Archive for May, 2009
The popular concept of the Los Monegros region in Aragon is aptly summed up by the view from the AVE high-speed train on the Madrid to Barcelona line. In Zaragoza the view from the eponymous taxi driver was polite but clear; the ecologists had an opinion, of course, but really there was nothing in Los Monegros but ¡Quatro lagartos! “Four lizards”, slang for nothing at all. Herein lies the nub of the problem for groups opposing the Gran Scala casino development project. Despite the fact that the ‘dessert’ areas of Huesca and Zaragoza provinces do indeed host a rich environmental heritage there seems to be no way to change, reverse in fact, the popular beliefs that undeveloped, or poorly developed land is worthless and that all progress is, by definition, a good thing. He went on to say that once outside of the city, Aragon is “Todo pueblo”, that is to say completely backward. The trouble is, he’s right! Maybe the way forward for the opposition is to propose a viable alternative to the scheme?
Briefs | Tags: Aragon, Gran Scala, Los Monegros, Zaragossa|
I’d noticed the droppings and marks on the ground near our tent late in the evening, too late to consider changing location, and sure enough the wild boar snuffled through the camp at about four in the morning. In the dim luminescent light of the tent I saw the dogs’ ears prick up briefly. Lucky, my lupine husky-cross stirred and looked at me across the groundsheet while Streak rolled over in his half-sleep, grunting in the process. The boars stopped and silence reigned for a moment, then the night air was shattered by a huge braying sound – deep in the primordial forest one of the larger inhabitants of was on the hoof once more! I couldn’t help wondering whether the story about large game not entering tents was apocryphal, but the next thing I knew it was morning, and a damp one at that. We had survived our first night in Jurassic Park!
The title ‘Jurassic Park’ is a joke, of course. In fact La Garrotxa is about as far removed from the Jurassic period as can be, the region’s volcanic origins make it one of the most contemporary landscapes possible; the last large activity was about 15,000 years ago, not 150,000,000! And our camp, even though it felt like being in the jungle, was in a well-organised and officially registered site – albeit a very distinctive one – owned and run by Dutch ex-pat Stendert Dekker and partner Maria Tamayo. Can Banal is located just off the upper Llierca valley in a narrow, densely wooded defile. It was the primordial appearance of the forest, together with the echoic quality of the landform, that inspired the nickname; the braying wasn’t a sauropod ploughing its way through the jungle, but a distraught male donkey, or ‘jack’, imploring Stendert’s four ‘jennies’ to allow it to mount them. As well as the camping Stendert has owned and managed about 90 hectares of forest since coming to the area in the mid nineteen-eighties. Can Banal is in the Alta Garrotxa district, just to the north of the more well-known Parc Natural de la Zona Volcànica de la Garrotxa. He grazes cattle in areas where he has been able to clear the dense woods; a problem here since progressive waves of rural depopulation since the end of the nineteenth century has reduced human impact here.
Talking with Stendert gives a fascinating insight into woodland conservation issues. As well a grazing livestock, the woods were used for forestry activities like charcoal production, wood products like withies or osiers, etc. as well as for timber. Left to itself, however, the woodland has become too dense for use and is being damaged by invasive species like Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and European black pine (Pinus nigra), which outgrow the predominant native deciduous trees such as oaks, especially Downy oak (Quercus pubescens) and common beech (Fagus sylvatica). The problem is that as well as the pines starving the forest floor micro-systems of light, the autochthonous trees must compete for access to sunlight in the canopy and grow too tall and thin as a result. Stendert has to thin sections of forest gradually, otherwise the affected trees can’t withstand winds, and it can take over ten years of husbandry to restore the forest (this was music to ears for Mrs Simon, who is somewhat of an expert in the field, albeit her specialism is in humid tropical environments!). Fortunately, under the auspices of the new Plan per a l’Espais d’Interes Natural (the plan for areas of special natural interest or P.E.I.N.) the Generalitat (Catalan Government) has come round to the view that this intervention is necessary and gives the necessary permissions, and grants, for sustainable forestry practises. Another current issue, however, is the growing trend for second home ownership; managed tended forest is sparse compared to ‘natural’ wilderness and can appear ugly to urban eyes – supported by the myth that the natural environment is in stasis and that there exists a ‘pristine’ ideal form.
But La Garrotxa certainly does appear pristine and idyllic. The extent of the forest is truly astonishing and its undulating hills are dotted with beautiful masias, the traditional Catalan family homesteads. Although some of these are still farmed the agricultural economy needs input from urban spin-off such as rural tourism. We felt that the area was more like France than Spain and but for the lack of British ex-pat population it appeared more reminiscent of the Dordogne than the Dordogne itself! In fact we much preferred the Alta Garrotxa to the Pac Natural itself. We felt that there the villages have suffered from the impact of tourism and that there is a sense of being ‘over managed’. This is very laudable, of course, but it seemed to isolate one from the natural environment and villages like Santa Pau, beautifully situated in the heart of the Parc, was positively twee!
