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And she won't be alone, as Claire Fontaine and Joseph de Ca'th Lon have joined her to enjoy a few days of rest before visiting Lyon next weekend, where a very interesting football match awaits them.
As an older person, The Grandma has been reflecting on the wonderful, unique places the Catalan coast has to offer, and she started with Cap de Creus, where they enjoyed a fantastic day of scuba diving in a fascinating and beautiful location.
There are places where nature seems to have decided to show everything it is capable of doing. Cap de Creus is one of those places.
After spending some time in Napoli and writing about Vesuvius, it feels almost natural to continue the journey through another landscape where geology and life are impossible to separate. Vesuvius is a volcano that reminds us that the Earth is still alive beneath our feet. Cap de Creus tells a different story: one of ancient mountains, metamorphic rocks, tectonic forces, wind, erosion and a Mediterranean Sea that has slowly transformed the landscape into something extraordinary.
The difference is that at Cap de Creus, the landscape does not stop at the shoreline. It continues underwater. And when you dive here, you discover that what looks like a spectacular rocky peninsula from the surface is only the beginning of the story.
Cap de Creus occupies the easternmost end of the Iberian Peninsula, where the Pyrenees finally reach the Mediterranean. Geologically, it belongs to the axial zone of the Pyrenees, the part of the mountain range where some of its oldest rocks are exposed. The geological history of Cap de Creus goes back hundreds of millions of years, to the Paleozoic Era, when sediments accumulated in environments very different from those we know today.
Over geological time, those sediments were buried, compressed, heated and transformed. The result is the extraordinary variety of metamorphic rocks that characterises the peninsula: schists and phyllites, but also marble, quartzite, amphibolite and gneiss. There are also granodiorites and, in some areas, much younger basaltic rocks.
In other words, when you walk through Cap de Creus, you are not simply walking through a beautiful Mediterranean landscape. You are walking through geological history. The rocks record enormous forces that operated long before humans existed: sedimentation, burial, metamorphism, folding, faulting, mountain building and erosion.
The Variscan orogeny, hundreds of millions of years ago, profoundly transformed the ancient rocks. Much later, the Alpine orogeny contributed to the formation of the Pyrenees and produced further deformation in the Cap de Creus area.
The landscape we see today is therefore the result of several geological worlds superimposed upon one another.
And then came the wind.
Few places in the Mediterranean demonstrate the power of wind as clearly as Cap de Creus. The Tramuntana has shaped the peninsula for thousands upon thousands of years. Together with rain, waves, temperature changes and other erosive processes, it has sculpted the rocks into an almost surreal landscape of cliffs, ridges, gullies, coves and bizarrely shaped formations. Sometimes the landscape looks almost extraterrestrial. This is not surprising. The rocks are heavily fractured and folded, providing erosion with countless weaknesses to exploit. Water and wind penetrate cracks, enlarge them and gradually remove the material around them. The result is a coastline that seems to have been carved rather than simply eroded. And the sea continues the process. Every wave that strikes a cliff is participating in a geological experiment that began millions of years ago. The landscape is never finished. It is still being created.
For someone who dives, this peninsula reveals another dimension. The marine environment of Cap de Creus is extraordinarily diverse because the seabed is extraordinarily complex. There are rocky bottoms and soft sediments, shallow illuminated areas and dark deeper environments, sheltered coves and places exposed to strong currents, waves and the Tramuntana.
This enormous variety of habitats creates an equally extraordinary variety of life. And descending beneath the surface feels like entering another version of the same geological landscape. The rocks that dominate the coastline continue underwater as walls, ledges, caves, cracks and reefs. But now they are covered by living organisms. The Mediterranean suddenly becomes a three-dimensional forest.
One of the first things that can transform a dive is the sight of a meadow of Posidonia oceanica. Posidonia is not an alga but a marine flowering plant. Its underwater meadows are among the most important ecosystems in the Mediterranean. They provide shelter, food and nursery areas for numerous species, while their roots and rhizomes help stabilise the seabed. They also contribute to oxygen production and to the productivity of coastal ecosystems. Swimming above a Posidonia meadow can therefore feel deceptively peaceful. Beneath the apparently simple green leaves, there is an entire ecosystem. Small fish hide among the plants. Juveniles find refuge there. Invertebrates move between the leaves and the seabed. Predators patrol the edges. What looks like a meadow is actually a city. And every square metre can be full of life.
As you descend, the underwater landscape changes. Light gradually disappears, algae become less dominant and another community begins to emerge: the coraligenous habitat. The word "coralligenous" may sound as if it refers simply to coral, but the reality is much more complex. It is a highly structured Mediterranean community created largely by organisms such as coralline algae, which build and cement a complex three-dimensional habitat. It becomes a kind of underwater architecture. And among its most spectacular inhabitants are the red gorgonians. Their branches rise from the rocks like underwater trees.
They are animals, not plants, and their colonies create shelter and structure for numerous other organisms. Around them, the apparently bare rock becomes a living world of sponges, bryozoans, molluscs, crustaceans and fish. Then there is another extraordinary presence: red coral, Corallium rubrum.
Cap de Creus is particularly remarkable for the presence of this species, one of the Mediterranean organisms that has fascinated humans for centuries. But underwater, coral is not simply something beautiful to collect or admire. It is part of a complex ecosystem that has evolved over immense periods of time.
