![]() ![]() «Last Saturday I went to one of the Bravanariz walks and I came back inspired by so much good energy and by having been in tune with nature in such an intimate way, such as smell. «This olfactory voyage with Ernesto was a reconnection to something instinctive, an enlivening reminder to open all the senses back to nature.» Bojana J. ![]() It had the power to transport me back to a beautiful winter's day in the Can Fares forest with new friends and new findings. «The capture we collectively made during Ernesto’s workshop in January was an olfactory time machine. ![]() We started the day as strangers and ended the day as friends.» S.Baber (U.S.A.) A powerful reconnection to the very essence of life around us. Being able to see, smell and know the origin, directly, of multiple plants, from which raw material for aromas is extracted, is simply a privilege» Juan Carlos Moreno (Colombia) «The experience, with Ernesto as a guide, is highly interesting, entertaining and sensitive. «One of the most inspiring and remarkable olfactory experiences I have ever had.» Lourenço Lucena (Portugal) As might be expected, various fires have raged in the area over the years, the last a bit more than ten years ago, in the summer of 2006, with a thousand hectares affected. This story is nothing new, and perfectly describes what has happened to much of the Empordà landscape over the past 50 years. As a result, that formerly orderly mountain ended up covered in woods, which nobody takes the time to exploit or take care of. They were no longer yielding enough, and were too far away from the town to be cared for, even romantically. In the Any del Fred of 1956, those trees that did not die were later pulled out. In the past this mountain was covered in olive trees, divided into small plots which the villagers took care of. From on high you can see the entire plain of the Empordà, to the north to Roses, on a point along the bay, with the Tramuntana range and L’Albera behind it, until you get to Mare de Déu del Mont, and past to Les Salines and Canigó to the south you see L’Escala, the Montgrí and Les Gavarres ranges. The climb up the Muntanya Gran was one of my favourite hikes. In reality, what we are smelling is the intense burst of life that emerges from death. This makes me think that death does have a smell, in spite of our society’s repeated attempts to minimize its effects. It is the smell of decomposing fruit, after all. In the section that leads down to the coast, the walks through olive groves and apple trees are lovely, and in October, after the apple harvest, the smell of the fruit that has been rejected and left on the ground is oddly intoxicating. Leaving from El Padró, we would do long outings until Vilarrobau and the shores of the Fluvià river, through the woods until Sant Mori or skirting the Muntanya Gran until arriving at the small village of Garrigoles. I still have that map, which looks like it had come down with chickenpox. I unfolded my map and I spent time circling the names of the towns I had visited in red, however small they were. That was when I discovered the Empordà, going methodically from town to town. For those first years I would do short trips with my dog (the only one I ever had). The views from there to the bay of Roses are marvellous. I lived there for ten years beside the town water deposit, on top of a knoll that the townsfolk call El Padró. We could say that Ventalló was the first place I settled down in as an adult in the Empordà. ![]()
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