When I started out this morning I had no knowledge about any footpaths to Manresa. The tourist office in Monistrol didn’t have opening hours to my liking and I couldn’t get hold of any detailed maps. The GPS-device also wasn’t much of a help as it didn’t reveal any tracks at all. So, I started walking on the busy C-55 and as if the constant noise and gusts from lorries and cars wasn’t annoying enough there was this road tunnel, at least a kilometer in length and with a shelf about 15 centimeters high and maybe 80 wide for me to walk on with almost twenty kilos on my back that should be kept steady being hit by the gusts using only the 67 kilos I weigh myself. That was an experience that I’d rather had been without thank you very much. I had to use the C-55 all the way to Manresa but there I stumbled over a track that I could use for the stage to Súria. I found a very nice guest house in Súria and I also had a very tasty meal with a local touch.
The stage between Súria and Cordona became more difficult than I had expected. To begin with the track was well signposted and there was a clear path to follow but later on the track just disappeared at several occasions because farmers had ploughed away extending their fields destroying any sign of a path, and in other places the path was completely overgrown. I must give my GPS-map some credit though because when I set it up to show enough detail it actually showed me the GR-track and I could follow that instead of the missing physical path. At one occasion I tried to negotiate an easier passage around a solid wall of vegetation arguing with a wild-eyed, long-haired, long-bearded fellow that stood in a clearing behind a fence that he ought to let me pass through his gate. But he didn’t want me on his grounds even for a couple of minutes and that cost me some blood – brambles don’t let you pass easily either. Coming into Cordona I was more or less attacked by two big dogs but another rambler came to my rescue and everything ended well. I had a short rest and then asked at the tourist office how I should continue to Solsona and they told me that it was easy because the route was well signposted. I set off only to return to the same spot four hours later. At a fork in the road not far from where the track began the signpost was pointing me in the wrong direction. I had walked for quite some distance when I noticed that and it was late afternoon so I decided to walk back to Cordona and spend the evening and the night there.
