Through the Josa valley

When talking about Tuixent, it is inevitable to talk about the trementinaires, those women who collected medicinal plants from the area and made ointments that would be distributed from these lands, on foot, to nearby farms but also on routes for months. in the inland plains and the Catalan coast.

This route proposes to follow the Josa valley along the old road to the center of Josa, one of the valleys that these women trepinaires surely traveled both to go and find the plants and to distribute them. A beautiful valley that collects the waters of the Cadí.

Description
The route starts in front of the Tuixent Trementinaires Museum. Before heading for the Josa road upstream, the suggestion is to leave the village along the Camí Ral Levante, following the directions of the medicinal plants route. You will pass this way in front of the Center of Flora and Botanical Garden, where it is advisable to pay a visit. Another option is to make it back.

Once in front of the schools, follow the signs for GR 107.3 north along Calle de las Escoles and Calle Raval. Before reaching the end of the street, a path goes left, this is the old road of Josa. Once you have reached a track, follow it to the right and you will cross the river via the Vinyals bridge, and from there you will take the tarmac road, which will have to follow a kilometer to the right in the direction of Gósol. Caution with cars!

When you find a track to the right, follow it and it will take you near the river that you will be following upstream. You will cross it twice until you reach the surroundings of Can Rot. From here you will cross it again and follow it on its left bank. You will see above, at the foot of the road, the Romanesque hermitage of Sant Jaume (11th century). The path climbs a little through a dense pine forest, you are in the shadow of the Cloterons. The path goes up to the rock of Saioles where the road is flattened. You are about 100 m above the river level and you will reach the level where the Josa Mill is, as the river tends to descend. After passing the mill to the left, the terrain will be narrowed and you will be near the river. You will arrive at a point where you will see that the main stream joins the stream of the hermitage that descends from the center of Josa. In fact, at this point the river changes its name, here it is called the Cerneres river and from here it is the Josa river.

Climb on the side of the stream of the hermitage on the left, the path that will take you to the hill that Josa occupies. Half way up the path leaves the stream and with a pronounced roundabout you will slowly head south of the nucleus through an area of ​​small cultivated fields. If there is no reason for force majeure, once you arrive, you should have a good time strolling around this picturesque town inhabited at the foot of the Cadí. Apart from wandering its alleys, you can also climb up to the parish church of Santa Maria and Sant Bernabé de Josa, built in the late nineteenth century. You will see the old parish of Josa on the outskirts, just to the west, is the hermitage of Santa Maria documented from the 11th century. XII. If you still have some strength you can climb it, just follow the track that goes right at the entrance of the village, is one km away and has no loss. The mountain in front of you is the Cadinell one of the beautiful silhouettes of the Sierra del Cadí.

The return must take the same path where you came from, but now downstream. You will see how the perspective of the valley changes, it may seem like another place.