Update to the GR1 in Aragon - 2023

 

To be honest I feel mixed emotions when a walker using a guide points out a route change (thanks Amir).  On the one hand, a bit of my precious guide is out of date while, on the other, the route is still being worked on and taken seriously. This is exactly what's happened in Aragon in general and Huesca in particular.  As part of a 400,000 euro investment in the fabulous Sierra de Guara, the original routing for the GR1 has been diverted just east of Nazarre, southeast through Pardina Seral to Rodellar and then northeast and back up Letosa and Bagüeste before rejoining the original route back to Paules de Sarsa.

The change helps a lot.  Although it adds an extra stage, the stages are more manageable. Because of the lack of accommodation, Stage 5 in the guide is huge (12 hours), and although heading south to Rodellar adds the overall distance there is accommodation there (camping, in a refuge, or in a hotel).  So instead of Nocito to Paules de Sarsa, as described in the guide, the new recommendation is to go from Nocito to Rodellar (22.7km, 1010m up and 825m down taking an estimated 7h 35m), stop there, before heading to Paules de Sarsa (27.3km 1025m up and 1190m down taking an estimated 9hr 10m).

Abandoned houses in Used

Gaura in March

Follow the link to see the information panel for the route through the Sierra de Guara

Although I haven't walked the new Rodellar bits the report from Amir states that it is excellent although totally empty in March.  Rodellar is a major climbing and canyoning destination so it should get a bit busier from April onwards, as the season opens up, but don't expect crowds.  One slight regret is that the new route misses out Otin, the biggest abandoned town on the route, but there are plenty of other ones to explore.

As part of the upgrade, which was completed in 2022 and which apparently includes new signage, the available online information has improved since I walked the route 10 years ago. Better still the Aragon GR1 web presence has at least been matched by a similar effort in Catalonia.  This means that the GR1 through the pre-pyrenees, from Olite all the way to the coast is now up-to-date and accessible.

Both Catalonia and Aragon are promoting the GR1 as a coast-to-coast walk and while the guide describes how this can be done there is no evidence, as far as I can see, that their enthusiasm is matched by all the regions on the route. As before expect to see signage in the Castile y Leon, the Basque Country, and Navarre but there is still a small gap in Cantabria and a lack of enthusiasm in Galicia and the Asturias. 

My guide also heads from west to east whereas the websites go east to west. Finishing at the Mediterranean made sense to me back in 2012/13 but I know a lot of people prefer to follow the sun and head west.  I don't think it's a big deal either way although if you're using the guide as your only source of navigation (unwise) it's less useful if heading west.

Although GPX trails for the guide are available on the Cicerone website it makes sense to download them directly from the people who maintain them in Spain via the following links. At some point, the new route to Robellar will get included on the Openmap database and the IGN digital maps but this hasn't happened yet.

https://senderosturisticos.turismodearagon.com/senderos/gr1

https://senders.feec.cat/fem-muntanya/senders/sender/gr-1-sender-historic/

Sunday 1st of May Tarragona to Valls

Three good reasons to be fed up: lost my walking sticks; obsessively tried to find them and now I've got seriously aching feet; and, finally Spurs got ripped of at Chelsea by dodgy officials.

Valls is not actually on the GR 172 which what the E4 is following at the moment. The ideal place to have stopped would have been Santes Creus but the only accommodation near there was full this bank holiday week. Valls is 5 kilometres down a road from Nulles which is where I left the GR172.

Getting out of Tarragona was really easy, no trouble finding the route which is very well signed. The trail wasn't at all bad just unremarkable. Initially it was a road and then increasingly turning into a forest trail, but with lots of fly tipping until you escaped the influence of Tarragona.

Subway under the motorway

Dogs were a bit of a feature. I had started to assume that the really large numbers of barking dogs was a feature of the rustic south, it was much less prevalent in Valencia than Andalucia, and would perhaps die down even more as I got into cosmopolitan Catalonia. Not a bit of it, today went through a dog alley activating, at one point, at least 10 mad frenzied dogs.

Angry dog

Perhaps the prettiest town along the route was El Cattlar, which a nice castle and a church, was hoping for coffee but all the bars were shut.

El Cattlar

After that the trail took you through a low lying pine forest very popular with mountain bikers and being a Sunday they were out in full force.

Pine forest on the way to Rebua

Then into wine country and around Renua, Nulles and Vilabella vines were wall to wall. Haven't had much cultivated countryside since Andalucia and the difference in the settlement pattern is very striking, here the villages are smaller, still very dense, but only 3 or 4 kilometres apart, a bit like England in that respect.

Renua

Then onto Valls and in time for a 4.30 finish. Have walked the 5 kilometres road from Nulles and making my way around the Valls south circular to the hotel I suddenly realise I had no sticks. Really cross with myself and of course had no one else to blame. Can't remember having them, can't remember not having them, very frustrating. Decide to retrace my steps reasoning that there are only three places where I have taken my bag of all day, the first one at Renua where I remember seeing the sticks. End up walking all the way back to Renua and of course didn't find them. A round trip of 20 kilometres making 45 for day and not back at the hotel until 8, obsessive behaviour or what.

Will have to figure out how to get some sticks, maybe there will be a shop up in the Pyrenees, really don't like walking without them. Anyway have booked at taxi in the morning to takes me straight to Santes Crues. Having visited Nulles three times I really don't need to see it again.