Hotel Maristel, Estellencs

Link: Hotel Maristel, Estellencs

The Maristel is a pleasant hotel with good facilities. It’s in two parts. The main hotel is on the side of the road further from the coast and rooms at the back have restricted views. Front-facing rooms face the road but would not be particularly noisy. The other part of the hotel on the sea-facing side of the road has no services but the rooms have good views. All the staff we dealt with were friendly and helpful.

As well as a modern lounge and bar there is an indoor and an outdoor pool, a terrace bar by the outdoor pool, and a spa facility. The dining room is on the first floor with a panoramic window. While we were there dinner was a self-service buffet with a good selection of dishes changing daily. The food was generally good though not fexceptional, although the steak I had on our last night was one of the worst main courses I’ve had in a long time! Just bad luck, I think. Self-service breakfasts were good with a wide choice of hot and cold food to appeal to most European cultures.

Sanctuaria de Lluc

Don’t expect a village – there isn’t one. Apart from the religious parts the Sanctuary operates like a large hostel with rooms rather than dormitories. You make your own bed on arrival (bedding and towels provided, shower gel but no soap) and the rooms aren’t serviced during your stay. There’s a large refectory/dining room mostly with large tables for groups, although there are smaller tables for 1 – 4 people. A bar in the refectory serves drinks. There’s a small reception office, a (not very) secure baggage store and an internet room with questionable wifi service for which you have to pay.

Within the boundaries of the Sanctuary there’s a café, a souvenir shop, a cash machine and a small store (opens at 8.00am) selling bread and a small range of mostly pre-packed food, sweets and chocolate and a small selection of fresh fruit along with a few essentials like soap, toothpaste, suncream, etc. Just outside the main entrance is another café with an almost identical offering to the one inside. Apart from a tourist information office which seemed to be mostly closed that’s about it.

Guided or DIY?

I’d originally thought we would do the walk ourselves using the excellent Editorial Alpina maps. I’d contacted Jaume via his website (look for ‘Paths – Guided walks’) and he was very willing to do us a deal whereby he would arrange all the logistics and advise us on the route but not accompany us during the walk. Knowing a little about the access problems I eventually decided to engage Jaume as guide too. This turned out to be well worth the extra cost because his local knowledge of the Mallorcan trails and footpaths is unsurpassed and we avoided any number of potential problems which it would have been very difficult to deal with on our own – not least with our poor Spanish and Mallorquí (no offense, Clive!). The logistics all went very smoothly too, so we never needed to worry about taxis or buses: Jaume took care of it all.

Although the GR221 is an official long-distance trail not all parts of it are well-established or well-marked. As we found on day 2 there are some deviations that have been forced upon the original route as landowners have successfully contested public rights of access. The southern part of the GR as far as Deiá is the worst for route-finding. There were sections here where even with a good map it would be easy to lose the trail. Without a guide I can imagine us losing an hour or more each day simply finding the right path.

Two Million Stones? The terrain

The alternative name for the GR221 is The Dry Stone route. The official line is that this pays tribute to the great number of dry stone walls in the Serra Tramuntana, including the prolific use of stone to build terraces for cultivation (this picture from day 4 is a good example). However, anyone planning to spend a week walking in the area needs to know that underfoot the terrain is hard. There may be times when you’re not walking on hard stony tracks but respite is rare and soft going almost non-existent.

My advice is to make sure your boots or shoes have good padding to absorb the impact stress. I wore an old pair of lightweight trail boots which have done me good service over the years. Even so, after four days my right heel was starting to hurt, and on the last day I had to stop to strap some padding under it. I realised that the footbed (insole) had got so compressed that it was about the thickness and texture of a cardboard cornflakes box! Oddly, the injury got worse after I got home and it took about two weeks before I could put full weight on the heel again. The footbeds have now been replaced with new Sorbothane insoles!