Much more to our taste was to walk around the immediate vicinity of Can Banal, where Stendert has marked numerous walks that take in the nearby section of the GR1 trans-Pyrenean route. Much more to our liking!
Catalonia, Environment, Favourite Walks | |
It’s been just under a year since the Fosser de Jans, located just behind Tarragona’s twin coastal forts, was restored for use by the British Consulate, and so far there have been no takers for its services! The cemetery was recorded as being founded to bury some 300 British troops who were killed during the siege of the city in 1817. The first recorded tomb was that of a Joan Bridgeman, who was interred there in 1849. The site is the property of H. M. Government and according to the Consul is the fourth most important of the twenty British cemeteries in Spain.
The term ‘Jans‘ has a curious origin. It appears to have been a term for foreigners in Tarragona’s slang of the time. Now it appears in the dictionaries as similar to ‘fellow’ or ‘chap’, always prefixed with ‘bon‘, as in ‘good chap’ or ‘jolly fellow’!
Although a year later the place looks a bit decrepit once more, it’s certainly in better shape than it was. Altogether not a bad choice to lay one’s weary bones - maybe I’ve found my niche at last!
Briefs | |
It’s been a record breaking winter for rain and snow - and not before time after three years of drought. But even though the snow held on for longer than usual the seasons follow their eternal path, and a warm, early spring ensured a dramatic melting up in the high Pyrenees. It was a slightly unnerving night, camping in a watermeadow on the riverbank, and certainly a noisy one! But a dawn walk along the bankside path was certainly worthwhile. I’ve read that the Noguera Pallaresa is the most powerful river in the Pyrenees. Although I’m not sure how this is measured, it’s certainly easy to beleive at this time of year.
After breakfast we decided to retrace our steps along one of our favourite stretches of the river, the Congost de Collegats. Here, the old road that links the Pallars Jussà to the neighbouring comarca of Pallars Sobirà has been bypassed by long tunels, leaving the riverside to its own devices. For a change it was the river’s turn to grab one’s attention, rather than the magnificent scenery of the ravine.
Further upstream a stop at the picturesque and historical village of Gerri de la Sal, where salt has been extracted from springs at least since 807 when Benedictine monks founded the monastery here, was rewarded with a new discovery.
With a mission to educate and inform, the Planter de Gerri uses rehabilitated terraced gardens to grow a wide range of autoctonous plant species. It will be good to return here in furture years when the installation has matured.
Catalan Pyrenees, Catalonia, Environment, Favourite Walks, Lleida, Noguera Pallaresa, Uncategorized | Tags: Camping Collegats, Congost de Collegats, Gerri de la Sal, Pallars Jussà, Pallars Sobirà, Santa Maria de Gerri|
I’ve been spending a lot of time in flatlands of late, ranging from the plateau ‘desert’ of Los Monegros* to the Fens of East Anglia. Wetlands have a strange beauty all of their own. The rice paddies, called ‘arrossars’ in Catalan, of the Ebro Delta brought back memories of Guyana, where we studied the huge Mahaica Mahaicony Abary (MMA) water management project back in the mid-nineties. There we gained a great deal of practical knowledge about the arcane subtleties of rice cultivation.
* Los Monegros is certainly not a desert
The increasing intensity of the rising thunderstorm and the humidity of the afternoon were atmospheric reminders of those days.
For all the technology, rice production is labour intensive, involving huge maintenance of the land’s drainage and irrigation channels. The odd big installation like a pump house or sluice, are the tip of the iceberg – the real work involves slopping around in the mud, trousers rolled up, attending to the thousands of miles of ditches – but that afternoon the farmers fled the impending tempest and headed home!
Typical of cultivated wetlands like the Fens or on the Guyanese coast, the Delta is far from uniformly flat. Tiny settlements, some ugly, some with a neat cosiness, are found squeezed onto patches of higher ground.
The mosquitoes make camping here a reckless activity, and many tiny Cases de Pages offer snug accommodation.
But for us the dream would be to stay in a ‘Barraca’, the traditional hovels that still dot an ever more wild land/seascape.
Catalonia, Ebro, Environment, Tarragona, Uncategorized | Tags: Ebro Delta, Fens, Guyana, mosquitoes Ebro Delta, rice paddies in Ebro Delta, rice production in Ebro Delta, traditional architecture in Ebro Delta, Wetlands|
