Walk the GR221 Drystone Route with a Cicerone Guidebook

• Location
• Description
• Contents
• Introduction
• Sample Route
• Maps
• Updates
• Reviews

View Sample Route Map

Day 1
Port d’Andratx to Sant Elm

Distance     9km (5½ miles)
Start     Footbridge at Port d’Andratx – 477777
Finish     Beach at Sant Elm – 445813
Total Ascent     350m (1150ft)
Total Descent     350m (1150ft)
Time     3hr 30min
Maps     Alpina Tramuntana Sur, MTN25 Andratx
Refreshments     Bars and restaurants at Port d’Andratx and Sant Elm

Although neither waymarked nor signposted, paths and tracks between Port d’Andratx and Sant Elm are in regular use, traversing a range of small, rugged, forested hills. After crossing Pintal Vermell and enjoying fine views, a narrow path exploits a natural breach in a fearsome cliff to facilitate a through route. Sant Elm is reached early in the day, but until the upland refugi is completed at La Trapa, the coastal village offers the only convenient lodgings. An easy and pleasant start, with good views of the mountains ahead.

 

Port d’Andratx
Port d’Andratx is a fishing village lying at the head of a bay surrounded by forested hills, with the distant peaks of Mola de s’Esclop and Puig de Galatzó in sight. It is a tourist resort and marina, but nets and ropes are strewn along the harbourside, where fishing boats still unload their catches. Fresh fish are sold from a shop beside the harbour. Head inland to find old buildings clustered around the Iglesia Nuestra Señora Virgen del Carmen.

A good range of services includes a couple of hotels, banks with ATMs, a post office, plenty of shops and too many estate agents. The sea-front boasts a long line of busy bars and restaurants, naturally featuring fish dishes, but also cosmopolitan choices. Bus 102 links Port d’Andratx with Palma, while bus 100 runs to Andratx and Sant Elm. Taxis are also available. Ferries sail between Port d’Andratx and Sant Elm daily except Sundays, depending on the weather, tel mobile 639-617545 or 696-423933. There is a tourist information office on the harbourside, tel 971-671300.

 

Leave the head of the bay at Port d’Andratx by crossing a footbridge over a river at S’Aulet. Pass the Club de Vela, noting gnarled olives beside the boatyard. Pass a marina then turn right up the Carretera Aldea Blanca. Turn left at a crossroads along the Carrer de Cala d’Egos. The road forks, so keep to the right. Left leads to the Mon Port Hotel and a striking windmill.

The road passes old olive terraces and gives way to a track rising gently into pine forest. Reach a gate and either go through it to follow a broad and bendy track uphill, or turn right just before it to climb a steep path short-cutting from bend to bend, marked with small cairns. There are options to switch from one to the other on four occasions. Both the track and path lead to a gap, the Coll des Vent at 163m (535ft), where there are a couple of ruined limekilns and views back to Port d’Andratx.

Follow a track uphill, which becomes rugged underfoot and is worn to the bedrock before reaching a couple of houses at Mont Port. The track undulates and the pines thin out, while the maquis features guelder rose, heather, broom and fan palms.Views reveal abundant limestone outcrops around an arc of hills. Keep left at a junction of tracks and look down to a rugged beach at Cala d’Egos. Continue along the track through pine forest then keep right at another junction below Puig d’en Ric. Climb back and forth beneath a pylon line, then cross the crest and enjoy a view of Mola de s’Esclop, the mountain rising beyond the village of S’Arracó.

Follow the track towards a prominent red and white mast, but pass it, rather than climbing to it. Watch for little cairns on the right, marking paths leading up to a rocky crest. It is worth staying on the track until it ends near a trig point on Pintal Vermell at 312m (1024ft) to enjoy splendid views, then double back to cross the rocky crest. A fine mountain path called the Pas Vermell slices across a natural breach beneath an overhanging cliff, then drops down a well-worn groove past pines and càrritx to reach a track.

Turn left to pass a circular water tank and follow the bendy track down into a forest. Stay on the main track and pass a chain, or watch for a short-cut path to avoid a sweeping bend. Avoid a track to the left soon afterwards, but after a steeper descent among taller pines, turn right and quickly left. This turning is easily missed, but it could be marked by a stone arrow, small cairn and red paint on a tree. Rise gently along the track to reach a house called Sa Pineta.

Continue down past small fields; later the track is marked as private and vehicles are forbidden. It is patched with concrete and has fine views of the island of Sa Dragonera and the village of Sant Elm. Pass a chain and reach a junction. Turn left down a path to follow a pylon line down a forested slope. When the houses below seem very close, either drop straight down to them, or keep right at path junctions to reach them. Keep left of the houses, dropping down a rocky path to reach a road-end at the attractively rugged cove of Cala es Conills. A mirador looks out to the little island of Pantaleu and the larger island of Sa Dragonera, and there is a restaurant nearby.
 

Walk up the road, the Camí de sa Torre, then turn left along the Carrer Cala es Conills, passing many houses on the way into Sant Elm. There is access to a sandy beach beside a tower-like structure that was formerly a hotel, otherwise walk straight through the village centre along the brick-paved main street, the Avinguda Jaume I.
 

Sant Elm
This popular little village might have become a large resort but for its proximity to Sa Dragonera. When the island was given special protection in 1995 the coastline north of Sant Elm was also protected from development. A small castle stands above the village and is floodlit at night. There is a small range of services, including a hostal, bank with ATM, bars, restaurants and shops. A tourist information office is available in the centre, tel 971-239205. Bus 100 links with Andratx and Port d’Andratx, and there are also taxis.

Sa Dragonera
This rugged island is historically important, being where Jaume I prepared for the Conquest of Mallorca in 1229. The Parc Natural de Sa Dragonera is a strictly controlled nature reserve, with special emphasis on the bird-life and endemic plant life of the island. An information centre in Sant Elm offers a good grounding in advance of a visit. Ferries run daily, except Sunday or in bad weather: La Margarita, tel mobile 639-617545 or 696-423933, Bergantin, tel mobile 627-966264, Water Taxi, tel 971-100866. Access on Sa Dragonera is limited to a track running the length of the island, where working lighthouses stand at Cap des Llebeig and Cap de Tramuntana. There is also a winding path up to the highest point, Na Pòpia at 349m (1145ft), which is crowned with a disused lighthouse. See www.conselldemallorca.net/dragonera.