Jaume Tort

Jaume Tort

And finally, what of Jaume himself? He is the man behind the various best-selling Editorial Alpina guidebooks and maps for Mallorca and Menorca – you’ll see his name along with others if you look at the credits. He has a network of collaborators who help him keep the maps up to date and accurate and who spend time, mostly in the winter season, waymarking paths and trails with discreet paint marks. At the end of a day’s walk he would often dash off in his car to resupply one or other outlet with maps and guidebooks.

In October 2013 he was coming to the end of his first season as an independent guide after working for many years for a German holiday company. His client base was still predominantly German (he speaks the language fluently) and I was surprised to learn that we were his first ever English walking group. His English too is good and well up to the job of guiding Brits.

We found him to be kind-hearted and generous, and determined we should have a good time walking the GR221. I suspect he found us a touch more rebellious and independently-minded than the German clients he is used to, but by the end of the week we had trained him well in dealing with us! Just one tip: if on reading this you decide to ask Jaume to guide you on a Mallorcan trip be prepared for an almost uninterrupted discourse on everything Mallorcan, from the government’s tourism policies to the best way to use olive oil in your picnic lunch!

12 October

Stats: ascent 285m; descent 720m; time taken 5h 40′

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For our last day we had a plan to climb another significant peak close to the GR221 – Tomir – but a combination of weariness and low cloud put it in doubt. I was troubled by an increasingly sore right heel and wasn’t keen on the idea of another long stony descent.

It was still slightly misty around Lluc when we set off. Our first target was the refuge of Son Amer about 1km away. This is a modernised building, busy as we walked through the common room on a Jaume short cut!

After the refuge the GR221 climbed steadily to a col then more easily to another, the Coll de Pedregaret. This is the point where the path to the summit of Tomir (1104m) leaves the GR. Although we were in sunshine the summit was in cloud and no-one had any enthusiasm for the climb so we stayed on the main track.

About 7km from Pollença we reached a tarmac road which in turn led to the main road. The final kilometres into Pollença were flat and unremarkable apart from an unofficial detour designed to avoid a kilometer and a half of road walking. This involved scrambling in and out of a (dry) stream bed and some back-tracking where part of the bank had slipped into the river taking the path with it. Jaume explained that the GR221 was intended to follow this line but the bridge which would have made it feasible had never been built. A walk along the main road was the only viable alternative.

A misty Sanctuaria de Lluc

Getting near the end

Through the stony forest

Any excuse for a rest!

GR221 Senderistes

Cliffs at Formentor

Walkers at Formentor

The Refectory at Lluc

Our arrival in Pollença was a bit of an anticlimax. The final GR221 sign was in a dull residential area about a kilometer from the town centre. We took photos then walked through to the main square for celebratory beers. There didn’t seem to be any shops selling “I GR221” t-shirts or other merchandise (entrepreneurs please note!). Nicky was polite to the resident garrulous alcoholic American expat who sat at the next table. Jaume disappeared to collect the people-carrier from where he’d left it in the outskirts of the town.

Missing Tomir meant we had arrived quite early, so Jaume offered to drive us out to Cap de Formentor, the extreme north-east of the island, to see the cliffs and the lighthouse. We readily accepted, and the excursion was well worth it.

Back at Lluc that evening we had a celebratory meal of paella (or in my case pork chops), sharing a bottle of cava generously bought by Jonathan and Nicky. And other drinks too of course. In my official role as capo de grupo I thanked Jaume for guiding us through the week. Although the GR221 is supposed to be a well-established long-distance route it was true to say we wouldn’t have done all that we did in the six days without his help.

11 October

Stats: ascent 680m; descent 930m; time taken 6h 50′

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Mallorca’s highest peak, Puig Major, has military hardware installed on the summit and is not open for public access so aspiring peak-baggers have to be satisfied with climbing the second-highest mountain, Massanella. This lies conveniently close to the GR221 and was our objective for the day. Jonathan and Nicky opted for a rest day – a bus ride into Pollença – so it was four plus Jaume who rode back to the car park at the Cúber reservoir to start where we left off yesterday.

