despite the difficulty it is better to try and telephone.
What to take
When you carry everything you need for the trip then weight is a key consideration. The more you carry the more strain you place on your body, particularly your knees, and the harder the walking. Unless you’re carrying camping gear it should be possible to get all your gear (excluding water) in a back-pack weighing no more than 7kgs, or even less.
When packing there are a few things to consider.
You will need proper waterproofs. Although it doesn’t rain a great deal outside the winter months, when it does it can be very heavy.
You should also take something warm, particularly if you are walking in March/April or October. Spain has the second highest average altitude of any European country (after Switzerland) and the GR1 runs through some its highest mountain ranges. It can get very cold in the mornings and evenings and some of the accommodation will have little by way of heating.
Included in the 7kg weight target is a sun-hat, sun-cream and sunglasses – the sun can be very strong and there isn’t much shade.
This guide tells you where you can get food along the route although a good option is to ask the hotel to make you a picnic. Generally speaking they are more than happy to do this. You should carry some ‘emergency rations’ – you might find it’s the local baker’s day off, or the bar you thought was going to be open wasn’t. Everyone will have his or her own emergency ration solution but a bar of chocolate hidden at the bottom of the rucksack (out of the sun and to avoid temptation) is mine.
All accommodation on the route has clean drinking water and you will be able to recharge any electronic devices you are carrying. Most places have wi-fi as well.
Think hard before taking heavy boots designed for winter walking in northern Europe. The growing consensus is that the ankle support supposedly provided by walking boots is a myth and you are definitely more likely to get blisters if your feet are hot and enclosed. The general consensus is that a kilogramme on your feet is equivalent to four on your back and lightweight footwear they will make you more nimble and allow you to walk longer without getting tired.
Finding your way
As it would be for any long-distance route in Spain finding your way along the GR1 can be a challenge.
Spanish walking routes are ‘defined’ by the walking associations, and in Spain the regional walking and climbing associations operate to standards set at a national level. It’s a voluntary activity although regional government does occasionally get involved as part of its promotion of tourism. Therefore, waymarking and the quality of the path will vary from region to region.
Waymarking on the GR1, which includes the classic French-style red-and-white paint markers, is generally good and the route is well defined in Castilla y León, the Basque Country, Aragón and Catalonia. The signs in Navarre need a lick of paint and are non-existent on a short stretch through Cantabria.
Although the GR1 typically follows a feature (for instance a road) marked on the Institute of Geographic Information (IGN – the national mapping agency) maps, the GR1 itself, like all long-distance walking trails in Spain, is not defined on any map base. Spanish maps are therefore not that useful for a walker who wants to follow a long-distance route unless someone who knows the route has marked them up.
Waymarks in Castilla y León (Section 1)
Using GPS technology
In addition to the route maps in this guide, it is recommended that you take a smartphone with a GPS-enabled app – an iPhone or an Android device will do the job. There are a number of GPS apps available but perhaps the essential requirement is the ability to buy and download Spanish maps through the application. The range of apps that provide this facility is growing all the time.
A good example, and the app used in the research for this guide, is Viewranger. The Viewranger website includes a map store which has a growing portfolio of maps from around the world including Spain. You can download the IGN 1:25,000 maps for the whole route at a fraction of the cost (and weight!) of paper maps. Viewranger’s default mapping – OpenCycleMap – is available at no charge. Included in the Viewranger route library is the GR1 route produced as part of the research for this guide, which can be downloaded and then displayed against the mapbase on a smartphone. The route is in a format that can be used on any GPS system and can also be displayed in Google Earth.
GPX tracks for the route can also be downloaded for free from the Cicerone website once you’ve bought this guidebook (www.cicerone.co.uk/member).
While many walkers have a smartphone it is surprising how many don’t use GPS. If you haven’t used the facility don’t leave it to the last minute before your trip to Spain to find out how it works. Smartphone GPS doesn’t use data roaming so you don’t need to have the potentially expensive international data roaming facility turned on. The battery on the smartphone should be adequate for a day’s walking particularly if you remember to turn off any facilities that you’re not using. (Many people have their phone permanently searching for a wifi connection and that facility is a particularly heavy battery user.) If you are nervous about battery life than take a charged battery and reload on the way or, if you are walking with someone else with a smartphone, have a duplicate version of the GPS as backup.
Most of the route is waymarked and generally speaking you wouldn’t need to use a paper map very often and similarly the GPS will be needed only on an infrequent basis. When a waymark has been missed however the GPS will show you where you are relative to the route, making getting back on track very straightforward. With Viewranger the GPS will provide directions on an ongoing basis but this consumes the battery and given the waymarks it’s a facility you don’t need.
If you are already an expert GPS user and have your own device then the Spanish maps on the IGN website are free to download for non-commercial use.
After completing the research for this Guide I can state with some confidence that the GPS route provided for the GR1 is the most up-to-date and accurate route available. I would not however claim 100 per cent accuracy. Route descriptions in this guide point out where the route has been hard to find and where there is the greatest degree of uncertainty. Even after several trips and the advice of local experts, mistakes can be made. The route also changes, either because locals want to bring walkers to their village or occasionally because landowners want to see them off. However, even if the route recommended doesn’t follow the latest on-the-ground version of the GR1, it will get you to the Mediterranean.
Santa Maria in Ujué (Section 4, Stage 2)
Using this guide
The 1250km of the GR1 are described here in seven sections, each one broken into stages roughly 25km in length. Sections begin with an introduction and summary information, and each stage begins with an information box – giving basic data such as start point, distance, ascent, descent, maximum altitude, walking time and grade – and a short introduction to give you a feel for the walking ahead of you that day. There follows a step-by-step route description, with extra information about any facilities available along the way and other points of historical, geological and natural interest. Each stage is accompanied by a clear, contoured route map at scale of 1:100,000 and features common to both the map and the description are highlighted in bold
