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| Alcoy at night |
Another weekend trip took us inland to the town of Alcoy, between Valencia and Alicante.
As the journey is the reward, we took a scenic route starting from Denia to Alcalali, in the Jalon valley and then further inland past Castell de Castells through a beautiful landscape with still most of the almond trees in bloom.
When we saw ruins of a castle above a village and a road which allowed cars up to 10 tonnes, we took the turn-off from the main road and drove up the hill but never reached the castle. At a beautiful spot with views into the valley we parked the camper for lunch, surrounded by almond trees and busy bees.
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| Lunch stop with a view |
Our destination today was the Font Roja Natural Park, which is famous for its vegetation of deciduous trees, which are very rare nowadays in this region, but was the usual vegetation 100 years ago.
There is a street going up into the mountains with a parking at the end, where we wanted to spend the night. (38°39’55.1″N 0°32’21.4″W)
From here, we had a great view into the valley of Alcoy and the Sierra Mariola in the north. We went for a hike and enjoyed the last sunshine. At a cave we could watch a
bat flying forward and back to get all the insects in the air. As soon as it got dark, the hikers had all returned home and we were almost alone.
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| View from Font Roja to Alcoy |
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| Sunrise from the Font Roja Parking |
The next morning, we were the first to start the hike up to the peak through a beautiful forest of mostly holm oaks. Not far from the parking we saw deer like animals, supposedly female mouflon. They didn’t have horns, had brown fur and were the size of a deer but much bulkier. If you know what we have seen, let us know 🙂
On the way up we came past an abandoned Masia, which had a chapel, where you still could recognise the former painting.
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| Abandoned chapel |
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| At the Menejador at 1.356 meters |
The way down was quick and after breakfast we left for Alcoy. There is a great parking just a short walk from the centre. (38°41’51.1″N 0°28’01.3″W) Just over one of the many bridges of Alcoy, and we reached Plaza España where we got a lot of information on the town from a very helpful lady at the tourist information. Under the Plaza the “Llotja of Sant Jordi” by Calatrava would have been very interesting, but it was closed. So we followed a route through the old town, which took us past all the modernismo buildings.
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| Circulo Industrial (1904) |
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| Circulo Industrial (1904) |
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| Streets of Alcoy |
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| Old factories now the technical university |
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| Casa de Escaló – music and dance conservatory |
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| C/ Pais Valencia from 1911 |
We came past the Refugio Cervantes, a shelter from the civil war, which can be visited and gives good information (also in english) on the attacks on Alcoy by the Italian air force.
After a nice lunch, we walked back to our parking and headed through town to the Barranco del Sinc, where we started our next hike. (38°42’23.1″N 0°29’01.2″W)
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| Barranco de Sinc |
We walked up the beautiful barranco and even saw a vulture up in the sky. Our route took us up to Serelles and we came down to Alcoy a little bit north of where we had left. At the end of the day we were exhausted!
We drove into the Parc Natural de la Sierra de Mariola to the camping close to Font de Mariola. The road was good but very narrow and curvy. The camping is very nice and from here you could make a tour up to El Montcabrer, the peak of the Sierra. (http://www.campingmariola.com/ – 38°45’11.8″N 0°32’57.6″W)
The next day, we decided to head on to Bocairent for a hike along the historic path Camí de l’Escaleta. We could parked at the cemetery (38°45’54.8″N 0°36’24.5″W)
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| Bocairent |
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| One of the textile factories in the valley of the Onteniente river |
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| The path follows down the river |
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| Following an historic route over the mountains |
All the hikes we did this weekend where from the Rother Guide Costa Blanca. (https://www.rother.de/rother-english%20titles-costa%20blanca-4837.htm)
The weather was incredible and we enjoyed the three hikes we could do, but also the town of Alcoy was an interesting experience.
