I started this trip in Port la
Nouvelle station. I took the train there to Cerbère, close to the Spanish
border, where I started my bike ride. The coast road from Cerbère is of course
very nice. I followed it up to Llança where I had to leave seaside to head
towards Coll de Bracons. I then had about 20 km of highway, going through
Figueres, until I took a small road in the countryside that led me to Banyoles
and its nice lake, then the small pass of Colitza.
I found again the main road at
the south of Olot for a few kilometers, before leaving it again to take the coll
de Bracons road. The pass can be seen from far away, but it’s a steep way to
reach it. At the end of the descent, I found a train (trains are numerous and
cheap around Barcelona) to save me a bit of main road from Torelló to Balenyà,
where I started the climb to coll de Formic. It was a gentle ascent from this side.
On the other side it did look neither steep, even if it’s of course longer.
While I was climbing, I was
considering all the options for the remaining BIGs in my program: Turo de
l’Home, Montserrat and the six in Mallorca. I finally concluded that the best
solution, that would make me finish sooner my trip, was to go to Mallorca this
very night. So I left Turo de l’Home for later, even if I was very close to it,
and went instead to Barcelona, by train from Sant Celoni station, to take the
boat to Mallorca.
At this time of the year,
there’s one boat a day, leaving late in the evening and arriving early in the
morning, which is a good schedule as you spend the night in the boat. There are
two companies crossing to Mallorca, with approximately the same schedule. I
took Balearia because it was the first office I saw on the harbor, but I think both
offer quite the same services. The boats are similar, more intended for the
crossing of lorries but with a small space for passengers and cars (and bikes).
In the boat I saw a post indicating the fare for a cabin was 150 €. I didn’t
ask confirmation of this price (that seemed very expensive), as my Spanish is
so poor, so I slept on two seats in the Pullman room, where I had a not so bad
night.
As I
woke up, I suddenly realized that, despite I spent hours at home preparing my
trip and building the GPS tracks, I finally left without anything about
Mallorca: nor the tracks saved in my GPS, nor any map of the island. I felt
destroyed when leaving the boat. I bought the first map I found, but felt that
with only the indications from my memory, it would be almost impossible not to
miss some BIG of the island. I asked for an internet point at every bar I saw
on the coast road west of Palma but didn’t find any. Finally I called my fellow
bigger Pascal who pointed me on the phone all the BIGs of the island, allowing
me to continue my trip. I owe him an eternal gratitude for that.
The climb to the first BIG,
Galilea, was an easy one. On the way down, I had to choose in Puigpunyent which
way to reach the next BIG, coll de Soller. Passing by Esporles may have been
nicer, but with my earlier wanderings, I thought I had to catch up on my
supposed schedule, so I headed directly towards the Soller main road. In Son
Sardina I turned left on a parallel small road that was nice and narrow, but turned
into a dirt road, going through farms. My map showed it as a real road to the
end, but I would have better done to turn right on Soller road a little
earlier.
The Soller pass is not very
high but with as much hairpins as possible for its elevation, so it was a nice
climb. To reach the next BIG, Monnaber, I took the smaller road through
Fornalutx, but I don’t think it makes much difference from the direct way. I
never saw as many cyclists as in this climb. At this time of the year, racers
from all over Europe go training in Mallorca, so with my luggage and my
touristic pace, I was overtaken by many pelotons. At the beginning of the
descent, the road goes along two nice lakes and the start of the road to Puig
Major, the highest point of Mallorca. Unfortunately (my nose is getting
longer), it’s a military place so the BIG can’t be put up there.
The next BIG, Sa Calobra,
appeared to me as the best one of the island. After leaving the Serra di
Tramuntana road, it begins with a short ascent to Coll des Reis, then a long
and windy descent. The road is full of hairpins and offers very nice views to
the sea. I regretted after not to have tried to go to torrent de Pareis as it
was close and looked like a beautiful place to see. Sa Calobra is a dead-end so
one has to return by the same road. Eventually the road performs a 270° turn,
going over itself, in a place nicknamed la Corbata (the tie) from the shape of
the road. Here the wind was so strong that it nearly put me off the road. I
remembered having been surprised at the beginning of the day not to find wind
in Mallorca, but by the end of the morning the wind installed itself steadily
and didn’t leave me until the end.
After the coll dels Reis
descent, I was back on the road to Inca. After a few kilometers of ups and
downs, I began a nice descent. From Inca to Sineu the road is much frequented,
but when I turned left to Petra I was nearly alone. From Petra to Felanitx, the
road is a bit busier but not too much. On my left, I could see in the dusk the
hill from which the next BIG, monasterio de San Salvador, occupies the top.
Between Felanitx and the foot of the climb, there’s a little stretch of busy
road, but on the road to the monasterio, I was again alone. It was completely dark when I
reached the top so I saw little of this BIG before going down. I then took the
direction of Randa, the foot of the last BIG of Mallorca, monasterio de la
Cura. Randa appeared on the map as a very small village, so I had no hope
finding a place to sleep here. I intended to climb this last BIG, then turn
back to Palma to find a place to finish the night, but felt it was a pity to do
the climb in the dark and then lose the views it could offer. But to my great
pleasure, there was a hotel in Randa, and so a few minutes later I was
delighted to find myself in a nice bed instead of spending the night on my
saddle.
In the
morning, I was happy to have started at daylight, as effectively very nice
views in every direction can be seen when climbing this BIG: Serra de Tramuntana
in the northwest, the east coast on the other side. The climb didn’t take me long,
even with the pictures stops, so I had plenty of time to reach Palma, following
the coast, before taking the boat at about 11 am.
I was back in Barcelona by the
end of the afternoon, and had to go to Plaza de Espanya station to take the
train to Monistrol. I expected the station to be a big building on the place,
but in fact it is located underground. Once I had realized the entrances to the
station were the stairs going down from the place, I found my train easily.
In Monistrol I went to the
hotel Guilheumes, which was nice and where I was left free to leave at any time.
I didn’t want to go too early as I thought I had time to do the last two BIGs,
Montserrat and Turo de l’Home, and be back in Port la Nouvelle by the end of
the day. But I was up before 6am, tried to stay in the room for a while, and
finally went my way in the very dawn, expecting to have daylight when reaching
the top of the climb. But as it was cloudy and the climb not very steep, I arrived
a bit early to enjoy large views from the top (anyway, the clouds would have
hidden me anything). I discovered that this monastery was a very big one,
almost like a little town, with plenty of buildings, and even a hotel. So I
understood why I saw so many vehicles while climbing.
I
had now to go back to Sant Celoni, where I already was three days earlier after
my climb to coll de Formic, to finally climb the Turo de l’Home. The train to
Sant Celoni was leaving from Barcelona Saints station. This station is a very
big one, with trains going in every direction. I didn’t expect this and really
had difficulties to find the good platform.
In Sant Celoni it was raining.
I put my rain clothes on in the station then started my last ascent. Turo de
l’Home is 1700 m high, so it was a strong ascent. The last part of the climb is
on a little road in very bad state in some parts. The degraded sections are
numbered so while climbing it’s possible to know how many are left. I was
finally at the top, where it was very wet and cold, and began the descent just
after the commemorative picture. Back in Sant Celoni station, the trip was
finished, and I just had to wait for the train to Cerbère, then Port la
Nouvelle.
Pictures : http://cathie.charbonnier.free.fr/piwigo/index.php?/category/11
