Walking in the Serra de Montgrony
June 30th, 2008 | Written by Lucy Brzoska |After weeks of rain, the forecast for last weekend was good, so I headed off to one of my favourite places in Catalunya, Montgrony, to do some walking. The hostal of Montgrony is perched on a boundary: below are the pre-Pyrenees, with steep wooded valleys and isolated masias, while above begin the Pyrenees proper, with mountains of up to 2000 metres.
I’m usually looking up at the sky and trees to see birds, but the displays of flowers were so stunning, my attention was constantly drawn to the ground. After a week of studying, I’ve finally identified most of the flowers, with help from Lisa. (I’ve also taken Lisa’s idea of putting the images on the gallery first.)
The high open pastures were particularly impressive: the predominant colour was yellow but there were also swathes of forget-me-nots, flax and red clover, and, with the occasional bright blue or purple gentian (Spring and Trumpet.) Best of all were the Wild tulips: tall, graceful and fragrant, waving in the breeze. There were also some mysterious dark red flowers that I discovered later were Black vanilla orchids (Lisa’s photo) – with a scent of vanilla – wish I’d smelled them! Around the rocks at the top were clusters of Hairy Androsace, or Rock Jasmine (maybe a better name).
I met people with bags crammed with Cama secs (Marasmius oreades), small mushrooms, whose Catalan name means Dry legs – perhaps because their stems are quite tough. There were hundreds still to be picked, and I took some home, being told they store well if you dry them.
When not marvelling at all this, I had time to look up and notice Griffon vultures, and a Short-toed Eagle passing by and some Wheatears on the rocky outcrops.
By the time I was heading back to Barcelona, spring had been overtaken by summer, cows were being led up to the high pasture and the sun was scorching.
