Canyoning in Southern Europe - Spain, France and Italy

Canyoning is the descent of natural gorges by a mixture of hiking and scrambling, and often swimming and abseiling. This guide describes selected routes from the Costa Blanca via the Pyrenees to Provence, Sardinia and Mallorca.

The areas in this guide – the Sierra de Guara in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the hills of the Costa Blanca, Mallorca, Haute-Provence and Sardinia – are predominantly limestone uplands, clustered around the western end of the Mediterranean. (The general area is shown in the overview map.) These regions are pleasantly sunny for much of the year and, with the help of budget flight operators, many climbers, walkers, cavers and cyclists now make annual visits, alongside the hordes of beachgoers. For active Brits wanting a quick escape to warmer climes, new areas are opening up all the time and an increasing number of walking and climbing guides has hit the bookshelves in recent years.

This book, however, is the first canyoning guide to these ‘great escape’ destinations, and with this in mind, it is intended to be introductory and wide-ranging, rather than a definitive catalogue of the hundreds of canyoning routes in this huge area. Nevertheless, you will find enough information here to enjoy anything from a single day’s canyoning within a walking or climbing holiday to a full-scale canyoning trip lasting a week or two.

Canyons range from the massive and inspiring to the modest and intricate, and their variety is an endless source of fascination. Each area offers its special experiences, whether you are in the big wilderness country of the Guara in the Pyrenees or Verdon in Provence, or absorbed in the detail of an enclosed corridor on the Costa Blanca (an area where you might not have expected to find canyon wilderness!). Sardinia and Mallorca have an island feel, characterised by big days and long, committing descents, but here, too, there are spectacular easy gorges that don’t require abseiling or scrambling. In all of these areas, regardless of their grandeur, you will also find the tiniest of passageways and the most bijou of features. Whatever your inclination, the Sierra de Guara, Costa Blanca, Mallorca, Provence and Sardinia have all the canyoning bases covered.

This introductory section provides some background to the areas and useful information on how to get there and when to go. The next section offers advice on techniques and equipment and a reminder of some of the canyoning basics.

The region and its wildlife

The landscape of Southern Europe is one of contrasts: clumps of shrubs and other hardy vegetation, acres of exposed rock, lush areas of forest and idyllic glades. Hand-in-hand with this goes the weather – one minute the midday sun parches the arid land, and the next the landscape is dominated by black skies and dramatic hailstorms – but the sun is never far away.

With one or two exceptions in the pre-Pyrenean area of the Sierra de Guara, where underlying conglomerate strata have been exposed to the cutting action of streams and rivers, the canyons in this guide are composed of limestone, represented in all its hues from bright white through sombre greys and blues to deep orange. Throughout the areas, on a hot day, you are bound to see several varieties of lizards, and perhaps a gecko or two, as well as large insects such as crickets and cicadas, the scene enhanced by an abundance of wild flowers and shrubs throughout the year.

Sierra de Guara

In the Sierra de Guara, a collision between Mediterranean and Atlantic climatic zones leads to a diversity of local animal and plant populations. Higher slopes of sparse brush give way to more humid forests of pine, followed by oaks and juniper trees on the southern slopes.

A few determined rivers cut through the southern expanses of limestone and conglomerate, forming steep-sided gorges with dramatic rock formations at Vadiello, Salto de Roldan, Mascún (Routes 7–10) and Riglos. As they have travelled towards the plain over millions of years, the rivers Alcanadre, Mascún, Isuala and Vero have modelled the landscape spectacularly.

The Guara canyons form an extensive habitat for wildlife, including trout, river crab and the Pyrenean newt. The cliffs are colonised with specialised plants, including some that are unique to the area. Stands of Portuguese oak woods, holm-oak woods, thick arbutus copses, mastic trees, juniper trees and box trees populate the mountain slopes.

The area is also rich in birds of prey. Bearded vultures, Egyptian vultures, griffin vultures, golden eagles, hawks, eagle owls and a range of forest species including the booted or short-toed eagle are all resident, and a special protection area has been declared for birdlife. Migratory alpine birds such as wallcreeper or alpine accentor can be seen at close range during winter and early spring.

