Yet most of our journey along this Via Verde is on the level, or downhill. The ascent of the Coll de Bass also takes us off the main sandy path on to a minor road, one of the stretches of Tarmac that it is occasionally necessary to cross (yellow tramlines mark a lane for cyclists and walkers) to bridge gaps created in the years since the railway fell into disuse.
The transformation of Spain's disused train tracks began in 1993. Catalonia's greenway opened in 1997 but is still a work in progress, a piecemeal project that has linked three old railway lines to create a run of 136km through the region.
At its northernmost limit, the Iron and Coal Route - once crucial for transporting these heavy materials from the Serra Cavallera to Barcelona, yet defunct since 1985 - now provides a thoroughfare for cyclists from Ripoll to Sant Joan de les Abadesses.
The heart of the trail is the path of the old narrow-gauge railway, or carrilet, from Olot to Girona, which served the countryside districts of El Gironès, La Selva and La Garrotxa from 1911 until 1969. And to the south, the trackbed of a second carrilet, in service from 1892 to 1969, connects Girona to San Feliu de GuIxols, 40km away on the Costa Brava. With just a couple of days to spare, we only have time to cycle the 50km or so from Sant Esteve d'en Bas to Girona for a taste of the trail.
The Coll de Bas now conquered, we freewheel down into the Vall d'Hostoles towards Sant Feliu de Pallerols, zig-zagging along a stream, veils of trees buffering us from the sounds of everyday life. We take a turn around the town's cobbled streets, past the Roman bridge, before taking a breather beneath the trees in El Firal square.
On we go, through woods of rare holm oak, dipping through cool cuttings, under bridges hewn from the local volcanic rock, chased by the river Brugent, which hurdles over waterfalls to meet the river Ter, finally reaching our home for the night, Les Planes d'Hostoles. This town was built on a flow of lava and a stroll around its streets reveals some fine modernist buildings, constructed during a textile boom at the turn of the 20th century. One of them is our hotel, Can Garay.
Built in 1906, the dark-red Art Nouveau mansion has been sensitively restored by Lluis Garay, the great-grandson of the original owner, and his partner Sophie, and revitalised as an elegant hotel with six bedrooms and one suite. As with our previous night's accommodation - El Ferres, a restored 18th-century farm building on the edge of the village of Joanetes - it is a comfortable stopover, where a superior dinner of local dishes is prepared for us. Last night it was peppery local pork sausage, botifarra; tonight we try patates d'Olot artesanes, little fried parcels of potatoes stuffed with mince.
Catalonia's Via Verde passes through a landscape that feels Alpine and Mediterranean in turns. As we press on the following morning towards Girona, we plunge through oak woods, before reaching the old station at Amer - one of few along this stretch that has been shown a little care rather than being abandoned - and stop for a drink in the town's graceful arched square, one of the largest in Catalonia.
Then the landscape flattens out, and we traverse a monotony of fields before hugging a main road, ticking off the villages of La Cellera de Ter, Anglès and Bescanó. It's only as Girona rises before us that we cut inland again to some peaceful woods, finally emerging onto a vast stretch of carefully tended allotments. Entering a city through its back garden is a curious approach, but then taking a different view of the landscape is what the Vias Verdes are all about.
- INDEPENDENT
