Cap de Creus – Wild Rocks, Inkbarrel Mediterranean Sea, Tramuntana …
Here, where the Pyrenees dive into the Mediterranean – at the easternmost point of the Iberian Peninsula – near Cadaqués you will find impressive rock sculptures on the Cap de Creus, the Tramuntana whips and the wave game glitters. At the moment everything is quiet. There is only a light breeze. The Tramuntana takes a short break. He draws breath for his next attack. The sky above us promises a new storm. White clouds sprung by the wind. Soon the Tramuntana will blow again over the country with violent gusts coming from the mountains. Then the clouds move quickly from the Pyrenees, floating over the rocks of Cap de Creus towards the Mediterranean.
Parc Natural Cap de Creus placed under protection on the water and land side
The bizarre, sparsely overgrown landscape of the peninsula, which has been protected on the water and land side for a few years as Parc Natural Cap de Creus for a few years, is of wild beauty. Their coasts fall from smaller beach bays interrupted steeply into the sea. Here the easternmost Pyrenean foothills dive under the surface of the sea and continue in dramatic steep walls and steps down to the sand of the seabed at a depth of 40 to 50m.
Cap de Creus is considered a diving area par excellence. Here you will find underwater a fauna that is unparalleled in the western Mediterranean. Red noble corals and colored Gorgonians are numerous on the rocky grounds. Moray eels, congers and octopuses are also present. Lobsters prefer to live on the lower floors of the rock reefs and are rarely missed. Their feelers protrude unmistakably from the holey rock. The groupers, on the other hand, are a little reserved.
Rare Birds
A considerable number of endangered and seabirds endangered live on land in the rocks of Cap de Creus. Among other things, yellow and black beaked storm divers, Alpine and Fahlsegler, peregrine falcon, Habith eagle, funeral and Mediterranean stone eagles, blue merle, rock and red swallows, are still nesting here, Zipper and various species of grass mosquitoes. You can also watch bird migration from February to May and in September and November. Then flamingos were spotted.
The Rocks of Cap de Creus
The color palette of granite and slate rocks ranges from honey yellow to blue-grey to rust red. Framed by a steel blue sky and an ink barrel blue sea, this backdrop is like a Dalí painting. The rocks of the Cap de Creus melt into the sea as his pocket watches are dying of time.
“All the rocks of Cap de Creus are in incessant metamorphosis,” writes Dalí. Everything “is a suggestion that allows you to spontaneously imagine an eagle, a camel, a rooster, a lion, a woman. I am convinced that I embody the living core of this landscape.”
The rocks around Cap de Creus shaped Dalí’s work and were both inspiration and home. Dalí loved the rock sculptures of the Cape as “grand geological delirium” from which he created his Dalírium. He described himself as an incarnation of Cap de Creus.
Today we too succumb to the bizarre design language of this rock world, carved by the sculptor Natur with the tools Tramuntana, sun and sea water. A spectacle of fantasy. When you get involved, you immediately discover Dalí’s animal sculptures, mythical creatures, monsters, human faces… Surrealism seems to have become real. also in detail. Many smaller stones with bizarre spikes and flowing lines are spectacularly eaten, rinsed and nipped by the ravages of time and erosion by water and wind. There is no limit to the imagination of interpretation. Depending on the mood and the incidence of light, the rock spectacle is sufficient for nightmare landscapes or fairy tales.
The stone towers in the sky, expressively and mighty. You can’t and don’t want to evade this magic.
Imagination and Vision
Just as Salvador Dalí once created »Double Image«, the visible serves as a starting point for imagination and vision. The landscape literally challenges the old children’s game “I see something you don’t see.”
The fantastic figures, which arise from the stone depending on the incidence of light and view, can fool our gaze just as much as Dalí’s picture from 1938 “The Endless Puzzle”. Half a man’s face or a whole female figure, a ship’s hull or a piece of dog that is also a piece of rocky coast? who knows There are many pictures in art whose legibility cannot be clearly defined and which cannot be revealed at first glance. Dalí was a master at it. Who is surprised. After all, he lived and worked most of the time between the “double images” of this rocky backdrop.
The restaurant Cap de Creus
At the easternmost point of Spain, the Englishman Chris has been running the restaurant Cap de Creus (Tel. 972 19 90 05) for a few years. Here you can take a snack on the panoramic terrace with breathtaking views over the sea and rocks. Especially at sunrise and sunset you have a fantastic view of the jagged golden-pink colored coast. If you’re lucky, maybe one of the three apartments with a view for the night is free. Better but reserve in good time!
More: Cap de Cres – a day between mountain and valley, Hiking in Paradise: Cadaqués – Cap de Creus, Cap de Creus – wild rocks, rugged sea and secluded bays.
