Rundtur i fjellet fra Tossa via Puig de Cadiretes

Much up, fast down, great views and hardly a soul in sight on these four or five hours with several good breaks. Plenty of water and good tapas in the backpack.

You rent a MTB for a whole day at the bike shop and workshop in Avinguda de Pau Casals, on the right side of the dry riverbed when entering from the beach, (where I hope you had the sense to camp in a hotel room at Hotel Diana, a nice place in Art Deco style with historical charm.)

Remember to take a small repair kit and check the bikes, especially the gears, brakes, and sprockets, before you set off.

Cycle further along the Avinguda to the park at the end of the road. In the park, you cross the river / brook on the right side and hopefully find the black marker poles/signs indicating the hardest routes around Tossa. It can be a bit tricky to find the way right here, but don't give up. The reward is a 7 km uphill. It’s quite fine with normal urban fitness, but it will involve quite a bit of sweating. Drink water along the way.

The mountains north of Tossa have a whole network of gravel bike and walking paths. There are many branching paths upward, so you either shouldn't worry about where you end up or have a good map and ask everyone you might meet for directions. Rarely, the paths have signs that guide you further.

Our goal is Puig de Cadiretes, a peak 500 m above sea level with fantastic views both inland towards more forests and mountains, and as far as the sea mist allows towards the west and southwest.

After a sweaty start, you can comfortably take a break at the ruin that appears at a junction after about 3 km. Here someone has carved a saint's face into one of the tree trunks. You could also refrain from carving your name right there.

It's all uphill from there. The views get better and better, the t-shirts wetter and wetter. Not far from the goal, it flattens out. Right there we stepped aside for the only other cyclist we met that day. He came roaring by on a powerful dirt bike and disappeared just as quickly.

We stopped at a rest area with tapas brought from a shop in one of the side streets down in town. The best shop in Tossa. Taste and point at the counter with all the homemade dishes, which are packed in containers that you put in your backpack before the journey. Grab some cutlery from the hotel.

Sated and happy, you pedal the last two to three hundred meters to the top. Finally veer left off the bike path onto a narrow trail and come up to the fire lookout tower, which you aren’t allowed to climb. A little further north is the actual summit Puig de Cadiretes, with a cross and various religious knickknacks that people have left behind. Fantastic views to the north and west towards mountains and forests, and to the west and southwest over the Mediterranean, as far as the sea mist allows.

You hop back on your bikes, bump back onto the bike path and continue north and down. Now it goes fast, I promise you. You can still add kilometers, for there are still so many paths to choose from that you feel you could easily get lost if you wished. If you follow our route, you’ll have fun and somewhat challenging descents. Enjoy them, because you’ll be back down to the main road before you know it.

Look for small roads and paths down towards Tossa to avoid that rude asphalt. We quickly found a trail on the other side of the asphalt road, between farms, and eventually along the river.

Later we crossed the road again and returned to the park where we started. We had time for a long, cold cerveza before we returned the bikes and suggested they change the brakes before the next user took over.

The trip and the area come highly recommended!

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