Sahorre - Fuilla (the Rotja valley)

(en français:
http://www.randos-vernetlesbains-canigou.eu/sahorre-fuilla-rotja.pdf)

SAHORRE - FUILLA (The Rotja valley - the "valley of apples")
Conflent, Pyrénées-Orientales, France
Duration and ascent: 4h30; 430m

This circuit leads you above and along the Rotja valley. Its famous orchards have led it to be called the "Valley of the Apples". Much of the valley is also used for livestock farming. The route passes historic monuments and includes some fine viewpoints.

1 - START. The village of Sahorre, on the D6 road, on the west bank of the River Rotja, by the mairie (town hall). We go south, along the D6 road, and we go past the junction with the D27 (Escaro) road, which goes off to the right. Just before the D6 road crosses the River Rotja, we take a lane on the right. The lane climbs steeply. There is a signpost for Saint-Etienne church. (There are also red-and-yellow waymarks, and we follow these as far as the Col de Fins.)... The lane zig-zags up the hillside, first as a grass track, then as a cobbled way. We pass to the right of the church, then we follow a track to the right.

2 - Track junction. We go to the left for a short distance. Then we take a path which climbs to the right. The path crosses the line of a canal and it soon emerges in a semi-open area with a former quarry on the right. We go straight ahead here, onto a wide path which, after a short distance, bends to the right... At a junction with a track, we go to the left, along the track, for a few metres. Then we take a path on the left. The path goes alongside an orchard and then the path enters the hamlet of Thorrent.

3 - Thorrent (water fountain, in the centre of the hamlet). We cross a road and we go up a surfaced lane. The lane bends a little to the right. We pass the Sainte-Croix Romanesque church. The lane climbs steeply and, just after a house, the lane becomes a wide, unsurfaced path.

4 - Path-track junction. We go to the left, along the track, for a few metres. Then we turn to the right and we follow a path alongside a canal. There is also a castle (now a private residence), which is visible on the left. After about 150m, our path leaves the canal and the path descends to the right. (The next section of this route is often wet underfoot.)... The path eventually reaches the D27 road. We go to the left, up the road.

5 - Col de Fins (road-track crossing). We follow the track on the right. The track enters a pine forest. Shortly afterwards, another track descends to the right - here we go straight ahead. After about 800m, we keep to the main track where a partially overgrown track goes off to the right. At a track junction a few metres further on, we continue straight ahead. The track descends slightly and it bends to the right.

6 - Track-path junction. We go to the left, and we descend a rough path in the forest (a timber extraction corridor)... The slope steepens... Further down, we continue straight across another track... Further down again, we re-join the main track. We follow that track for about 100m, then we follow a wide path which climbs to the left... That path soon starts to descend and the path eventually re-joins the main track. We continue straight down that track for over half a kilometre, and, on the way, we ignore another track which goes off to the left.

7 - Track junction. We leave the main track and we go sharp right, along another track... The track eventually bends to the left and it descends quite steeply, in a forest... The track meets a surfaced lane, which we follow, to the right. The lane crosses open land with farm buildings on either side... The lane descends to cross a small bridge. At the junction of lanes on the other side, we go down the lane on the left. This eventually takes us to...

8 - Fuilla del Mitg. Here, we cross the main road (the D6) carefully and we go down the "Cami du Veinat del Mitg", opposite... After 200m, we turn right onto the "Ancien Chemin de Villefranche"... At the end of that road, we take a path on the left which goes alongside an irrigation canal... After 400m we meet another surfaced lane. We go to the right, along that lane... We arrive at the "Place Saint-Jean" in Veinat d'Amunt (a chapel is on the left). We go to the right, up to a:

9 - Road junction. We go left, along the D6 road, for about 50m. Then we take the minor road on the left which, at the time of writing, is signposted for "Mas Canabeillat"... The road descends, and it crosses the River Rotja. We climb and we pass a couple of houses on the left.

10 - Junction of the lane and some tracks. We go straight ahead, on a track, and we climb a slope with a fence on the right. We soon meet a track (a disused railway line). We go to the right, along that track. We follow this disused railway line all the way to the D6 road at the northern entrance to the village of Sahorre. (On the way, this track passes below a farmstead (on the left), and the track crosses the River Rotja just before meeting the D6 road.)

11 - Track-road (D6) junction, by a cemetery. We go to the left, along the road. We enter Sahorre village and we soon return to the start of this circuit, by the mairie.

Pdf version at:
http://www.walks-vernetlesbains-canigou.eu/wikiloc/sahorre-fuilla-rotja.pdf