We start the route first thing in the morning, to make the most of daylight hours, at the Hotel Les Brases de Sort (0:00 - 693m).

From the hotel we go down the same road in a southerly direction. We leave behind the detour and the bridge of the N-260 road and we continue down a few more meters until we almost reach the entrance to the town.

We go up to the right along Calle Joaquim Sostres, following the sign for the Sort and Valle de Àssua Nature Trail in the direction of "Bressui - Enviny". Just when we reach the first curve that the street makes, we find a sign on the left that indicates the way to Bressui and Enviny.

We continue straight on for a few meters and find the castle of Sort.

Views from the castle.

The church of Sort.

We go down from the castle and go back to our detour. we take this road

We begin to gain altitude above the town of Sort.

We headed between walls and dry stone terraces.

It didn't take long to reach the Bressui village (0:25 - 838m).

We leave the church of Sant Miquel behind on the left.

We went up a narrow alley.

Next to the Com fountain, at the top of the street, we find a crossroads where we leave the path to the right that goes up to Pujalt - Enviny - Olp.

We take the path to the left, towards Enviny (signposted).

We pass in front of a house and continue along a track that goes up.

In this next section, the path marked with yellow markings will leave and return to the track a couple of times, before finally leaving it.

Direction to Enviny.

We advance through a sparse holm oak.

Path between dry stone walls.

We continue to gain height.

Here we can enjoy the incomparable views that the environment offers us.

Bridle path towards Enviny.

Cows grazing in the meadows.

We leave behind a first detour that would take us back to Sort and, a little further on, we find the Montardit detour, where we will return in a few minutes.

we visit the picturesque nucleus of Enviny houses (1:10 - 1,150m).

Church of Envy.

We retrace the path to the Montardit detour and take it.

Going down to Montardit de Dalt.

We begin to lose altitude, first in a W direction and then in a S direction, along a path that advances between crop fields and dry stone walls.

We passed right over a farm.

We come to the road, which we cross.

We enter the core of Montardit de Dalt (1:30 - 945m).

We go down to the church of Santa Cecília.

Views of the church from the town's water tank.

We pass through a covered alley that forks: we continue along the one on the left.

Direction to La Mola - Estac.

We are going down a grassy path.

We leave behind the detour to La Mola and continue on.

Direction to the village of Estac.

We pass through a small canal that leads us to the bottom of the Montardit ravine, which we must cross at a ford.

Attention!: in times of thaw or after rain it can be difficult to cross it.

After crossing the stream.

The road gains height again.

We climb through the interior of the Caella oak forest.

Little by little, as we flank the mountain, the forest becomes more open and sparse.

We can enjoy good views of the nucleus of Montardit de Dalt.

We reach an area of sandier terrain and a point where we have to climb up a rocky outcrop (in a SW direction).

We leave the meadows and the Santa Creu farmhouse on our right.

Masía de Santa Creu and the mountain of Llarvén.

We reached the top of the mountain range.

We found a vertical indicator sign.

We turn left.

We continue flanking the mountain in a southerly direction through the sparse holm oak.

We follow a hollow where a pleasant pine forest of red pine populates.

Next, we recover the oak.

We now approach a section where the itinerary flanks the hillside to the south until we reach a point, just when the path turns west, where we open up views towards the town of Arcalís and, further to the S, we can make out the silhouette of the Roca Punxeguda, the Arboló gorge and the Sleeping Geganta.

The Sleeping Giant.

We go up very gently through this panoramic section and we reach a point where we can already see the center of Estac.

We now descend through a fairly rocky area where our path can be confused with the paths trodden by flocks of sheep. We come to a dirt track, which we follow to the right, and cross a small ravine.

Then we leave the track.

We follow the signposted path advancing between dry stone walls.

Just before reaching Estac, we link up with a paved road.

We pass a sheep farm on the left.

We went down a few meters.

Heading towards the Davall fountain, we find ourselves right at the entrance to Estac (3:10 - 1,170m).

We cross Estac.

We leave the church of Sant Marçal on our right.

We continue in the direction O.

Just outside the town we find the indications of Mencui and Balestui, where we will go next.

We walk through an open area.

Path hedges and grass meadows.

We pay attention to the road, which in this section can be losing. We must go around a meadow since the original path has been blocked and is not passable.

We go down gently, trying to follow the worn marks of yellow paint.

We passed through a losing area and with quite busy roads.

We cross a ravine and continue to lose height between meadows and small groups of trees.

We descend to a meadow, cross it downwards.

We link up with a path that advances between dry stone walls.

The path enters a forest of oaks.

Stone wall.

oak forest.

We flank the slope, with quite a slope and a reddish soil composition.

We are getting closer to the Font del Llop ravine.

We come to a fork.

We find a yellow arrow that indicates the path that goes down, attention!: we ignore the arrow.

We continue the route along the path above, which is also marked with yellow paint marks.

We cross two torrents, the first above a waterfall.

After having overcome the second torrent, just when it seems that the path is lost and before a landslide, we suddenly climb a blurred path that becomes more evident higher up.

