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Pirinexus is a circular cycle route in Catalonia, with a brief excursion into France. Much of the route follows old rail lines - now gravel covered - or quiet lanes. We booked to do the route in June 2020, but COVID intervened and our plans were cancelled.
In June 2023 we tried again. As it's a circular route you can start anywhere - we chose to begin and end in Girona. Girona is readily accessible and a two day stay allowed us to both explore the city and to test out our Cycling Rentals' hire bikes.
Pirinexus make available a 100 page Guide to the route together with an overview map. The Guide contains detailed mapping of the route and much information about sights and places en-route. We rode the route clockwise and made some modifications to visit Figueres and Cadaques (to see some Salvador Dali sights) and some interesting parts of the Costa Brava.
Girona is a city buzzing with cyclists. Many locals use bikes or scooters for transport. A number of professional racing teams are based there as well as companies offering bike tours and bike hire. The city's modest size and its riverside location also allows easy escape into the surrounding countryside.
From Girona the trail follows the route of an old rail line along the shaded wooded banks of the River Ter north-west towards Olot.
The Ter arises in a glacial cirque 2,400 metres up in the Eastern Pyrenees and reaches the Mediterranean near Torroella de Montgri (which we will pass through later).
Just outside Bescano the trail passes an old hydro-electric plant which is guarded by monsters.
We soon began to become adept at spotting the green and blue signs showing the route ... and distances to nearby towns.
Olot is at the centre of the volcanic zone of 'la Garrotxa' ('Zona Volcanica de la Garrotxa' ).
Numerous small conical hills dot the countryside ... and the town of Olot itself contains three or four extinct volcanos. One of these is sited next to the abandoned bull ring in the centre of town (bullfighting was banned in Catalonia in 2010).
Part of this particular volcano has been made into a fascinating underground interactive museum called the Espai Cràter.
We spent two nights in Olot which gave us the opportunity to explore the volcanic scenery surrounding the town.
We first cycled towards Sant Joan les Fonts and visited the Cingles de Fontfreda. This involved following a footpath alongside the Riera de Bianya and crossing two sets of stepping stones. We were rewarded by seeing a cliff constructed of vertical hexagonal basalt columns nearly 30 m high overlooking the stream.
Cycling on into St Joan Baptista we crossed the Pont Medieval over the Riu Fluvià on our way towards Castellfollit de la Roca.
Castellfollit de la Roca is a village perched precariously on a narrow basalt ridge over 50 metres high.
The rock is the remains of a larva flow which has been sculpted over hundreds of thousands of years by the Fluvià and Toronell rivers.
Houses and buildings face outwards from both sides of the ridge and a narrow street winds down the middle.
After Olot the route returns to quiet tarmac roads and begins the climb towards the Pyrenees, almost immediately a 7% climb over a distance of 8 km leads to the 1,060 metre Col de Sentigosa. Along with the off-route climb into and out of Cadaques this was one of the longest sustained climbs on our trip.
After the Col there is a welcome drop down into Sant Joan de les Abadessess.
However outside Sant Joan we got lost!
We followed the Pirinexus route out along the northern bank of the Riu Ter, only to find that at La Batilla the trail had been blocked.
Rather than going back we diverted onto a footpath, crossed an impressive, and very wobbly, suspension bridge and managed to find our way onto the N-260. Here we found a brand new cycle path heading in the right direction, and followed it to rejoin the official route near Sant Pau de Segúries.
Later we arrived in Camprodon, our next stop, to be greeted by its iconic arched bridge.
Side arches on the bridge were decorated with the yellow twisted ribbons of Free Catalonia. These ribbons signify support for the politicians who organised the Catalan Independence Referendum in 2017, and who were subsequently jailed. These ribbons, and the yellow, red and blue independence flags, were on display all over Catalonia.
After leaving Camprodon more climbing was in store, this time leading to the Col d'Ares at 1,513 meters and also the border with France.
This area of the Lower Pyrenees had a devastating time during the Civil War when thousands of Catalan refugees from Franco's attacks attempted to cross the Pyrenees in Winter and seek refuge in France.
Tragically, in 1939, France declared these refugees to be 'foreign undesirables' and over 85,000 were interned.
The 500 metre climb to the Col was fortunately somewhat less steep than the earlier climb to Camprodon, and as we climbed higher views opened up to the higher peaks and, eventually near the top, down into France.
Once over the top we could look forward to over 40 km of descent into Ceret! ...
... although in the distance we could see storm clouds brewing.
As we passed through Arles-sur-Tech, some 12 km from Ceret, the heavens opened. We donned our waterproofs and somewhat hopefully hid under a large tree, but within seconds the deluge had penetrated the foliage and we were getting soaked.
A minute or two later two girls ran up to us and said that their mother had seen us and wanted us to come into her house to dry out. We didn't need a second invitation and were supplied with warm towels to dry ourselves off.
We were really grateful for their kindness.
After a wet evening in Ceret it was a relief to wake to bright sunshine.
It turned out to be market day, and we strolled through the stalls ... conscious that we had rather limited capacity for spontaneous purchases.
