Torrent De Pareis Gorge Walk

Torrent De Pareis Gorge Walk

We booked a guided walk to do the gorge for 49 euros and we were glad we did as the guide was good. He knew the best route down and which side of the arrows to follow and get down. We should have been on this walk on the Monday but it was cancelled due to the rain. We were told by the guide that some did the walk any way and they had to swim out at the end due to the flooding.

The Torrent de Pareis is Europe’s second largest gorge and is Mallorca most challenging and popular walk. We met at the outdoor shop in Port De Soller and met our guide Justin for the day. His instructions through the day were excellent and he made you at ease on the hard bits. The group was made up of Germans and Swedes. The Swedish lads were a little late at arriving which made us late to start. This had a knock on effect at the end when we missed the ferry.

Footwear we had boots on, where some had trainers or trail shoes. Justin said boots were better if you had weak ankles, as your foot will get stuck in between the rocks on the way down.

The first 1 ½ hour of the walk leads you down from the road following a good path that zig zags down into the gorge bottom. On route we are shown a building in the distance and explained it was a police station years back. This was due to the smuggling route that the gorge was used for, for drugs and cigs. Lot of money was made and the main leader now owns one of the main banks on the island.  Plus he now owns all the land around the gorge plus a lot around the island.  Even the old police station he owns now.

Once in the gorge bottom the next few hours to the sea got a little tougher. The ground you walking on is the river bed so you are stepping over boulders or climbing over them. Taking big strides or getting your ankle stuck between the rocks. Sliding down steep rock using your boots as a brake and using a rope to get down. Going through holes in the rock and dropping down. Stepping into waist high water and wading through.  This is a good work out walk where you will know you have done a good walk by the end. The rocks and boulders are all worn smooth as glass from water running down the gorge and the many people who’ve done the route, making problems out of parts that would otherwise be quite simple.  

Once at the end you will meet the sea and you will see more people as you near the end.  You follow the path though some tunnels to another small beach area. This is where you pick the ferry back to Port De Soller. There is a bus you can catch back up to the road but there is only one in the afternoon at about 2.30pm. Miss it and it’s a long walk back up the road. Having just missed one ferry, we had an hour and a half to wait for the next one, so enjoyed a few beers in one of the places there, then took our boots off and sat in the sun to try and dry off a bit.

It’s a cracking walk to do and we were glad that we booked a guide to do it. Follow the links for more photos and check the videos out on this blog site. Details of who we used can be found at the end of this blog.

 We did the walk with this comapany www.tramuntanatours.com/

Our guide was Justin who does the gorge walk for the above company also has his own company.
www.rockandride-mallorca.com  




 



We took some videos as we came though the rocks with the camera. Not the best but gives you idea what it is like.





Torrent de Pareis Gorge Walk from colin on Vimeo.