GR99 Spain
 

Does anyone know how much of this route is legal to ride a motorcycle on. It's described as a 2 to 3 m compacted earth road.

Also if anybody has travelled it and blogged it I would be interested to read their blog.

Thanks

Hi,

Not too good I think. The bits of the route that I know personally, i.e. from Mora la Nova down to the mouth of the Ebro, are 100% 'Via Verde', i.e. motors prohibited. And I think a lot of it will be like that as it's part of a unitary project. The only hope is that as the route passes through several Autonomous Regions each will have its own set of norms - Catalonia is partticularly strict/hung up on off road riding at the moment!

Here is the Official Guide. It's in Spanish only but nevertheless very useful as it has all of the stages in great - almost incredible! - detail. All of which is downloadable, including GPS coordinates.

I've found one blog for you - it's a quad blog but seems to have a special section for the GR99. Again, it's all in Spanish but you're going to have to get used to that when you're out there so start learning now! Apart from that there doesn't seem to be much written on the Spanish blogosphere about the route for motorbikes, so I think the outlook is poor. :funmeterno:

Sorry.

Simon

Gr99
 

Hi all,

As far I know, here in Spain off road driving in tracks under 4 meters width is not allowed.

Saludos.

Hi,

I've always thought that the 4 metre rule was unique to Catalonia, but I may be wrong - see the latest here - which bears ths out!

Cantabria is alos renowned for being very restrictive, likewise Navarre. But I'm fairly certain that there isn't a nationwide rule - impossible to get all the regions to agree!

Simon

Update:

I've made this question in Club Maxitrail España and this is the summary of the answers:

A license o authorization is needed for driving on "cattle trails". On the other hand, there are some kinds of tracks, like this GR99, that generally are not specific for wayfarers, althought is almost certain that you can not cross it completely due to some restrictions you could find in some sectors. Anyway you should be aware of the corresponding signaling

I hope this can help you.

Thanks for the info and advice. I am off in two weeks and am going to try to follow the official route. How much I will be able to do remains to be seen but will let you know if it is worth doing. Cheers :)

Hi Guys,

Two points:

Neke, are the permits you mentioned for the Cañadas Reales?

SchoeOOO and everyone else. If a trail or path is a GR this doesn't mean that motors are prohibited, indeed some GR routes follow highways in places.

It all boils down to local restrictions, but I do know that the Vias Verdes scheme is nationwide and aims to convert some 10,000 kilometres. Good news for cyclists and joggers, bad day for the rest of us!

The link I gave above is the English version, the original in Spanish is more explicit. The page says it's all about railways but this isn't strictly true, canals and, in the case of the Ebro route, rivers are included too.

I was going to mention the Cañadas Reales, medaeval cattle drovers' routes that criss-cross the whole country. There are ancient rules that regulate these. I always thought this meant guaranteeing the right of way, stopping the trails being built on or fenced over, that sort of thing. But I don't know if this is a universal pubic right of way, hence my question to Neke.

Simon

It may be worth contacting a friend of mine Luis, he is listed under the community contacts for Spain in Lleida (lerida). He does a lot of off roading in the lleida area,and is also no stranger to the Mora/Amposta route of the Ebra so maybe he or some of his friends will know the situation on the GR99?

Hope this helps, Rob

No license or authoriztion is needed for Cañadas Reales by default, as far I know, but keep in mind that you might find that theses roads go through private properties.

Well finished my trip about 1200 miles off road/tarmac there and back. Went as far as Lake Caspe that’s to stage 33 (see web site below). 90% or more was ridable on a trails bike, I was on a TTR250. For poeple with FB the pictures are viewable at Facebook

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