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The Black Mountain trail

A route along the old paths connecting the seaside towns of Llançà and Port de la Selva with Cadaqués, bordered by dry stone walls and slabs that still preserve the memory of passing carts

The north­ern part of the GR-92 route, the long-dis­tance path that fol­lows the en­tire Mediter­ranean coast, al­lows us to enjoy the craggy Cap de Creus land­scape, one of the most at­trac­tive sec­tions on the en­tire coast­line. Our route starts from Llançà and ends in Cadaqués, a long and de­mand­ing walk of around 18 kilo­me­tres. We will pass such em­blem­atic places as the monastery of Sant Pere de Roda, above Port de la Selva, to later ar­rive at Dalí’s work­shop house in Port Lli­gat. It is, with­out doubt, one of those ex­cur­sions that make you fall in love with the coun­try and hik­ing. Be­tween the Port of Llançà and Port de la Selva the route stays al­most per­ma­nently along the Camí de Ronda, on the seafront, with steep drops to the water. The beauty of Port de la Selva should not be missed. From here we head along the old path that con­nected the two vil­lages of Port de la Selva and Cadaqués: the Muntanya Negra – or Black Moun­tain – trail.

In Port de la Selva, along the road to Cadaqués, we leave be­hind the ceme­tery and take the GR-92, per­fectly sign­posted and very steep, with its beau­ti­ful views of the vil­lage to de­light us as we move to­wards the high­est point of Torellò. From here we climb, with the ruins of the Tor­relló peak al­ready in sight. Much of the road, bor­dered by stone walls, is paved with flat slabs that still bear the ruts of carts from days gone by. Tor­relló has dry stone con­struc­tions, some war bunkers with half-metre-thick dry stone-cov­ered walls.

At this cross­roads we take the path south, to­wards Mas Bu­fadors. This is a for­est path that rises gen­tly along the Ro­manyac riverbed on the right. On the other side of the riverbed are the Roda moun­tains, with Sant Pere de Rodes and Sant Sal­vador crown­ing the moun­tain.

We can visit the ruins of Mas Bu­fadors, which boasts a mag­nif­i­cent view to the north. In this area we find a dol­men, one of the many mega­lithic con­struc­tions scat­tered through­out the north­ern part of the Em­pordà re­gion. Now the road forks and we head up to­wards the Black Moun­tain loom­ing be­fore us. Fif­teen min­utes later we reach the pass and al­ready see Cadaqués far below. The top of the Black Moun­tain is to our right and eas­ily ac­ces­si­ble. We con­tinue down the path that goes from Port de la Selva to Cadaqués, pass­ing below and through Sant Baldiri.

From here we drop down about 150 me­tres to the cen­tre of Cadaqués. The last sec­tion is par­al­lel to the road, and we grad­u­ally enter the charm­ing sea­side vil­lage to the west.

out & about

A local cuisine with a taste of the sea

In fishing villages seafood plays a prominent role. There are restaurants faithful to traditional cuisine and others that opt for innovation, with prices for all budgets. Rice dishes include paella, lobster paella, black rice or broth rice. Further highlights are the fisherman’s broth, grilled sea bream, grilled prawns, sea urchins and monkfish with prawns and clams, without forgetting the curious zarzuela, Dalí’s favourite.

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