La Garrotxa in a balloon

The alarm wakes us up before dawn. The early morning is more than justified because we have booked a flight in a hot-air balloon over the La Garrotxa Volcanic Zone Natural Park, a unique place on the peninsula, featuring a landscape of exceptional value and dense forests of beeches, oak trees and holm oaks. Part of the group decides to explore the volcanoes from the ground and will cycle one of the stretches of the Carrilet Greenway Olot. Those of us who are going to fly in the balloon travel just five kilometres to the south of Olot. The experience begins with assembling the instruments and inflating the balloon. The first rays of sunshine kick off this adventure, which is for the most part silent and contemplative. At our feet are the Volcano of Santa Margarida and el Croscat; in the distance we see the fog-covered Pyrenees. It is impossible to capture this kind of beauty in the frame of a photograph, it has to be experienced. While you can also explore them on foot, nothing matches the view you get from the sky.