The Sierra de Guara is excitingly wild and the many semi-deserted villages and hamlets testify to a rural population that has grown sparser in recent decades. In 1990, the Sierra de Guara Natural Park was established to protect this area of great ecological, scientific and educational value. It covers over 80,000 hectares and encompasses parts of the Barbastro region, the Valley of Huesca, High Gállego and Sobrarbe.

Costa Blanca and Mallorca

These areas are more densely populated than the Guara, but the limestone features can be just as spectacular, notably at Calpe’s Peñón de Ifach and Mallorca’s Formentor peninsula. However, there is less of a sense of wilderness, as the hand of man is everywhere visible.
Spain has more varieties of wildlife than any other country in Europe, but in these areas animals are less protected and much more widely hunted. You’re unlikely to see the rarer species such as wolves and lynx around these parts but you might see foxes, wild boar, ibex and wild goat. Some valleys such as the Guadalest are returning to a wild state, however, with trees now protected and many of the agricultural terraces abandoned. There are large areas of hillside that are now inaccessible and undisturbed, including the area around the Barranco del Infierno (Route 18), and wildlife is returning.

Of Europe’s bird species, 70 per cent either visit or breed in Spain, and the Formentor peninsula in Mallorca is a twitcher’s heaven. Close to here (Routes 24–26) you can expect to see honey buzzards, black kites, booted eagles and Mallorca’s own bird of prey, Eleanora’s falcon. Other wildlife thriving here include swifts, martins, bats and the ubiquitous small lizards.

Haute-Provence

The enormous cliffs of the Verdon Gorge (Routes 36 and 37) form Europe’s most dramatic expression of the erosive power of flowing water. The course of the Verdon river takes it though limestone country as it descends from the Maritime Alps to emerge abruptly into the artificially large Lac de Sainte Croix. The gorge and lake are in the Verdon Regional Natural Park, and there has been a successful programme over the last few years to reintroduce wildlife such as golden eagles and the huge griffon vultures, which can frequently be seen soaring above the mountains or down into the gorge. In the Luberon and Apt areas you won’t see these great birds, but black kite and common buzzards are often seen hovering about in fine weather.

In April, acacia trees are covered with fragrant white blossoms and masses of wild irises add colour, while in May yellow broom covers the mountains and lines the roadside. Wild flowers – such as the purple columbine, sweet peas and many varieties of orchid – abound.

Sardinia

Sardinia’s landscape is a varied mix of mountain massifs and plateaux in the north contrasting with the Campidano plain across the south. The east coast is rich in bays (Route 41) and caves (Route 45) and is characterised by extraordinary rocky formations. The most common vegetation is Mediterranean maquis, comprising evergreen bushes and shrubs (such as lavender, thyme, myrtle and rosemary myrtle, lentisk, laurel, mastic and oleander) dotted about the arid landscape. There are also holm-oaks, oaks and cork-oaks, as well as olive groves and prickly pears.

Sardinia has been separated from the European mainland for millions of years, and several endemic animal species have evolved that are smaller than their mainland relatives (an evolutionary trend known as island nanism), such as the small wild horses of the Giara plateau and the Sardinian deer.

Peregrine hawks can sometimes be spotted, and, in summer and winter, ponds in the southern and central part of the island are visited by pink flamingos migrating between Tunisia and the Camargue (several migrant colonies can be seen at the Molentargius pond near Cagliari, and in pools in the Oristano area). The national park in the Gennargentu mountains is home to wild pigs, wildcats, Sardinian deer, falcons, golden eagles, mouflon (wild sheep), kites, black vultures and bearded vultures. There are also many different birds along the coasts and on the small islands offshore, where, if you are lucky, you might see turtles, dolphins and the very rare monk seal.

The National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari contains prehistoric tombs and other significant artefacts from the Punic and Roman periods, and the Sardinian landscape is peppered with interesting constructions from the ancient Nuragic civilisation. These stone structures include the remains of whole villages and are unique to Sardinia.