It’s 9.8km from Portbou to Llançà on the GR-92 footpath, with 484 metres of ascent.
The route sets out from the seafront in the town’s bay, where a map board shows the start of the GR-92 and a sign points for the first town en route, which is Colera.
Head up the road into the town, reaching the next sign (pictured), which reveals that it is 1.6km to the Coll de Frare pass.
Follow the white/red waymarks up the steps and onto a path which climbs the hillside. It’s quite a steep ascent, which offers improving views back over Portbou, its bay and headland, and the large railway station.
The route strays onto the quiet N-260a road for a short stint, before continuing the climb to the pass on a path.
Emerging at the Coll de Frares, there are great views over the surrounding hills, where the Pyrenees run into the sea.
Cross the N-260a to continue on the GR-92. There are fantastic vistas to the south; the long tongue of land protruding into the sea in the distance is the Cap de Creus peninsula, which our route follows on Day 3 of the walk.
The footpath runs along the side of the hill, before starting the descent to Colera.
Waymarks and signs show the walker into the small town and along the streets to emerge on the southern side.
The route crosses a bridge over a flood channel and merges onto a path which runs to the left of a campsite and starts to climb the hillside.
At the top, cross the road and walk down to the railway line. The route follows the track, before turning left to go under it.
It’s a short distance down to Platja de Garbet (Platja is Catalán for playa/beach).
Our route goes along the beach and turns right to follow a track off the sand, which turns into a coast path.
The GR-92 now sticks to the coast, following the rocky shore and passing over to the next beach, the Platja de Canyelles.
Cross another cove before ascending to the coast road. The route follows the pavement which runs along the road into Llançà.
Llança is quite a large town and there are several options for accommodation; many of them can be viewed via booking.com
Most of the restaurants are in the port area; I stayed in the old town, which is around 1km from the harbour, in Hostal Gran Sol.
The ‘hostal’ is handy for the start point of the second stage of the walk, which is on the GR-11 trans-Pyrenean footpath
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