We followed the GR221 faithfully, at first level alongside a man-made concrete water channel then up through forest, over a small col, briefly downhill, then up again heading north-east on a clear track. As we got higher the forest gave way to low shrubs and coarse grass. For the first time this week there were wisps of mist and Massanella’s south-west ridge to our right was hidden in low cloud.

Jaume was looking out for a side track. Having spotted it he explained the plan: the narrow track would take us up onto the south-west ridge which we would cross, then follow a path below the ridge line until finally rejoining the ridge for the final ascent to the south-west summit. From there it was a short almost level walk to the main summit a few hundred metres away. We set off up the hillside, Jaume complaining that the daubs of blue, yellow and white paint on the rocks were unnecessary, unsightly and potentially misleading. Worse still, they’d been done by people outside his circle of unofficial path wardens. He started planning to return in the winter to chip them off.

At this stage our descent route was still undecided. The quickest way would be back down to a point just below the ridge on this side and then a path back to the GR221 near its highest point. The alternative was a long loooping route north-east and then west which came out near Lluc. Above the junction with the shorter path we scrambled up some limestone slabs which were already slippery in the damp mist – too slippery for a safe descent when there was a less risky option. It would be the long route down.

Although the mist persisted on the far side of the ridge the rock was dry and the final scramble to the top was easy enough. We took the obligatory summit photos.

Following the GR221

Approaching the SW summit

Massanella summit

The descent was uneventful but long. We stopped for a late lunch break in the only muddy section of the whole week’s walk. Otherwise the constant stony ground was unrelenting and hard on the feet and knees.

10 October

Stats: ascent 1080m; descent 230m; time taken 5h 50′

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After two days without a mountain summit one was back on the agenda – Puig de l’Ofre, 1093m. To get there we would follow the GR221 along the old pilgrimage route from Sóller to the sanctuary at Lluc. The route predates the Sanctuary: it was built by the Arabs when they occupied Spain and the Balearic Islands and shows their engineering skills. It climbs at a steady gradient and at one stage winds cleverly through a steep narrow gorge in tight zig-zags. It’s a popular tourist route, though more people do it in the other direction after taking the bus or a taxi to the Cúber reservoir, some 800m higher than Sóller.

The cobbled track starts outside Biniaraix, 2km east of Sóller. Each taking our own pace we soon split into two groups, Jonathan, Nicky, Tony G and I in front; Clive, Gerry and Jaume behind. It was another warm, sunny day.

I’d walked this path before in 2001, leading a group for HF Holidays. It was too hot that day and I’d turned the group back after we reached a level stretch above the gorge. Although warm, today was better and our group was stronger!

By midday we’d done almost all of the climb on the old path and it was decision time. Who was going for the summit of L’Ofre and who would give it a miss? The summit party formed – Gerry, Tony G and I with Jaume. The others were given detailed instructions; in summary “follow the track and when you get to a road, stop at the car park”. Jaume suggested they wait at the highest point, a col a short walk away, and wave to us when we reached the summit at 1 o’clock.

We dived off onto a smaller path and followed a Jaume short cut uphill through the forest until we came to a broad track. On the opposite side a narrow cairned path continued uphill: we followed it steeply through scrub and coarse grass and over rocks and ledges until the vegetation abruptly gave way to bare rock and we were within 30m of the summit. A short walk over the limestone outcrop and we were there.

“Wait there! Don’t go to the edge!”, called Jaume. Bemused, we stopped. Jaume explained: it was 12:59 and he wanted us to show ourselves as a group on the skyline at precisely 1 o’clock “because the others will be looking for us”. Rather grudgingly we went along with this, and a few moments later we all stood on the summit looking down at the track in the valley below. And amazingly there was a group of three people, one unmistakeably wearing Nicky’s cream-coloured jacket. We waved. We couldn’t see if they waved back, though they told us later they could see us and they did.

Up the old road to Lluc 1

Up the old road to Lluc 2

Isolated house

No shortage of stones!

