Autumn transhumance

Autumn transhumance route from Llosar to Salvasoria

Autumn transhumance on October 19, 2024, the year seven hundred and fifty-two since King Alfonso X the Wise created the Honrado Concejo de la Mesta de pastores, which coincided these days with the passage of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) coming from the Oort Cloud, which accompanied us at dusk, after having wandered through space for more than 80,000 years.

And so it is that every year, and since time immemorial, the end of summer and the arrival of autumn means, for many shepherds, the beginning of the transfer of their livestock from the high mountain pastures to the lowlands, through the cattle trails. A time when the flocks cross the Spanish geography in search of better pastures. And which, in addition, favors environmental sustainability, avoiding the erosion of the fields and helping to prevent fires, as well as keeping a cultural legacy, the rural environment, alive and active.

Nestled in the heart of the Gudar-Maestrazgo region, this transhumance route offers us the opportunity to follow the ancient paths of transhumance, a livestock management system that, although in decline, remains an essential part of the culture and tradition of the area. This route offers you a journey back in time through its most emblematic landscapes from a totally different perspective.

On this occasion I accompanied the farmer Gonzalo Gargallo on his second stage from the Ermita del Llosar, who with his 500 sheep and his dogs was preparing to leave behind the mountain passes of l’Alt Maestrat, after crossing its forests and moors, on the border between the provinces of Castellón and Valencia, to walk to the winter pastures, on the Valencian coast. It is an ancient journey that this shepherd from Cantavieja has been making since he was fifteen years old.

The inhabitants of these lands transformed the stone into a landscape while satisfying their basic needs for subsistence and shelter. By removing these stones from the land, they could use it for farming and, at the same time, they constituted a very abundant natural resource for delimiting fields, terraces, building walls and fences for livestock, as well as shelters for shepherds and their flocks. Thousands of kilometres of fences and enclosures run through the Maestrazgo and the hundreds of huts that, for agricultural and livestock purposes, were built over the centuries using the dry stone technique, an example of sustainable architecture, and which today extend across the fields for the admiration of the traveller. This construction technique was declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2018 and is present throughout the transhumance route.

Crossing these lands, their villages, to the sound of bleating, cowbells, birdsong, the constant presence in the sky of birds of prey such as the golden eagle, the peregrine falcon or the common kestrel and conversations with the shepherd among junipers, holm oaks and rose hips, is to live a pleasant and unforgettable experience.

With the first weak light of dawn on a plateau at more than 1000 metres above sea level, very close to the Llosar hermitage, some impatient sheep are preparing to leave the pen where they have spent the night. A long and exciting day awaits us along the old transhumant trails that cross these mountains. We begin the path between dry stone walls that delimit the properties, under a layer of clouds that are dropping a fine and persistent rain, while a cold mountain breeze hits our faces.

The natural environment of these mountains has a rugged geography with a predominance of calcareous rocks, with an abundance of oaks, holm oaks or kermes oaks, black and Scots pines, yews, holly, junipers and plant species such as juniper, lavender, gorse, kermes oak, blackthorn and thyme. And now in the autumn there are also numerous species of mushrooms such as the thistle mushrooms and the interesting lycoperdon perlatum, commonly known as puffball, which has the curiosity that when lightly touched with a stick it releases spores that with the help of the wind and atmospheric agents will disperse them so that they can germinate in other places, and as the shepherd tells me, this fungus is widely used as a remedy to disinfect and heal wounds.

Just after crossing the CV-126, and after a steep descent, we enter the Camino de los Carros, which runs like a winding ravine that is not very wide between high dry stone walls, full of good-sized rose hips.

After reaching a new plateau, the canyon runs wide and clear between stone walls that, under the watchful eyes of the vultures that fly over us and a jay that flies quickly across, will take us to Mas de Cabestany, which after crossing this place still inhabited today, will lead us again along a wide and easy-to-walk cattle track to Cañada de Ares, to then after a long stretch reach a very long and large valley that after crossing it will lead us to Balsa Verde, where we will stop along the way to eat, because here we have abundant water and green pastures for the sheep.

After regaining our strength, we set off on the path. The ravine here is quite wide and takes us over hills and ravines to an immense meadow near Ares and Morella, heading towards the village of la Llacua.

After the break, the flock sets off, leaving Balsa Verde behind, while a flock of mourning crows flying over us seems to indicate with their squawks the direction to follow.
Crossing the road to take the path that will lead us to the village of La Llacua.
Pilas farmhouse in the area of ​​Ares del Maestre.

Along the way, we found the skin of a snake. Gonzalo, lifting it with his club, explained to me that the skin, whether viper or snake, when dry is used with animals that abort to expel the placenta.

The village of Llàcua is a picturesque and isolated settlement at an altitude of 1,069 metres, where cereals are still grown in its surroundings. The human life of this village, which was once a prosperous place of blacksmiths, carpenters and shepherds, with a public school, open from 1932 to 1974; and the church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, built between 1560 and 1565, is now only part of the memory.

We crossed this quiet place late in the afternoon, to follow the path until we reached a forest of holm oaks, located on a very winding slope, which we would have to overcome downhill on very stony terrain that was physically demanding for both the animals and us.

After leaving this tiring forest, with the sunset upon us, a not very wide branch opens up between pine forests, very close to the Salvasoria fountain, a peaceful corner with some gigantic poplars that, with the last light of day and while we listen to the laments of the owl in the leafy forest, give the place a strange charm.

At night we crossed the Salvasoria farmhouse, a small architectural complex made up of a small hamlet around a sunken hermitage dedicated to Santa Llúcia, a construction belonging to the Reconquista and which was a parish from the 13th to the 18th century, when the church of La Llacua was built and this place was gradually abandoned, and one of the bells of this hermitage, a true jewel of the 15th century, the so-called campaneta de les ànimes, is preserved today in La Llacua.

This hamlet appears named in the Chronicle or “Llibre dels Fets” of King James I, from the 13th century: “…e pois passam del riu de les Troites e eixim a la canada d’Ares e de la canada d’Ares al port de Prunelles et a Salvasòria…”

With the last song of the blackbird in the forest, we come to the end of a memorable day along an ancient cattle trail that runs between stone walls, picturesque villages, old farmhouses, leafy forests and steep ravines. We say goodbye to the day satisfied, having accomplished what we had planned, feeling that through every pore of our skin emanates an uncontrollable desire to pay homage to the memory of all the transhumant shepherds who traveled through these mountains.

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