Cap de Creus, Spain

Clyde with Paul Pesudo

We were fortunate that The Dali Museum contacted Paul Pesudo to guide us into the Cap de Creus National Park. The Park was closed when we arrived, but Paul knew folks who could get us in. It was extraordinary to have the Park all to ourselves. Thank you, Paul!

Clyde, Jackie and Paul making their way

Jackie, Clyde and Paul

Usually, Clyde uses large format cameras ranging in sizes from 5x7" to 8x10". However, on this trip, he chose to take his digital Sony A7R2 and, for the most part, used his Cannon 17mm tilt and shift lens.  There were many reasons for the decision to use a digital camera. Basically, it was because large format cameras use slower shutter speeds, the film takes longer to load and unload, and taking film through the airport is tricky. He would have hated to spend the time photographing, only to lose the quality of the film due to an x-ray machine. Another reason was that Clyde only had nine days to capture the essence of Dali's home environment. He could move faster with a digital camera.

Cap de Creus 4 —- for sizes and pricing CLICK HERE

The Cap de Creus National Park is 16 miles from the border of France,  located where the Pyrenees reach the Mediterranean Sea.  It has a tremendous geologic history dating back to the Gondwana period. The area is known for its metamorphic rocks that show several phases of deformation, variously deformed pegmatite dikes, fold, refolded lineation’s, and is the best known for its ductile shear zones. "...simply stated, Cap de Creus ranks with the top 20 of all geologically significant sites..." Darrel S. Cowan, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. 

The small part of the Park that we had time to see only made me want to return and hike the entire Park, fascinating! If you love geology, this is a place that should be on your 'bucket-list'!

Do you see the horses head?

Geologically amazing!

The Park created a safe and wide walkway through the geology of the area. The rough and unstable ground was not safe to walk on, especially the regions filled with ancient lava spikes. Heaven forbid if you should trip on the uneven surface and fall, you'd be impaled by the lava! 

Cap de creus 9 —- for sizes and prices CLICK HERE

Clyde and Niki

Jackie with the Mediterranean Sea behind her

Cap de Creus 5 —- for sizes and prices CLICK HERE

Paul and Clyde

Cap de Creus 7 - Head of Cullero —- for sizes and prices CLICK HERE

Cap de Creus National Park was an important location for Dali. Many of the backgrounds in his images are formations that he found in the Park. For this reason, the walkway has metal plaques embedded in the walkway to point out those formations Dali has used in his paintings. However, we were so fascinated by the geology of the place that we never saw the plaques until we were leaving the Park!

The park had this frame standing so folks could take their photographs…naturally, we took advantage of that. :)

Clyde and me walking down the trail with the Mediterranean Sea stretched out in front of us

After we shared a lunch with Paul, we bid him farewell and thanked him for getting us into the Park.  Clyde was tired, so he went to the hotel, but Jackie and I were curious about Cadaques and decided to take a walk.  Santa Maria de Cadaques stands tall above all else in the town, so we decided to take a walk up to the church. 

Santa Maria de Cadaques church

There were several art galleries around town

We had no idea how to get to the church, so we started walking in the general direction through the small intriguing alleyways in town. 

What a wonderful joy to have this time with my daughter!

The Santa Maria de Cadques Church

Jackie looking out over the village of Cadaques

Beautiful alley-ways for an enjoyable walk

Salvador Dali statue on the waterfront

We continued meandering through different alleyways on our way back to the hotel. It was such an enjoyable walk we decided we'd check out another part of Cadaques on our next walk. 

And finally back to the hotel and sitting on the balcony enjoying the view and a glass of wine.

For a complete selection of Clyde’s images from Dali’s Spain CLICK HERE