GR221 Mallorca's Long Distance Walking Route [Paperback]

 

 

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I've become a bit of a fan of this series. Clear descriptions, plenty of background details, good maps, and no fudging the problems that remain around the route make this the book to buy if you're doing the Ruta de Pedra en Sec. It gave us enough confidence that we even bivvied out for a night, a first for us. A great adventure made possible by a great book. It's an amusing read in places too. Thoroughly recommend it. The refuges in Mallorca are wonderful, too. We also had the Triangle Postals book, but (apart from the pictures) there is no comparison.

The GR221 is a long route taking in the magnificent peaks of Mallorca. If you are really keen you can do the whole route in one go but for lesser souls (like me) you can use the guide to do day walks. I did a few of the route segments this way and feel inspired now to try and do the whole route on my next visit to Mallorca.

The book is clear, well-written and even amusing in parts. The maps are great - really clear. All in all, you feel confident in finding the right paths with the accuracy of the text and the maps. Walkers who want a bit more of a challenge on Mallorca should not miss this great book.

The book is excellent, but if you have time to read my comments below it will help to put your use of the book into perspective - there are reasons why the entire route is not yet properly connected, and reasons why you may have difficulty getting information about the parts of the route which may give you problems.

The book is engagingly written but (and this is no criticism of the author) the tourist authorities in Mallorca are extremely poor at their job, and terribly slow at doing anything that may help visitors. Tourism locally is divided into sections, so if for instance you go into the Soller tourist office wanting information on something near the Andratx office, or the Calvia office, they don't want to know you and they have no information. Central reliable data is sparse. Despite over 75% of the island's wealth coming directly from tourism, in many parts the influx of visitors seems to be resented and they only want high-value tourists who pay lots of money for highly-priced hotels and meals. This doesn't easily square with the unemployment rate on the island, well over 20% (March 2011). There is also a serious political problem on the island where in many parts, only their version of Catalan is considered "proper", ( a bit like the fundamental attitudes that once existed, with reason I may say, in parts of Wales) and although 80% of the island are incomers who speak the wider-spread Castillian Spanish, the locals in official positions will often resent it. As an example, surgeons in hospitals who could not pass an exam in Mallourquin were told they should go back to the mainland! If you speak only English, French, German etc. as a tourist then your job becomes even harder because accessing information in your own language is either impossible or difficult. The island is crying out for one single easy to use up-to-date comprehensive website in a choice of languages - especially for walkers and mountain lovers - but so far there is only a mish-mash of inadequate ones.
I need to add that if you just visit villages to join in fiestas and events, then the local people have always been extremely welcoming to me and my family - you only get problems when you need to access those in authority, some of them, but not all, seem to resent outsiders.

The tourist people to whom I spoke on the phone when booking accommodation for part of this walk mostly had no English and I had to wait for several days before the English speaker came back from holiday for me to talk to her and then request a booking at a mountain refuge. Even then, paying them in advance was a nightmare, I had to visit a bank on the island to send the Consell de Mallorca a bank draft to pay in advance. The process took a week and I could not have done it from the UK. The author says this has been simplified and may now be achieved online so I'd like to hear from someone who has successfully done this.
If you do plan a night in one of the refuges that are up and running I can tell you they are excellent places at reasonable cost and with good food and service. They have a ban on taking alcohol, but bags are not searched and they do sell it at reasonable cost at each establishment. The idea that a refuge is just a stone shack can be dispelled, they all have at least some decent bunk beds, and some have privately-bookable rooms. They all have good kitchens, and some are in areas of astounding beauty. Be aware that local groups of students/schoolchildren/voluntary organisations seem to get priority on bookings, and at weekends or main holidays a lot of the places get booked out well in advance, so you MUST book ahead. Having said that, you can also be a walk-up and get in without booking, or just drop in for a coffee or quick meal, just don't try it at local holiday time!

It should be a simple matter of setting off with this book, with the confidence that a walk is well-marked and that the mountain accommodation at the end of each day is booked and sorted easily through the proper channels. The truth is that you need to be wary, and Charles Davis is honest about the many sections of the whole walk that do not properly connect, and also about the fact that many of the refuges are not yet finished - so being able to do the whole thing over, say, 7 or 8 connected days is just pie in the sky. The authorities putting this walk together do have some serious problems with landowners - the right to roam does not exist in Mallorca in the way it does in parts of the UK. Delicate negotiations are taking place to try to get agreed routes established.
If the book is used to do the sections of the walk that are well-marked and which connect to easily-bookable refuges, then it will help you a great deal, it's lovely scenery with great history, however most tourists will not have the insight or enthusiasm of the author for tackling or finding the alternatives to fill the gaps in the walk that are not yet finished. I'm sure he'd tell you that you could by using his book but I felt that in parts he rather glossed over those difficulties!

This book will serve you well for the sections of route that are already up to scratch, I've done those sections before getting this book and can vouch for the fact that having the book would have made them even better.
You will see if you get a reasonably good map of the island that several of the refuges (hostals, really, in quality) have an approach where a car can get you part of the way, so we were able to get my 83-year-old aunt up to one with only a 2 or 3 hours walk, and it was a most enjoyable experience. In fact, the one in the old lighthouse overlooking the port of Soller can be driven to, it even has a small car park.

Be aware that in height of summer, only a lunatic would do anything more than a short mountain walk before collapsing with heat-stroke, and be aware too that safe drinking water is not often found up in the mountains away from the refuges. If you use the information in this book to plan your time of visit, and also for its list of available facilities, you'll do well.

Let's hope the authorities pull their fingers out and join the various sections of the walk together as soon as possible. The scenery is stunning, it's well worth the planning, and this book will be a great help. Steve Riches, Northampton, UK.

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