Mallorca GR221 Ruta de Pedra en Sec Trail Report
Ruta de Pedra en Sec GR221 Mallorca 28th September – 6th October, 2009 Discovery Walking Guides by Charles Davis
Day 1 As our
aeroplane landed at Palma airport in torrential rain, our
hearts sank: nine wet days and no mountains, as the clouds were nearly down to
sea level! We took a taxi to the city centre, grabbed what turned out to be a
Spanish omelet in a sandwich with a couple of glasses of local white wine and
magically, the rain stopped. Apart from a few nocturnal downpours and a
threatening drop or two on Day 3, that was the last of the rain and every day
the sky seemed to become bluer and the mountains higher and more rugged.
Bus and taxi to Sant Elm, a first class fish dinner at the Caragola restaurant
and we were all set for what was to turn out to be the hardest trek that we have
done for a long time!
Day 2 The climb up to la
Trapa immediately showed up the difference in our normal climbing pace and that
of Charles Davis. Our understanding of his difficulty ratings was also very
different! So, having left Sant Elm at 10.00, we arrived at S’Arraco in
mid-afternoon and definitely rated the walk a “4” and not a “3”. First day’s
walking is always tough and the last couple of kilometers gave Carol a tender
shoulder and I picked up a bruised instep. Six days later by the end of the
trek, we were in agreement with CD’s ratings but still not with his timings!
Accommodation at the Hotel Escaleta was excellent, with a very warm welcome from
Suzanne (and Mum): the history of her struggle to succeed as an English lady,
with plans to restore an old house in a tiny Mallorcian village and turn it into
a hotel is an amazing tale of duplicity, disappointment and determination!
Day 3 Dodging the rain,
we took a taxi to Es Capdella and set off up the long valley with thunder clouds
and the occasional flash of lightning chasing us up to the apparently
“impassable wall of rock” (page 42). Having lunched at the “TPTR” (page 43) we
found the instructions to Wp16 confusing as the cairns wind all over the place.
It would have been easier to simply have a compass bearing to the Big Game
Hunting sign, from Wp 14.
We never saw any hint of Big Game, unless the sign is referring to the almost
tame “wild” goats and the slightly less tame sheep. On Day 4, we saw a couple
of men in camouflage trousers and heard a lot of gun shots echoing round the
mountain walls – let’s hope they earnt their supper!
Accommodation in Estellencs at the very luxurious Hotel Maristel with a sauna
and massage in the swimming pool was just what we needed after 2 hard days.
Dinner of “Sobrasada” and suckling pig at the Restaurant Montimar was to die
for.
Day 4 Feeling a bit
bruised and concerned that the relationship between our timings and those of
CD’s was not improving, we took a bus from Estellencs to Esporles and set off
for Valldemossa. Though the walk was not nearly as hard as the previous two
days, nonetheless it took us 4.5 hours against CD’s 2.75. We noticed that Wp 17
is now marked with a cairn.
Accommodation at Es Petit Hotel was excellent, with a very warm welcome and a
wonderful view down the valley, from this beautifully restored old town house.
Days 5 & 6 We voted Day 5 the best
walk so far, possibly because we were met, in Deià, by some friends who took us
to their villa at Son Beltron! The long walk up to the Archduke’s path, with
the magnificent views on both sides is breath-taking and we picnicked at the
top, overlooking the Port de Sóller, as wispy clouds began to gather below us in
the valley.
In the morning, our packs were ferried to Sóller as we walked, light of back,
the short route to the town and spent the afternoon sightseeing there and
enjoying the old tram ride to and from the port.
We had started the trek with packs of 5 kilos and 8 kilos, including water but
not including the slabs of wonderfully oiled lunch bread, which must have added
half a kilo to each of our packs! However, at Deià, we left some cold weather
clothes and most of the “technical department” (camera and phone chargers,
surplus batteries for Garmin, spare specs, spare compass, etc) with our friends,
to be retrieved at the end of the walk.
