Sóller to Tossals Verds 07.03.2024
We had read a lot of conflicting information about this section, many described it as long and difficult, taking up to 9 hours, and being as much as 28 kilometers long with a lot of gain. To make it worse we were staying at Port Sóller, at the refuge by the lighthouse, adding another hour and a half, so we had concerns about it being too long of a day. Because of that we decided to walk down to port Sóller and take a bus from there to Sóller, turning a 1.5 hour walk into a 30 min walk and a 15 minute bus ride, saving us both time and strain. Additionally we left the refuggio before 7 saving us more time (they don’t serve breakfast until 8, so by the time you get packed up it’s almost 9).
We woke up early, packed up as quietly as possible and left before 7. On the walk to the town from the lighthouse we got to watch a beautiful sunrise over the town. The most important things we needed that morning were food for breakfast and lunch as well as lunch the next day, we also needs enough water to reach the hut (estimated 2 liters per person). The plan was to head straight to the bus, then look for an open grocery store in Sóller, but we came across a grocery store on our way, so we picked up a baguette, manchego, Jamón ibérico, some fruit, cafe con leche, some pastries for breakfast and of course lots of water.
That took some pressure to make sure to find an open shop off, which is nice. We took the bus to Sóller, started walking, but then decided to stop into a cafe for a second coffee. After thinking it over we realized we didn’t have as much food as we probably should, so when we passed a shop with sandwiches of course we stopped in and picked up a few of those (brilliant idea BTW).
We left Sóller before 9, even with our stops much earlier than if we had walked from the lighthouse.
The trail started out wandering though fields of oranges and lemons. We bought some clementines from a farm where they left some out with a jar. When we got to the next little town the trail started to climb. This section of trail is very different, it’s one of the classic dry rock trails that the GR 221 is known for, and it winds through olive trees perched on terraces of dry rock walls, zig zagging back and fourth staying near a stream coming from the lake above that I’m sure feeds the trees.
As we go higher we get a great view back to Sóller. Further still and we can see the lighthouse where we stayed and the ocean. Eventually we reached the top and went over. We were surprised that over the top it wasn’t very steep to the lake, rather was a nice winding path mostly protected from the wind by trees.
We found a nice place on the lake out of the wind to eat our sandwiches, which were delicious. Then came the next part. For some reason we thought the lake was about half way. From the lake there’s an option to go the long way, or the direct way with a lot of up and down and a steep drop section with a chain bolted to the wall to hang on to. Each way is roughly 2 hours with the direct way being a little shorter. Both ways are much shorter than we expected. The deciding factor is the fact that we were going to hike half of the long way the next day, so we decided to take a chance on the steep drop.
The short way went up quickly, we both thought it was going to keep going up, but apparently I misread the contour lines and it ended up going down after the first couple kilometers. Up and down and all around. The steep part wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. There was a little section with a drop off where there was a chain attached to the rock to hold onto (I wish we got a picture).
The whole trip was about 23 km and almost 8 hours. We arrived at the refugi around 4 pm, with plenty of time to spare. We ran into Thomas and Simone from two nights before and talked with them a bit, and we played a couple card games with three German women.