Collsabena

The Espai Natural de les Guilleries-Savassona is one of twelve nature parks in the province of Barcelona. Established in 1992, it serves to protect a very special type of flora and fauna that only thrives in the mid-altitude areas between the Mediterranean and the high mountains. In total, these twelve parks cover an impressive 22 percent of the entire area of ​​Catalonia. Exemplary!

Nature park means that the existing roads and tracks can be used. Only hiking trails are off-limits. This can be of no concern to us responsible off-roaders, since we only travel on routes that are open to public transport anyway. This also applies to the tour that leads from Sant Romà de Sau to Vilanova de Sau through the Guilleries-Savassona. It is long, quite challenging and full of culture and nature. It's almost an all-round carefree package.

From Sant Romà you drive over the dam, turn right immediately behind it onto a small road, which you leave after about a kilometre, and then turn right again onto a gravel track. This shows you the way right from the start and climbs in tight serpentines with deep gravel and ruts from 400 to 800 metres in altitude. A perfect introduction for fans of challenging routes. After that the track becomes flatter, but by no means easier. Past the charming church of Sant Andreu de Bancells, it climbs in sometimes narrow, sometimes wide curves to its peak at 1,074 metres at Valclara, before changing over to Collsabena (981 m) behind it, still with lots of bends. The route then descends little by little for ten kilometres to the Riera Major river. There the surface changes to asphalt, and after about four kilometres you reach the road leading to Vilanova de Sau.