Tag: walking

I’ve started doing long-distance walkings, to prepare for summer’s St. James Way (Camino De Santiago). I got approved 3 weeks holiday from work so will try to do the entire French route in 3 weeks. That would be around 40-50 km per day (depending on which source doc you follow). Not an easy task, but not impossible either.

So this route was planned as a long (until Barcelona, ~80km in total) and steady one, with a small deviation around Garraf National Park.

Since planned things do not always match the real life, the small deviation turned out to be the turning point. Nothing really hard in the Garraf, but it was a super sunny day and there is no water up in the hills, so I got very tired there.

Looking at the route from the beginning, it’s a very easy one until Cubelles (km 15). Asphalt near the beach, nothing else. By the way, this also means that, depending on the season, public toilets may be closed, so you’ll need to use bars/restaurants if you need to pee, for example.

After km 15, the asphalt ends and you have 2 choices here: go straight through sand or use the public road, as I did. PLEASE go through the sand! One, it is a little shorter and two, the public road is not at all safety! It is very stretchy; there are lots of cars and there are places where you have 5-10 cm between the road and the stone wall, so nowhere to get safe if needed, and the cars don’t bother to slow down or try to avoid you…

Once you pass this area and until km 21 in Vilanova y la Geltru, all is fine, nice-easy asphalt beach road. Afterwards, there is a half-km of beach walk through sand and then a trail-like road (low to medium complexity) parallel with the train lines. CAUTIOUS here, you go through this road on your own safety, there is a state sign telling you this just when you try to exit from Vilanova y la Geltru, before the Far de Sant Cristofol.

Anyway, this trail with rocks, and some ups and downs, is nice and there are beautiful views of the calas.

After this trail you’ll enter Sitges, with its long and nice beach road. In the center of the city your nice-easy walk ends 🙂 Since Sitges does not communicate with Garraf through a beach road, you need to enter the Garraf National Park to reach Garraf city. This is where things get interesting. Depending on the season, refill your bottles with water or buy more bottles, because from here on you go up first through city (nice views, by the way) and then through the national park. For the next 15 or so km there is no source of water. There were 2-3 houses but I don’t know if these are private or not. Anyway, here you will spend 2-3-4 or more hours, depending on your physical condition. You have to climb 2 times to 200+ meters. Does not seem much but the rocks and terrain does not make it an easy task. The first climb is entirely filled with rocks, both the up and down part. The second one goes up using an asphalt road but goes down with using rocky terrain and steeper slope. Again, no water until you reach Garraf and there are plenty of direct sunlight here, so plan accordingly.

From Garraf to Castelldefels it’s all piece of cake compared to the past hours 🙂. I stopped in Castelldefels because I was tired; the lack of water and the heat beat me this time.

Anyway, from Castelldefels to Barcelona you have to pass through many industrial zones to avoid the airport, so nothing interesting. I don’t think I will do this part any time soon.

To summarize quickly: make sure you have enough water during crossing Garraf National Park. Lastly, but not least important, use Vaseline, going through plain asphalt is not an easy task for your feet.

P.S.: if you have knee issues, think twice before doing this route.

• Distance: 50 km
• Moving time: 8:55
• Elapsed time: 9:37
• Avg moving speed: 5.6 km/h
• Total ascent: 839 m
• Total descent: 851 m
• Min elevation: 1 m
• Max elevation: 295 m
• With: Alone
• Track: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/10443490232