3½ hours; climb: 400m
This circuit follows paths through chestnut, pine and oak forests. It connects Vernet-les-Bains and the village of Sahorre, in the Rotja Valley. It passes the remains of a once-flourishing iron-ore mining industry.
1 - THE START (Place République). We descend a stone staircase, and we follow red-and-yellow waymarks... We cross the river ('Pont Kipling'). We go to the right, then to the left (Rue du Temple), and then to the right... We climb towards a campsite ('Les Cerisiers').
2 - Campsite entrance (on the left). We go straight ahead and we follow a path which enters a forest... At a bifurcation we go straight ahead.... At the second bifurcation we go to the right (sign for 'Sahorre').
3 - Junction of the path and a track. (Here we leave the red-and-yellow waymarks.) We go to the right and we follow the track.
4 - Junction of tracks. We go to the left.
5 - Junction, under some pine trees. We descend, on the third track on the left (in the direction of Sahorre)... We follow again red-and-yellow waymarks.
6 - Bifurcation (track and path). We go to the left, along the path... We pass alongside some former mine buildings (including the restored 'Bobine', which formed part of a transport system which conveyed iron ore down to a railway line in the valley below)... On the descent, the path crosses a footbridge.
7 - Road (D27). We go to the left, along the road, towards the village of Sahorre.
8 - Sahorre. We go to the right (Placette San Cebria, Rue des Fontaines, Place de la République). Then we go to the left (on the D27 again), and we leave the red-and-yellow waymarks.
9 - Bifurcation of roads. We go to the right (signposted as the 'Sentier de Falguerosa')... We leave the village... At a bifurcation, we follow a track on the left... the track zig-zags up the hillside.
10 - Sharp bend and bifurcation. We climb the path ahead, through a forest of oak trees.
11 - Canal, which we cross... The path climbs in a pine forest... In an open area, we have views towards Sahorre and Thorrent... After we cross a gate, we descend to the left, towards the pylon.
12 - Track crossing. We go up to the pylon (from where there is a panoramic view) and back, and then we descend to the left (and we follow once again red-and-yellow waymarks)... At a track-path junction, we go to the left, down the path... We join the track again and we follow the track to the right... At the track-path junction (point 3), we go to the right, and we follow our outward route all the way back to the start of this circuit.