View down the gorge to Sóller

Me on the summit of L'Ofre

View from my room at Lluc

Today was the day we changed our base from Estellencs to the Sanctuary at Lluc. One of Jaume’s friends had been given the job of collecting our bags from the hotel and driving them over to Lluc. Jaume called him as we got near the car park, only to find he’d been delayed by some traffic incident and we would be at Lluc about an hour before our bags. We explained the situation to the others who were waiting for us; no-one was too upset, especially as the bus Jaume had hired to take us to the Sanctuary was ready to go. Arriving after dropping the Germans off we checked into our rooms then headed for the nearer of the two cafés for beers while we waited for the bags.

For more information about the Sanctuary see the note in the postscript.

9 October

Stats: ascent 960m; descent 920m; time taken 8h 15′

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We were back in Valdemossa soon after 9.00 the next morning and had time for a short walk round the old part of the town. The place is devoted to their local saint, Santa Catalina Thomas. As well as a modern sculpture in a corner by her shrine, every house in the old town has a decorative tile set in the wall by the front door, asking for the Saint’s prayers.

Santa Catalina Thomas

Pray for us

Valdemossa street

Equally if not even more interesting to us was the baker’s shop. We’d been looking forward to buying some fresh bread as the wholemeal loaves we’d each been given on Sunday were getting very stale and dry. We bought bread and the local speciality pastries, ensaimadas, a sweet, light, flaky whorl sprinkled with icing sugar.

We didn’t stay too long as we had a long way to go. Both stages of our walk today were each a normal day’s hike. Deià was our first objective: we planned to have a break and refreshments in the new ‘mountain’ hut (it’s in a valley less than 100m above sea level).

Leaving the town we headed uphill. By now we were getting used to the rough stony tracks – stones ranging from pebbles to cobbles with a few small rocks and boulders for good measure. We each automatically tried to pick the easiest route.

Uphill continued for a long time. At a gate at a junction we met a young German couple with full hiking packs going our way. Jaume spent several minutes giving them detailed route instructions, and we soon saw why. The next section was barely waymarked – soon after the gate the route turned abruptly off the track on a vague path which meandered uphill through the trees with many changes of direction, finally emerging onto a wooded plateau. In any direction all we could see were trees. Paths, or not paths, seemed to lead off in all directions. In a clearing a rough circle of logs had been arranged near a charcoal burning site. We stopped for a mid-morning break.

On again, level for a while then a final uphill section which brought us out of the trees on a rocky outcrop. A ridge continued to the north-east. We were at one end of the Cami de s’Arxiduc, the Archduke’s Path, built by Archduke Luis Salvador, a member of the Austrian imperial family who visited Mallorca, fell in love with the island and lived in a fine house between Valldemossa and Deià between 1867 and 1915. The path named after him is a paved track he built, wide enough for him to drive in a carriage enjoying the views.

Through the Forest

Start of the Archduke's Path

The Archduke's Path 1

The Archduke's Path 2

The Archduke's Path 3

Cliffs near "The Edge"

All morning Jaume had been promising us lunch ‘on the Edge’. This turned out to be the point where after leaving the Cami our route descended a little and brought us to the top of a 600ft cliff. The views were amazing.

After lunch it was down. And down. And down. The path at first found an improbably steep route down the cliff, then as the gradient eased slightly it plunged (Jaume’s word) into the forest. A commotion above our heads turned out to be one of the island’s feral goats looking for a way off a ledge about 15 feet above. Our presence panicked it and after darting to and fro a couple of times it launched itself into the air over our heads, crashed to the ground ahead of us and ran off apparently unhurt to join the rest of the small flock which we now saw in the trees below.

Eventually the forest gave way to richer vegetation and signs of cultivation but it was still a good half hour’s pushing through tough overgrown bushes and grasses before we hit a tarmac road on the outskirts of Deià. Another ten minutes and we were sitting on the terrace of the GR221 refuge ordering drinks. It was 2.15 and we still had another standard day’s hike to do!

