BARCELONA – EL COLLELL (160 KM) – 25 TO 30 JULY 2020
This pilgrimage was my first and one of Sant Mateu’s more light ones, but intense at the same time: it lasted five days and the route consisted of setting out from Barcelona to the shrine of El Collell, in Girona, passing through several Catalan towns and the Montseny.
I remember my first shock with pilgrimages: getting up at four in the morning, the tiredness and the feeling of thirst when the route went on longer than usual; and, at the same time, the feeling of the greatest happiness and discovering how it can be compatible with renouncing the “I”.
Of this pilgrimage, my favourite stage was the Turó de l’Home one (a mountain in the Montseny), on which, after losing the path, we opened a new one with penknives and brute force: the Sant Mateu Shortcut.
It struck me how we learnt to be optimistic and, despite the heat and tiredness, to keep singing. I remember how, in a delirious state, there were people shouting: “Up here the flowers are colourful!”.
