Beautiful hike around the Giens peninsula by the beach path.
Technical sheet No. 4098361













Description
Find Madrague, a town in Hyères on the Giens peninsula. Head past the port of Madrague, continue, and park in a car park on the left, at number 335 Avenue René de Knyff front of Le Mas Redouna (1).
Back to the wall, head up Avenue René de Knyff to the left from the car park. At Allée Asphodel, which is on your right, head left by the gate and follow the path down to the sea to find the beach path.
Turn left on the beach path, it will be marked in yellow all along the walk. At each signboard, follow the direction of "Plage des Darboussières".
Once the path reaches a junction (2) there is a choice between the more challenging route (straight ahead) passing over the peak of Rabat, or one that goes left and avoids the peak of Rabat (both routes will later join back together). Head onwards to this junction: it would be a shame to miss the view from the peak of Rabat, knowing that this path is not that difficult.
After joining up with the ‘shortcut’ route, continue on the path to reach the beach of Escampo-Barriou. Cross the beach, ignore the path that climbs to the left, and head onwards to climb on the rocks. Be aware that here markings are harder to spot, but small yellow lines reappear further on to confirm that this is the right path.
Once on the Darboussières beach, head in the direction of "Pic du Niel", and once at the sign for "of the Pic du Niel", turn right where the trail heads downhill and leads to a road among the houses (3).
Follow the path, even when it seems to pass through a car park because part of the path leads between two houses, one of which is called "Penelope".
Continue downhill following the signs, leading to the small harbour of Niel. Once on the road to the Niel harbour (4) turn right to head to the harbour and back.
Retrace your steps and continue to go up, with markings showing a yellow cross because it is no longer the beach path.
Pass by the next road that goes left ( "Montée des Hauts du Niel”, a dead end), and continue on for a few metres to join a path to the left at house number 504 (5). Take the path that will soon lead to a new route.
At the sign that reads “Lotissement du Puits Neuf”, embark on the road down to the left (Chemin des Barques) which will later join "La Route de la Madrague" (6). Take this road to the left that will arrive at Madrague, pass in front of the harbour, and return to the car park at the starting point (1).
Waypoints :
D/A : km 0 - alt. 9 m - 335 Avenue René de Knyff
1 : km 0.32 - alt. 7 m
2 : km 4.13 - alt. 44 m - Physically challenging route
3 : km 4.55 - alt. 16 m
4 : km 6.02 - alt. 9 m
5 : km 7.56 - alt. 47 m
6 : km 7.97 - alt. 15 m
7 : km 8.39 - alt. 23 m
8 : km 8.9 - alt. 3 m
D/A : km 10.09 - alt. 9 m
Useful Information
Visorando and this author cannot be held responsible in the case of accidents or problems occuring on this walk.
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