Fountain in Deià

* * * * * * * *

Half an hour later we were rested and ready to leave. Clive though had been disappointed not to have done more exploring of the local villages, and feeling he’d walked enough today decided to spend a bit longer in Deià and get the bus to meet us in Sòller. Gerry volunteered to keep him company.

Jaume opted to take us on the coast path for the next section. Jonathan and I had walked this section of the GR221 two years before, following a higher line which we would join later. From the little cove of Cala de Deià we were on Jaume’s home territory – he had lived in Deià for many years and this section of path was ‘his’. He wanted to show us all the best viewpoints, and was annoyed to find some landowners trying to block the route he had laid out. Tree branches and rocks were moved from one track to another as the correct line was restored.

Cala de Deià

Tony G amp; Jaume, Cala de Deià

Coast near Cala de Deià 1

Coast near Cala de Deià 2

Note: somewhere around here I turned off the GPS tracker on my phone. The battery was getting low and I needed to preserve what was left in case we needed to contact Clive and Gerry, who should be waiting for us in Sóller. I added this part of the track on today’s Google map by hand later.

We followed the coast as far as the hamlet of Llucalcari, then turned up the hillside. It was mid-afternoon now and hot in the full sun as we climbed from sea level across the main road and higher onto the GR221 path. The path was more undulating than Jonathan and I had remembered, and I was getting tired. A short tea break (water, a biscuit and the remnants of some chocolate) revived me a little, but the final miles along the track and then downhill on a cobbled lane into Sóller were hard going. I lagged behind and Tony G dropped back to keep me company.

We’d told Clive and Gerry to wait at the bus stop and expect us aboout 6.00. By now we had regrouped and at 5.59 we turned the corner and saw the two of them looking up the road towards us. Even I managed a slight swagger as we finished the last hundred metres on the stroke of 6!

8 October

Stats: ascent 1170m; descent 920m; time taken 7h 30′

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Jaume had warned us that today and tomorrow would be long days – no mountains, but plenty of up and down and many kilometres to walk. We’d be walking through forest for much of the time, though there would be good views as well.

Today’s first objective, roughly half way, was the town of Esporles. Our route there was affected by a recurring problem with Mallorca’s wish to sell itself as a walking/hiking destination: the designated route of the GR221 had been closed by a landowner whose estate it crossed and who had managed to get a court ruling that she was entitled to do so. The fact that she was British encouraged Jaume to explain to us at length all that was wrong with the current Balearic Islands’ government’s policies on land access issues.

The diversion meant climbing an extra 150m to reach a path which contoured above the designated GR221. In compensation, the views were better. Later, in the forest again, our path briefly entered the property of the Englishwoman (named Blaize, Jaume told us) but here we were far enough away from the house for her to have provided two stiles to allow people to cross her boundary wall. According to Jaume, before the stiles appeared the wall had been knocked down by mountain bikers.

Sorry for the Inconvenience

View back to Mola de s'Esclop

Break in Esporles

Although the walking was fairly easy we were glad to reach Esporles and stop in a café for coffees and cold drinks. Jaume, of course, knew the owner and bought several bottles of water for us at wholesale prices. Then we were off again, uphill and into the forest. This was typical Mallorcan walking in this part of the island – a mixture of broad tracks and narrower paths, stony underfoot, some of the tracks still with ancient cobbles in places, and breaks in the trees giving occasional glimpses of the coast or distant settlements. Along the way we passed relics of the ways in which people used to make a poor living – charcoal burning, lime kilns and threshing floors.

One last long descent and we were in Valdemossa, a busy town with cafés and shops! It was already 5.00 and we had a 45 minute drive back to Estellencs so we dashed into a supermarket to buy provisions for the next day while Jaume hurried off to fetch the people carrier. We could buy bread tomorrow, he said.