In the day ahead we would be straying from the official Pirinexus route to visit Figueres.
Our route took us back over the Pyrenees (now much reduced in height as they approach the Mediterranean coast).
The mountain roads were very remote and quiet and we only met a few walkers and a couple of cyclists. As we got lower we saw numerous cork oaks alongside the road.
Our last town in France was Le Perthus and the border itself was approached by a short section of dual-carriageway. There appeared to be enhanced security checks and cars were queued from the border back into town. This didn't seem to affect cyclists and we were able to sail past them and then join a dirt track onto la Jonquera.
Soon we had descended onto the plain and rode past vineyards.
Our destination today was Figueres.
Salvador Dali was born in Figueres and he spent the last five years of his life there. A theatre, which had been burnt down during the Civil War, was converted into a museum celebrating his life and work.
The museum is full of many of his iconic works as are the surrounding squares and alleyways.
After having spent five days travelling on quiet roads and through small villages and towns arriving in Figueres, full of loads of visitors, was something of a shock.
From Figueres to Cadaques is only 40 km. The first 25 km are relatively flat, but then you have to climb 400 metres over the Parc Natural del Cap de Creus.
Unfortunately there is only one road over ... which we found that on a Sunday is very busy.
At the top we had views back over the Golf de Roses and the resort of Roses itself.
After descending into Cadaques we were greeted by an imposing statue of Dali and the whitewashed houses surrounding the bay.
Dali lived and worked in Portlligat for over 50 years - it's just a short walk around the bay. His house, now a museum, is adorned with his trade-mark white eggs.
The village has many narrow alleyways running away from the beach. These are wonderfully cool to explore in the summer heat.
For the next few days we followed the Costa Brava coastline southwards. First we had to climb back out of Cadaques, and descend into the beachside resort of Roses.
Beyond Roses we passed through Empuriabrava - a massive marina complex with houses backing onto canals. We left this over a high scaffolding bridge over la Muga to then cross the wetlands of the Parc Natural dels Aigüamolis de l'Empordà. Developers had planned to extend the marina complex over the Parc - but local opposition has so far prevented this.
Lots of cyclists were attracted to the Parc, but the complex of lanes coupled with high vegetation seemed to cause many of them navigation difficulties.
After the Parc we returned to the coast and visited the archaeological site at Empúries.
Empúries was an ancient Greek port founded in 575 BC. After flourishing for a few Centuries the port declined and the site was taken over by the Romans.
The site had been known about since the 15th C but systematic excavation only started at the beginning of the 20th C. Even now only around 20% of the Roman site has been excavated.
After exploring the site (which was much hotter than cycling) we pedalled onto our overnight stop in L'Escala.
Both at L'Escala and at the previous beaches we were surprised at how few people were around in mid June.
From l'Escala we headed inland to Torrella de Montgri and then returned to the coast at Sa Riera.
After that we climbed up towards our overnight stop in Begur.
On the way up we could look back over our shoulders to the Illes Medes off-shore of l'Estratit.
The hill on which Begur stands is topped by a now ruined castle, and the town also contains numerous stone towers.
We decided to spend two nights in Begur which, as well as exploring the town, gave us a chance to walk some of the coastline.
In the summer a bus service runs from Begur to nearby beaches, so we were able to catch a bus down to Aiguablava, walk along the coast to Fornells, and catch a bus back.
The last coastal stretch took us from Begur to Sant Feliu de Guixols.
From Begur we chose to follow some very quiet minor roads rather than the official Pirinexus route which stuck to gravel tracks. At one point this allowed us to overtake around one hundred school children who seemed to be on an end of term adventure.
We reached the coast again at Palamos, formerly a large fishing town but now with the old traditional boats on the beach as a tourist attraction.
We glimpsed more spectacular coastal scenery ahead of the busier beaches of Calogne and St Agaro before reaching our overnight stop at St Feliu.
Our final day took us back to our starting point, Girona.
Much of the route follows an old railway line, and at regular intervals we came across old station buildings, some in disrepair but most converted to new uses.
At Llagostera we climbed up to the Totte de la Muralia which commands views in all directions over the countryside.
After climbing the tower we descended to the Plaça Catalunya to find El Casino which is now a community centre which also sells refreshments.
After Llagostera the route took us on a gravel track all the way back to the outskirts of Girona.
Over ten days of cycling around Catalonia we had been exposed to an amazing range of scenery -
mountains, rocky and sandy coastlines, cultivated plains, and volcanic peaks ...
... and a wide range of trails - sandy and muddy tracks, quiet lanes, cycle tracks and the odd main road.
The people we met in hotels, cafes and on the trail were invariably friendly and we would recommend a tour along the Pirinexus trail to all cycle tourists.
When planning this trip we debated whether to use our own touring bikes, or to hire bikes locally.
We had previously hired bikes from Cycling Rentals who will deliver and collect bikes from anywhere in Spain or Portugal. On one trip four of us had cycled over two weeks from Sintra to Porto on our own route, and on another we'd done Cycling Rentals' circular tour around the Alentejo. We decided to go down the hire option rather than transport our own bikes by plane and train.
