This was the first of our Thursday Group walks, a few of us
had been taking ourselves out on Thursdays to find and try out new routes, and
we agreed that it would be good to open them up to everyone. There were 11 of
us on this week’s hike which took us to the Cuava Santa in the mountains above
the village of Monda. None of us had done this route before and did not know
what to expect so an adventure was had by all.
We consolidated into only 3 vehicles and were able to find
somewhere to park on the country road that goes to Istan. The weather was again
very kind to us with clear bright blue skies and warm sunshine, even the wind
was much subdued on the actual walk, although it did remind us of its strength
when we reached the summit.
The route started on a quite well maintained tarmac road,
although it was only single track with a drop into the virtually dry gorge on
one side and cliff faces on the other. We then reached the start of the route
up to the cave which was actually quite well signed. When I had plotted the
route it showed a category 2 climb (5 being the slightest and 1 being the
steepest) and indeed there was, right at the very start, the surface was very
good concrete, and rubber tipped sticks had the advantage over my metal tipped
staff for getting some purchase and assisting.
With a steady plod it was soon
climbed and the effort was compensated by the views. We passed a couple of
small fincas and on this rare occasion we heard no barking dogs protecting
their property. The concrete track turned into a very reasonable dirt track and
the steepness reduced, but the incline continued.
The Orange blossom was just starting to appear and its
wonderful heady fragrance was in evidence. The track was bounded by some
typical flora and fauna of wild Rosemary, wild sage, Asphidal and wild
Lavender, there was, of course, the usual abundance of Pine trees housing the
deadly caterpillar nests, but fortunately these were well scattered and not
right adjacent to the track.
The relentless incline continued, but with every turn the
views became more amazing, over the valley to Alozaina and Yunquera in one
direction and Pizzara and Alora in another. We eventually came to a col and we
now had a virtually 360 deg vista. It seems that each walk that we do has views
that are better than the previous one, but I think in truth it’s just that they
are all so different.
It was a good job that the route to the Cuava (cave) was
signed as the track leading off to the left could have been easily missed, as the
cave was not visible at all from the track, but I was equipped with the route
in GPX on my phone so there was no chance of us getting lost.
The path to the cave was very narrow and entailed quite a
bit of climbing over rocks and then it emerged onto a grassy plateau at the
mouth of the cave, complete with information board. One of our group was equipped
with a light and explored further in but it was blocked at about 50 mtrs. Lots
of religious paraphernalia had been deposited in the cave and the really
surprising thing was that there was a visitor’s book to sign.
After some time
exploring the cave and then admiring the views we rejoined the track via the
rocky path and headed for the summit. Just before the very top was a convenient
flat area to stop and take on board refreshments. A few of us headed off for
the summit leaving some resting, socialising and taking in the views that now
included the coast.
One of the noticeable features of this route was the tranquillity,
it was very quiet but unfortunately we didn't see any of the wildlife although
we did find evidence of wild boar. There was at one point, on the route down, a
buzzard soaring above which was an awesome sight.
The route back was down the same track that we had ascended
on but with views in a different direction. We arrived back at the cars without
incident and decided that a celebratory beverage was required, which we took in
one of the bars in Monda, with everyone looking forward to our next adventure.
Click this link for more photos
Click this link for more photos
No comments:
Post a Comment