Several years ago, while we were looking after el perrito in Jalón, Francine and I found what looked like a modest walking route starting from Senija, one of the Spanish villages close by. The walk climbed a hill behind Senija a hill which, in common with quite a few hills in Spain, is topped by a cross. The Spanish definitely enjoy putting crosses on hilltops. The walk then continued down to the cova garganta, the giant’s cave, overlooking the A7 autopista.
Things went well to begin with; despite someone having chosen to mark the path with circles of yellow paint on rocks. The difficulty with this is that there are yellow lichens which tend to grow in a circular pattern. Nonetheless, we avoided a few confusing splodges and found our way to the cross.
After this things went horribly and inexplicably wrong. We certainly set out on the path towards the cave but ended up descending a rough scree slope with no sign of any cave, giant’s or otherwise. We’d ended up quite low down near the autopista and somehow managed to work our way back to our start point in Senija. Failed!
So, when the Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers promoted a Saturday walk taking in the route we should have followed, I was keen to join in, hoping that I’d find out where Francine and i had gone astray.Unfortunately, Francine had pulled a muscle in her back so dipped out. I joined in on my own.
My walking companions were mightily amused by my tale of failing to find the cave and ending up almost beside the autopista instead. Still, they took pity on a poor learner and, once we were atop the summit at the cross, carefully showed me the correct route to get to the cave. It was a bit of a scramble at one point. Exactly where Francine and I had gone astray, I couldn’t precisely remember, many bottles of rosado having dulled the memory, but I think I could now find it again. It was quite an impressive cave, too. I really expected to see piles of bat droppings in it but I didn’t, and there seemed to be no strong smell such as might accompany deposits. Here’s a couple of phone camera shots, just to prove I eventually got there
Once back for a refreshing beer, the leader suggested that I could, perhaps, lead the walk next time. “Not unless you want to end up down near the autopista”, I replied.
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