In September 2022 I biked from Kassel in the middle of Germany to Perpignan by the Mediterranean in southern France, then turned west and did much of the French Pyrenees. In early 2023 I studied maps of Spain and hatched the idea of continuing from Perpignan through the mountains of eastern Spain all the way to Gibraltar.
So, in early May I arrived by train to Perpignan with my new gravel expedition bike in a heavy bag, and on May 2nd I took off.
First off was to cross the Pyrenees, which I did over Col d’Ares, the pass used by 100,000 defeated Republicans when they fled Spain after the Civil War. The pass is a bit over 1500 meters above sea level, so it was a tough day for me, since I hadn’t done any serious biking in over 6 months. The day ended in the charming town of Comprodon.
From then on it was mountainous biking for another 14 days, where I crossed my path twice, once where I did the Spanish Pyrenees and once where I biked from Madrid to Valencia. It is a bit of a challenge to stay in the mountains all the way to Gibraltar, but I did my best, since I find flat fields really boring.
The weather was great, and for 4 days I did what I’ve done for almost a decade – used Google Maps for navigation. The road one afternoon turned into rough gravel.
Then became a narrow steep trail down a ravine, where I had to carry my bike on my shoulder. Good thing I travel light, all my gear weighs around 10 kg, but had I slipped and broken my leg, who knows how many days it would have taken until someone found me.
I then took a day off, and during that day I evaluated various apps and decided to use Komoot for navigation, of which I have since been a happy user (unpaid commercial). I stayed most of the time on asphalt, smaller roads, and the scenery was often breathtaking.
I stumbled upon the Via Verde, old railway tracks turned into bike trails. The concept is cool, but the trail is poorly maintained, sometimes you end up biking through long tunnels with no light whatsoever, and the asphalt surface is often very uneven. It wasn’t at all as fun as it looks.
People live most everywhere in Spain, from what I can see, living mostly off agriculture, so I got sent off to plains where it was dry. Couldn’t tell from my limited experience if there was a drought or not.
The only real city I passed was Jaen, which claims to be the olive capital of the world – a title of dubious value, since the olive tree monoculture around the city is dreadfully boring. I biked through it for at least four days. Look at satellite images of the area in case you doubt my claim!
The last third of this trip was at times quite hard biking. The road was often crazy steep, at 15% inclination, or more, so I had to push my bike for long times, and be very careful downhill. So I cut the daily distance to under 100 km a day, to preserve my strength.
Oddly enough the landscape became more lush at the end, which I think is because I got closer to the Atlantic ocean with its humid air. But I also passed several water reservoirs that clearly were in dire shape, often reduced to a third of their original size, or sometimes almost completely dry.
Then finally I arrived at Gibraltar, biked to the southern tip and got myself photographed.
Tour details (grading from 1 – 5)
- Time of year: April to October
- Difficulty: 3
- Duration: 15 days
- Scenery: 3
Credit Card Bike Touring 