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I have captured these photographs for Las Fotos de los Lectores de La Vanguardia in the Font de la Tosca, in Vallfogona, Ripollès region. Water for the river Ter at a time when it is needed to fight the drought.
La Tosca del Pinetar, Cova dels Encantats or de les Encantades is a rock formation several tens of meters thick that has been formed from the slow and continuous deposition, over the centuries, of calcium carbonate dissolved in the water of the Font de la Tosca.
Coarse stone or travertine is a type of limestone rock, very porous and not very dense, caused by the precipitation of calcium carbonate in the surroundings of springs and lakes.
As with the stalactites and stalagmites inside a cave, the rock is formed when water slowly circulates and evaporates, crystallizing the carbonate that it has dissolved, in the form of calcite or aragonite.
Often the precipitation of these minerals is done on the remains of grasses and moss that live on the same rock and the rock traps the plant remains and takes the forms of stems and leaves.
This is a legendary landscape, like the one that explains the story of Les Encantades, who have their hideouts in La Tosca and can be heard singing, laughing and washing clothes late at night.