The rocky seabeds of Cap de Creus are home to an impressive variety of Mediterranean fish. You may encounter seabreams moving through the water, wrasses exploring the rocks, colourful salema feeding among the algae, or a grouper watching from the entrance of a cave. And then there are the species that seem to have been designed specifically for camouflage.
The red scorpionfish is a perfect example. It can sit almost motionless among the rocks, relying on camouflage rather than speed. Unless you know what you are looking for, you may swim past one without realising that a fish is watching you. The same is true of moray eels, which often remain hidden inside cracks and caves, revealing only their heads. And perhaps one of the most fascinating encounters for a diver is the common octopus. The octopus is not simply another animal on the seabed. It is an intelligence encounter. It can change colour and texture, manipulate objects, explore its environment and disappear into its surroundings with extraordinary efficiency.
In Cap de Creus, the rocky landscape provides exactly the kind of complex environment in which such an animal can thrive.
Not everything remarkable is large. Look carefully into the cracks and shadows and another world appears. Crustaceans occupy the crevices. Sea stars move slowly across the rocks. Sea urchins graze on algae. Polychaete worms live within the seabed. Sponges and bryozoans cover surfaces that, from a distance, appear lifeless.
The deeper you look, the more obvious the fundamental lesson of Cap de Creus becomes: absence of movement does not mean absence of life. Sometimes the richest places are the ones that initially appear empty.
One of the most remarkable geological features of Cap de Creus is not visible from the land at all. Off the peninsula lies a major submarine canyon that descends rapidly into the deep Mediterranean. The underwater topography is therefore not simply an extension of the coastline. It is a continuation of the geological drama. The cliffs we see above the water become walls and slopes below it, while the seabed suddenly opens into much deeper environments. These changes in depth and topography influence currents, sediments, nutrients and the distribution of marine organisms.
The sea here is not a uniform blue space. It is a landscape. And, like the terrestrial landscape, it has mountains, valleys, walls, forests, plains and canyons. Only we cannot see most of them from the surface.
There is another fascinating connection between the landscape above and the life below. The Tramuntana does not simply sculpt the rocks. It also influences the sea. Strong winds can mix surface waters with deeper waters, helping to bring nutrients into the marine ecosystem. Together with currents and the complex underwater topography, this contributes to the productivity of the waters around Cap de Creus. The same wind that makes the landscape look harsh can therefore help sustain the extraordinary richness beneath the waves. It is one of those beautiful contradictions of nature. A force capable of eroding the landscape can also help nourish the life that surrounds it.
The waters of Cap de Creus can also become a meeting point for animals that are not permanently associated with the seabed. The pelagic environment -the open water itself- is inhabited by plankton, jellyfish, small crustaceans and countless microscopic organisms that form the foundation of marine food webs. Among the larger inhabitants are sardines, anchovies and bonito. And, depending on the season and circumstances, the wider waters can also be visited by migratory species such as sea turtles and cetaceans. The Mediterranean may sometimes look like an empty blue surface. It isn't. It is one of the most densely interconnected ecosystems on Earth.
Perhaps this is why moving from Vesuvius to Cap de Creus feels so natural. Vesuvius tells the story of fire. Cap de Creus tells the story of time. One landscape was dramatically shaped by volcanic activity; the other preserves the scars of ancient mountain building, metamorphism and erosion. But both remind us of the same thing: the landscape is never merely scenery. It is a geological archive. At Vesuvius, you can look at a volcano and imagine the enormous forces that lie beneath it.
At Cap de Creus, you can look at a folded schist, a fractured cliff or a strangely sculpted rock and read the traces of forces that acted hundreds of millions of years ago. Then you put on a mask and descend beneath the surface. And suddenly the story changes again. The ancient rocks become the foundations of a living ecosystem. Posidonia grows above them. Gorgonians rise from them. Corals occupy their cracks. Octopuses disappear among them. Moray eels watch from their caves. Fish move through the labyrinth. And somewhere beyond the familiar coastline, the seabed plunges into a submarine canyon.
The geological and biological stories are not separate. They are the same story. Life builds upon geology. Geology creates habitats. The sea transforms rock. The rock shelters life. The wind changes the sea. The sea changes the coast. And everything is connected.
Standing at Cap de Creus, with the Mediterranean stretching towards the horizon, it is tempting to think of this place as the end of something. The easternmost point of Catalunya. The end of the Pyrenees. The place where the mountains meet the sea. But perhaps it is better understood as a beginning. A beginning of the Mediterranean. A beginning of an underwater world. A beginning of a geological journey that reaches far beyond what our eyes can see. And when you dive here, you realise that Cap de Creus is much larger than the peninsula that appears on a map. Its real landscape continues beneath the surface. Its rocks continue downward. Its ecosystems extend into darkness. Its canyon opens into the deep. And the Mediterranean keeps writing the next chapter.
After Vesuvius, Cap de Creus feels like a perfect reminder that nature does not need to choose between drama and beauty. Sometimes it offers both. Sometimes the most spectacular landscapes are made not by a single catastrophic event, but by millions of years of pressure, movement, erosion, wind and water. And sometimes, to see the whole story, you simply have to dive.
More information: Orca Diving
en què els perfums i els colors
d’aquest inoblidable país de Cap de Creus
varen sorprendre els meus sentits.
when the scents and colours
of this unforgettable land of Cap de Creus
first overwhelmed my senses.
Tomàs Garcés
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