November 1st and the season has officially been switched off. I’m not sure which prestigious individual has the honour of declaring the beginning and end of a season. They certainly didn’t consult the weather forecast, because the sky is clear and the temperature is the warm 12c of a Scottish summer. Perfect hiking weather. Sadly, the hotel on a hill where I stayed pushed back their breakfast time to a very unfriendly 8.30am, meaning I wouldn’t be underway until well after 9am. I begrudgingly set off around 7am. The hilltop position which I had huffed and puffed over yesterday was unsurprisingly more pleasant in the morning. A quick stop off at the village shop for supplies and we followed the signposts out of town towards the sea.
Today, I decided to leave the GR221. Just briefly, just for 10km or so. A precursory glance at the route on Komoot showed that the official path was some distance from the coast. The path rises and falls with unnecessary elevation gain without the pleasure of bagging any peaks.
Instead, I followed footpaths along some small agricultural properties, greeted the coast and turned the path continuing east.
It was definitely the right choice. The path followed the coast. It hugged the coast. At moments, the path seemingly slipped off the edge of the cliff and went directly into the sea. As close to nature as one can be.
For the first few kilometres, when you peered down off the path, there were the occasional cave, some gated. I like to think of the pirates or smugglers who may have used these caves hundreds of years ago.
As we are no longer on the GR221, there are no more GR221 signposts. There are occasional wooden signs to “Bens d’Avall (Soller) which I followed. Often there were no signs and no markings, so I simply followed the path (or the place where I thought a path should be) and kept the coast visible to my left.
Eventually the path leads down to a few houses – the location of the Bens d’Avall restaurant. Then following the road steeply up, you have here the option to rejoin the GR221 by turning right and walking directly to Soller, or following the coast and walking via Port de Soller (this path would also take you to the Rifugi Muleta).
The coastal path to Port de Soller was exhilarating. It felt like an obstacle course, with rocks and boulders to navigate around or climb over. There were purple blazes on the rocks that gave me some kind of indication of a direction (along with a few nervous checks of the GPS).
The few kms here took longer than expected, but in a fun goat-hopping-over-the-rocks kind of way. I also saw many Mallorcan goats in this area. The rock hopping lasted for an hour or so and eventually I found a semblance of a path, leading round to the lighthouse (and sadly, to masses of people).
After the lighthouse, you are back on a road with stunning views over the Port. I followed the road into the town, and followed my rumbling stomach straight to an Indian restaurant. I’ve never been bothered by an empty restaurant because after sitting down, the restaurant is no longer empty, and other people then feel brave enough to also eat there! By the time I left, 5 other tables outside were occupied.
A few poppadoms, pakoras and a paneer curry later, I was ready to continue, aided by my dear friends, the wooden GR221 signposts. The last few kms here were light work and distanced enough from the road that you can enjoy the views.
Komoot GR221 Day 4 Deia to Soller
I always use Komoot to navigate whilst hiking (with a premium account for offline maps). You can check out my actual route here:
https://www.komoot.com/tour/1400635129