We ascend in loops through the interior of an oak grove until we reach a meadow.

Here we turn left and continue to gain altitude until we come across a vertical sign for Turismo de Catalunya.

Shepherd shelter on the way to Mencui.
We join a more defined path and turn left. We continue climbing, now with less slope, through an oak grove that little by little opens up. We come to a small pass and turn west.

We continue approaching Mencui along a path that advances between dry stone walls. But little by little the path becomes more difficult and we reach a point where we have to go down to the track that is just below us.

We continue up this road and, after a couple of curves, we find a detour that is where we would have left if the road had been cleaner and more passable.

The abandonment of livestock and the depopulation of these Pallars nuclei is causing the valuable path heritage of these lands to be gradually lost.

We continue along the track and soon arrive at the half-abandoned houses of the Mencui nucleus (4:50 - 1,261m).

From Mencui the signposted path would take us directly to the Cossant hut. But at the time of documenting this guide, this trail is impassable due to a large landslide. Therefore, to get to the Cossant hut it is necessary to follow an alternative itinerary approaching Escós and Tolzó.

Thus, we rule out the direct path to the Cossant hut and go down the same track that we previously climbed and continue towards Escós.

We pass the Pubill hut and, after crossing two ravines, we arrive at the Escós intersection (5:35 - 940m).

Here we leave the track that continues down towards Escós - Baro.

We continue along the track to the right towards the Tolzó forest.

The track gains height making loops through a beautiful red pine forest.

We continue along this road without changing paths, leaving behind detours on both sides, until we reach the Cossant hut (6:55 - 1,339m).

Boixerola.

We are at the highest point of the entire route and, thanks to its height, we can enjoy good views of the mountains of the High Pyrenees: the Torreta del Orri (2,439m), the Pica d'Estats (3,143m) and the Montcalm massif,...

Views of the Pica d'Estats from the Cossant hut.

We leave the track.

We return to the signposted path.

We passed under the remains of the gunwale.

The path descends along the ridge in a southerly direction and we pass by another ruined hut.

We continue in the same direction until we turn left and begin to descend along the foothills on the E slope.

Further down, we suddenly turn west and we are surprised by the wonderful views of Pla de Corts, Peramea and the Sleeping Geganta.

We continue down through rosemary bushes.

We see some charred logs, remnants of a burned pine forest.

We cross the llau del Llop -which is the name given to the dry ravines in this area.

We pass under some great walls of limestone rock.

We walk along a nice paved road.

While we go around the Rock of Sant Pere Vell.

Little by little we are approaching the nucleus of Balestui.

We passed a cow farm.

We cross the road.

We make a few last meters and enter the charming village of Balestui (7:55 - 865m).

We left the nucleus of houses by the side of the remains of the church, without worship and half demolished.

We went through a cobbled section.

We arrive at a small wooden bridge that crosses the Ancs river.

THE STONE ROADS

Just as we leave Balestui along the old road from Balestui to Peramea, we pass a well-preserved stretch of cobbled road. We find the paving in the steepest sections of the Pallars paths, with the aim of facilitating the march of pack cattle. The paving is made up of batén -the large stones that are placed crosswise to the path- that provide solidity, fixes the path and helps to stop the cattle if they slip, and the engravat -the small stones that are placed orderly between batén and batén- . The old path of Balestui was a traditional communication route used from the Middle Ages to the 20th century by the inhabitants of the area and by the muleteers, shepherds and merchants who traveled through these territories.

Source: A peu. 13 walks and excursions to Pallars Sobirà. Volume II. Arola Editors.

We are now entering a stress free zone.

Once we have crossed the Ancs river, we begin to climb through a beautiful oak forest.

We leave behind a crossroads and the path to the Enjaume and Bretui farmhouse, and we continue towards Peramea.

We reach a small pass and begin to descend directly towards Pla de Corts, where we can already make out Peramea.

We turn left towards Peramea.

We pass through an area with cereal fields.

We make a few last meters of ascent to the beautiful closed town of Peramea (8:50 - 902m).

Peramea Square.

We cross the center passing in front of the Plaça fountain and the Olmo de Peramea.

We turn left towards the cemetery and, halfway down the street, just behind some rubbish bins, we take the Gerri de la Sal path.

We approach the last section of the day, which will take us to Gerri de la Sal. We descend gently between meadows, pass by a house and then link up with the road.

We follow the paved road to our left, we make a straight line along the road and, just as it turns, we take a path that goes up and allows us to make a shortcut. Further on we return to the paved road, along which we advance a few more meters until, after a curve, we get back on the road (right).

We descend purposefully down the stony and grassy slope of the mountain.

The Gerri de la Sal monastery.

Finally, we enter Gerri de la Sal through an alley and we stand in the center of town. We pass through the Plaza del Mercadal, where the Real Alfolí de la Sal is located, currently a museum, we go down some stairs and reach the road, the end point of this sensational itinerary through the Baix Pallars in Gerri de la Sal (9:30 a.m. - 607m).