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Accueil > Randonnées > Loop of the Balmette

Loop of the Balmette

Inheritance

It is the longest and most sustained of the hikes around the village of Les Angles but you will be rewarded with superb panoramas: Carlit, Pérics, Madres, Cam-bre d’Aze, Puigmal and as far as Spain and the Sierra del Cadi.

The summer pasture In the Pyrenees, it is both the time of year and the place where the herds graze on the mountain pastures. The mountain pastures are to the Pyrenees what the mountain pastures are to the Alps. They consist of permanent natural grasslands. When the animals are brought up to the mountain pastures (on foot or by cattle truck), it is called transhumance.

The choice of the date of the rise in the mountain pastures is linked to the growth of grass at altitude and the moment when the herds are driven out of low altitude areas to make way for other types of cultivation. The mountain pasture generally begins in June and continues until September – October. The shepherds (guardians of the sheep) or cowherds (guardians of the cows) move the herds according to the growth of the grass. They therefore start at the bottom of the mountain pastures to finish at the highest point where the grass grows later. It ends when the mountain pastures have been exploited and the cold sends the herds back to the valley where the livestock buildings are located. .

Transhumance is linked to an extensive farming method: the herds graze over large areas and are kept in stalls only marginally. This farming method is also called “pastoralism”.

Pedestrian routes N° 70 Catalan Pyrenees

Les Angles

4h20

13 km

&

+500m

Quite difficult

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