Barcelona guided walking tours - Bandit country, no humans, occasional wild boar, spectacular views

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Basic data

grade	strenuous
base	Barcelona
location tags	Bages, Catalonia, Els Hostalets del Daví, Manresa, Matadepera, Sant Jaume de Vallhonesta, Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Terrassa, Vallès Occidental, hostal de la Barata,
theme tags	mountain, nature, zombie,
walking distance	18 km / 11.18 miles
walking time, excluding breaks	6 hr
total return travel time from base to walk	2 hr
total time from "hello" to "goodbye"	10.10 hr
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Description of the walk

The mountainous terrain between Manresa and Terrassa through which we pass is now a deserted natural park; in the C16-17th it was bandit country - Quijote probably met his bandoleros somewhere along here - and things only really quietened down completely with the reassertion of Madrid’s political authority in 1714. The so-called royal highways were ostensibly constructed (often by chain gangs) for the benefit of merchants and the military and funded retroactively by local taxation. However, the venality of public administration ensured that most remained miserable paths, incapable of supporting the carts for which they were intended. The royal highway that we use for parts of this walk was nothing more than a slight and partial improvement of an ancient and appalling donkey track. It constituted, nevertheless, the only means of exchanging agricultural produce from central Catalunya with value-added & other goods from the coast until the completion of an alternative route from Manresa to the Barcelona-Madrid road in 1835 and the arrival of the train from Terrassa in Manresa in 1859. Urbanisation with hordes of Central American servants. Walk up riverbed with occasional upward views of La Mola (1104m) and monastery Sant Llorenç del Munt. Large lodge-farmhouse (1330 or earlier). Bandoler terrain hereon. Royal highway with occasional sections with paving and/or primitive walls. Immediate detour to spring and C19th lime kiln (1/2/3) in wonderful mixed forest. Back to highway for climb to hilltop. Breathtaking long views at various points of Sant Llorenç (1/2), Llobregat valley, Montserrat (1/2), Bages, Pyrenees. Home of wild man exiled by Franco from his home town, Terrassa. Lunch by huge sandstone strawstack above cave of legendary bandoler Capablanca. Thief’s Spring hidden away near crime blackspot & gibbet. Small cave (other bigger ones off-track). Cavalier’s Rock, site of prodigious leap. Spectacular (ruined) fortified farms & lodges (1/2), one containing large snake (alleged). Stroll through valley, past church down to textile town with some nice quarries placed at (believe it or not) strategic rail/canal hub. Several interesting bars.

Sources included Antoni Ferrando i Roig’s Les Sendes dels Bandolers and 1:50K ICC map. Optional early start to view remnants of Terrassa’s industrial revolution.

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