Sunday, June 06, 2010

Mediterranean Walks....The Cami De Ronda

I've done some great walking this year in different areas of the Spanish Mediterranean, so I'm going to group them together into a mini series of posts. We start with a weekend spent in Girona in March. The walking was really just an add-on to our annual calçotada excursion at this time of year, although this time the destination was not Tarragona. On the first day we did part of the Cami de Ronda, a coastal path that was created originally for control of the coast by the Guardia Civil.

The section we did, between the beach at Castell and Calella de Palafrugell, is beautiful. At times you walk along the beaches, at other times along the cliffs. Although the Costa Brava has something of a reputation for having been badly hit by ugly tourist developments, there are sections that are really quite well preserved in comparison with other parts of Spain's coastline. Even the part of the route that passes through built up areas is still an enjoyable walk. We stopped in Calella for lunch on the beach, it wasn't hot but it was warm enough. You have to bear in mind that this was just 36 hours before the great snowstorm that hit Girona and later Barcelona.





On the way back to our starting point we stopped off at the Barraca d'en Dalí, a hut used by the painter. Of course, this being Dalí, you wouldn't expect everything about the building to be completely normal.



After the walk we also stopped off briefly in the beautiful village of Pals, with views all the way to the Pyrenees, and to the coast.


Having overdone it with the calçots on the first night we needed to do a walk on day 2 that would create an appetite for the paella that would then in turn be justified by the exertion of the walk; if you see what I mean. The circular route starts in the centre of Tossa de Mar and ascends up to the peak of Puig de Cadiretes. Although it's quite a climb the route is very easy, because it follows dirt forest tracks and only the last part to the peak is a narrower path. This makes it quite possible to do in a morning, arriving back in Tossa conveniently enough for lunch.

No photos of the route itself, it wasn't a very clear day although there were still no signs of what was to come that night; it was far from cold. The views from the top of the peak are impressive. Tossa itself has a well preserved old quarter just above the beach as well as plenty of places to eat.



Two maps, one for each route, as Google Maps seems to have changed its behaviour by slicing routes up into segments and paging the results. Maybe I will find a way around this but for the moment each route gets displayed separately.

View Mediterranean Walks in Spain in a larger map


View Mediterranean Walks in Spain in a larger map

4 comments:

Lee said...

There's a village near Girona capital called Monells, which is tiny and lovely. (I didn't get to see much of it,since I was working on an intensive English course in the local hotel, but I think it's worth a look next time you're up there.)

Jan said...

They both look to be quite long walks. We don't know this part of the coast at all, but it looks beautiful.

Graeme said...

@Lee

Thanks for the recommendation, we'll probably return to Girona next year.


@Jan

The coastal walk s quite long if you do it all there and back, but you always have the option with these walks of just doing part of it and then turning back.

Anonymous said...

Monells, Pals & Peratallada aswell as old Tossa quarter deserves to be visited.