Day 3 – To Castissent

From Limoges to Toulouse, to Saint Gaudens, then over the Pyrenees to Vielha.

I was in Vielha last year. I stayed 3 days in a mountain village just outside as the first winter storm came through. It was 4C and the snow level was where I was staying. I was in the T5, so very limited space and no heater for that sort of weather, I had resorted to a cheap AirBnB, though in the pandemic, few had then reopened. That was 20 September, now, just a couple of weeks earlier in the season, it is 31C.

Taking the slow road, the N230 south heading for Lleida, my destination was Montsec, and in particular a remote eco-camping high up above Castissent. The last few kilometres were on a rough track.

I’m interested in this area as there is a bikepacking loop here, http://montsecloop.com, put together by a guy who also designed the route in Teruel, where I am headed next.

This is a hot and dry climate, 32C when I arrived, to dip only to early 20s at night.

This is the western fringe of Catalonia. Evident in the landscape is the sea basin that existed two hundred million years ago but with time and the force of the rivers has been worn and re-shaped to form impressive gorges, such as can be seen at Mont-Rebei, which I look out at now. The National Park has also recently achieved Dark Sky status, the first in Spain, in 2017.

My timing isn’t great here though. In a couple of weeks temperatures will cool, but for now it’s a hot spell, and from about 11 in the morning through until 6 in the evening, too hot to do much activity at all.

The campsite, Terra del Congost, is a sort of modern day hippie commune. Three of for young families run the place, which is on a number of levels, all with incredible views, pitches strewn around the mountain side across more than a hundred acres. It has yurts and tepees, a vegetarian outdoor and indoor restaurant and bar with a great atmosphere, and right now, very quiet. It’s fairly accessible to Barcelona, so for the next few weekends will get busier. There are several friendly dogs roaming also, which goes well with Roja.