Climb out of Reus on a clear morning and the Serra de la Mussara rises ahead like a wall, a limestone escarpment that holds up the edge of the Prades plateau and drops steeply to the plain of the Camp de Tarragona. The rock shelters along this cliff line, close to the village of Vilaplana, are part of the prehistoric painted landscape of eastern Spain. The best reason to stop, though, is the view: on a good day you look straight down over hazelnut orchards and olive groves to Reus, Tarragona and the sea.
The road up is the T-704 from Vilaplana, and it is a beauty. It climbs in a ladder of tight hairpins and short straights cut into the face of the escarpment, with stone walls and the occasional sheer drop. The surface is mostly good, but the hairpins collect gravel and the weekend brings cyclists and walkers in numbers. At the top the road crosses a high, wooded plateau towards the abandoned village of La Mussara and then on to Prades or down towards Mont-ral and Capafonts, with excellent tarmac and very little traffic midweek.
La Mussara itself is a ruin now, a church and a handful of broken houses on the edge of the cliff. It was abandoned during the twentieth century, and the combination of the empty buildings and the fog that often swallows the plateau has fed a whole industry of ghost stories and tales of people losing their way, some of which you will hear repeated in local bars with a straight face. In reality it is a peaceful, windswept place with remarkable views, and walkers use it as a starting point for routes along the cliff edge.
The plain below is famous for hazelnuts; the Reus area grows a protected variety, and you will see orchards everywhere around Vilaplana and Alforja. Reus is also the birthplace of Antoni Gaudí, and the town has a small centre dedicated to his work.
Vilaplana is a small village with a bar or two, but fuel means dropping back to Reus or the larger towns on the plain. Carry a layer even in summer; the plateau is several hundred metres higher than the coast and the temperature drops noticeably, and fog can roll in quickly in spring and autumn, turning a pleasant ride into a careful crawl.