7 October

Stats: ascent 860m; descent 735m; time taken 7h 15′

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Our instructions for the next few days were breakfast at 7.30, departure at 8.30. And so it was that at 8.30 we climbed into the people carrier and set off towards Andratx. As we got close we started to see the effects of the forest fire – blackened trees and undergrowth, but already with signs of recovery. Jaume explained that the holm oaks have dense wood and survive forest fires but the resin in the pine trees means they blaze and die. Passing Andratx we drove on to Es Capdellà — and at 9.15 we were off! Not yet on the ‘official’ GR221, but it was signposted.

The first few miles were flat walking on a broad track up a wide valley as the hills slowly closed in on either side. Jaume stopped to collect free almonds from trees growing at the side of the track, breaking them open with a stone and handing them round. There were olives, and carobs, and even an occasional pomegranate tree in the nearby fields.

After a while we reached an old finca (manor house), the Finca Galatzò. It has recently been acquired by the island’s government who plan to convert it into a hostel and outdoor centre, but at the moment the money has run out. There’s a restored olive press to see. A bit later we stopped for a late morning break at an old charcoal burning site. Nearby a young man with a pick-up truck was guarding some Mallorcan donkeys brought in to graze the rough grass to reduce the fire risk.

Eventually the broad track ended and we turned onto a narrow path which soon started to climb moderately steeply – hot going in the mid-day sun. We reached a col, turned left and carried on uphill to another. Here at a boundary wall we reached the GR221 for the first time, and also the edge of the burnt area. We followed a path uphill at an easier gradient surrounded by burnt trees and shrubs which smudged our clothes with charcoal.

Starting out – Beware Walkers!

Finca Galatzò

A corner in the Finca Galatzò

Burnt palms and green shoots

Mola de S’Esclop (with stones)

On the summit of Mola de S’Esclop

Soon we reached a plateau: from the far side we stopped to look at the top of the mountain we were going to climb, Mola de S’Esclop (928m). The route from here passed north of the mountain below the summit cliffs to the far end of the ridge, then a short steep ten minutes up a rocky path which led to a substantial three-sided shelter on the summit plateau a couple of hundred metres from the summit itself. It was just 1 o’clock. We had a late lunch then walked over to the summit for photos.

The descent was a steepish and sometimes scrambly route diagonally across the south face. Not much of a path, but cairns indicated the route well enough and anyway we could see our objective clearly. Arriving back at the plateau we closed the loop and went back the way we came to the GR221 junction.

The rest of the afternoon was easy going, generally downhill and mostly on broad stony tracks, though near the end we did dive off onto a narrow overgrown path to take a shortcut and avoid some road walking. We arrived back outside our hotel in Estellencs at 4.30 and headed to the nearby bar for beers.

6 October

It was a long wait at the baggage carousel in Palma airport while the baggage handlers sheltered from a torrential downpour which soaked some of our bags. The rain had stopped by the time we finally got into the arrivals hall to be met by our guide for the week, Jaume. With the six of us in his people-carrier and our bags in his wife’s we were driven to the front door of our hotel in Estellencs.

We – that’s Clive, Gerry, Jonathan, Nicky, Tony G and me – were going to walk the GR221, Mallorca’s first and currently only long distance path. It runs the length of the chain of mountains along the north-west coast of the island, the Serra Tramuntana. For the first three days we’d return to the hotel each night. On Thursday our walk would end near the Sanctuary at Lluc: our bags would be taken there and we would stay there for the last three nights.

At a meeting before dinner Jaume explained that there had been a major forest fire earlier in the year that had devastated a large swathe of countryside around Andratx, the normal starting point of the trail. It would be unpleasant to walk that part of the route, and unsafe too since burnt branches and dead trees could fall at any time. Instead we’d start at Es Capdellà and join the GR221 later in the day.

We’d need food for lunches and snacks. Jaume had warned us that we wouldn’t be able to shop for a couple of days, so he’d bought us each a pack of Serrano ham, a pack of cheese, two apples, two tomatoes and a loaf of wholemeal bread. That and a six litre bottle of water each should be enough! We carried the food and water to our rooms and headed for dinner in the hotel.

For more information about the hotel see the note on page 7.