We have managed 2km height difference upwards in less then 6 hours and downwards in 4.5 hours.
We have planned to climb the summit of Madre. Still while driving we notice that the mountains near Madre are covered with black tempest clouds. We stop in village of Mosset to take a decision. It looks like is getting from bad to worst therefore we decide to change the plans. We stroll around in Mosset – it is small village with narrow and steep concrete streets and charming small houses.
Then we drive back to Villefranche de Conflent. Although we have no suitable map at hand, we decide to explore the path in mountains above the Villefranche and Port Liberia. It turns out that the maps are useful – we get lost a couple of times. Still this does not make the views around less beautiful. We see Port Liberia, Villefranche de Conflent, Prades, other towns and villages (our sweet Fillols inclusive). Perpignan and the Mediterranean is there as well further near the horizon.
The route takes 5 hours instead of anticipated 3. Exhausting! Still we decide to explore the walls of the Villefranche. There walls go round the town and have 3 stories of passages. Means – one have to go round the town 3 times to see all of it. An there are a lot of things to see – the huge hammer run by mill wheel as an example. That takes one more hour and the rest of our endurance.