Accommodation at Hotel Villa Tony, in the centre of the town was comfortable and
engagingly old fashioned but beware the very poor breakfast and even worse
picnic lunch – better to find a café! The two restaurants “Cipriani” (father
and son) are superb: black squid ravioli followed by cod with garlic mayonnaise
is a must.
Day 7 Still feeling a bit
lazy and very apprehensive about the 2,000 steps facing us, we took a taxi to
Biniaraix. At 8€, this is a very good investment! In fact, because we started
early in the morning, the path was in shadow the whole way up and the steady
climb was not hard with magnificent, changing views opening up behind us after
every few steps. Sunday lunch at Cúber was heaving with tourists, the walk
along the aqueduct was plagued with mosquitoes (as we discovered the next day)
and the long haul down to Tossals Verds resulted in my bruised instep returning
and Carol taking a small tumble which left a bruise on her thigh that eventually
turned into a wonderful rainbow. We took the less demanding route and were
rewarded with a couple of San Miguels on arrival.
Though the Refugi was swarming with Sunday walkers when we arrived, it turned
out that we were the only ones staying the night. We were spoilt with a
magnificent four course meal of typical Mallorcian food, a bottle of strong red
wine for 6€ and the double room, ensuite.
Day 8 We were the only
people in the world as we picnicked at the top of the Coll des Prat, with the
last really magnificent views on both sides that we were to see on this very
lovely trek. Until we were rudely reminded that Mallorca is really only Berlin
in the Sun: a couple struggled to the top from the opposite direction and
plonked themselves down within 20 meters of us for their boisterous and
sometimes quite amorous picnic! The Teutonic influence was felt again when,
just before the right turn at the Coll des Telégraf, we were accosted by a very
fat and sweating gentleman, who informed us in a guttural accent that the sign
post was incorrect and that the time to Lluc from the Coll was 2 hours 10
minutes not 1 hour 10 minutes! It turned out to be 1 hour 15 minutes for us.
Someone (perhaps our guttural gentleman) has nailed a sheep’s or goat’s skull to
the sign post – very scary.
We found the Sanctuaria de Lluc to be a very quiet and peaceful oasis and
although there was no sign of any monks, we were lucky enough to hear the
children’s choir sing in the amazingly ornate Basilica with its hidden black BVM.
A panel opened high above the altar revealing the statue and then closed when
the choir had stopped singing: and where did all that black marble come from –
Italy or Spain? There is also a lovely hidden garden walk with strange
sculptures made from anything and everything – very refreshing for tired
trekkers.
Day 9 The walk started
with a small altercation between the two members of the team, as to which car
park we were in! However, the problem was soon sorted out by Garmin and we put
the disagreement down to a few too many 14% vino tintos the night before.
To our surprise, we came across a large work force, chipping and bashing rocks
along the path through the woods after Wp 4. After such a very beautiful and
unspoilt trek, the spectre of the dead hand of the dreaded Health and Safety
manifested itself, with the worrying thought that the whole of the GR 221 would
become a smooth path of crushed rock and the Archduke would have realised his
ambition. Whilst from Day 5 onwards the route is extraordinarily spectacular,
we loved the wildness and the informality of the first few days and would very
much regret the route being “touristised” to the extent of the northern section.
Despite the very long, very hot and very tiring last few kilometers slog into
Pollença, the memory of the final route down off the mountains is very
beautiful. Towards the end, our spirits were revived when we met what must have
been the whole of the Mallorcian army, heavily armed and with enormous packs,
sweating their way up the track. At Wp 31 someone has stolen the ladder so it’s
wet boots as you clamber down into a large, muddy puddle caused by the
inadequate plumbing of a wayward pipe which runs along the side of the bridge.
And for the last night of the trek, you could not find a more fitting finalé than the view from a room in the Posada de Lluc hotel, looking over the swimming pool and the banana trees, towards the chapel high up on Puig de Maria.
We flew out of Palma with fantastic memories of dense blue skies, rugged soaring peaks, tiers of tiny terraces, ancient stone edifices under cool, blue/green oaks and the knowledge that our boots need replacing or resoling before our next trek, in Turkey, in 2010.
Chris and Carol Sealy www.manoir-de-mongrenier Brittany October, 2009.