If you are aware of the kind of traveling I enjoy the most, you might know that sometimes I enjoy joining some kind of volunteering while being abroad as it gives you a complete different approach and perspective of the place, community, culture and lifestyle from where you are.
This time I joined as a camp coordinator a 10-day long Workcamp in Vall de Siarb, Catalunya from September 30th to October 10th on Conservation of Ancient Paths.
At the beginning I wasn’t sure I chose the right project and place for me as it was quite different of anything else I’ve done before.
But once all the volunteers arrived, days started to pass and we dove deeper and learnt and practiced more about the Drywall Stone technique I realized I was in the right place at the right time.
Refugi Vall de Siarb (the place where we stayed for the whole duration of the camp) is a small and cozy refuge run by Marc, who has an awesome project* with the aim of recovering and maintaining a big net of old paths that connect Llagunes (the village where we were) with some other villages around.
The work we did there, mainly consisted in rebuilding some parts of drystone walls that had fallen in the past. This process is a long one and which took us most of the time and days of the camp to complete; one has to take it almost as meditation where rush, frustration nor speed will help but rather patience, awareness and concentration. It’s important to make sure each rock/stone used is put in the right position, stabilized with the ones around, that there are no gaps in between and by that make sure this good job done now will endure over the years. Some other work we did was to widen paths, spread soil, find old pathways and clean & clear them from unwanted bushes, stones and branches.
I want to thank Marc from Refugi Vall de Siarb, Gemma and some locals as well as to the people from SCI Catalunya for giving me the opportunity to coordinate such a wonderful camp.
* If you are interested in getting to know a bit more about the project that Marc is running in Vall de Siarb about the recovery of ancient paths I encourage you to contact them. There’s a lot of work that has been done during the past four years up to now and that still needs to be done; become a part of it!
Down below you can see some of the photos I took during the camp.
paths
