Route: 5000 steps Sketch
Map
Landmarks |
Description |
Time |
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0 parking to bottom of gorge |
From your parked car turn left along the main road. After about 100m (5min) take a right fork downwards. After a few minutes you reach a spring the "Font Grossa" (sign may be damaged!) on the left with a traditional wash house on the right. Continue past the wash-house for about 50 metres and take the footpath down and off to the right. Follow this mozarabic trail which zig-zags down into the Barranco del Infierno. After a 25 minutes the route passes under a rock arch. To the right is a water course - at some (increasingly few) days of the year there may be a waterfall there. To the left a cliff face and rock shelter is the home to House Martins and Swifts. Note the well preserved status of this old mule-path. after 55 mins you reach the pebbly bottom of the gorge. |
55 minutes |
1. Bottom of Gorge to 2. Juvees del Enmig
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The path up and out of the gorge is almost exactly opposite the downward path. Again it zig-zags at a comfortable gradient with well defined steps. It climbs up to the right entering the left side of a deep gully. There are good views backwards of the Barranco del Infierno. Finally (after climbing for about 1 hour) the path reaches a house on the left which has been renovated recently, and widens into an unsurfaced road. Follow the road past a well and after a few metres it swings to the left. Continue on this road for about 30 minutes. It turns into a surfaced road and soon after, at a signpost PRV 147 Les Juvees d' Enmig turn left onto a footpath which leads towards a house and oak trees. |
2 hours 30 minutes |
| 2.Juvees del Enmig to 3. bottom of gorge | The footpath passes to the south of the house and copse of oak trees and down through some almond terraces. It then zig-zags down into the gorge of the Barranco del Infierno (2.5 km further upstream from your initial descent) passing beneath a cliff. After 45 minutes you arrive at the running spring waters of the Font del Réinos, which is a good place to rest and top up water bottles. From the font, another 10 minutes brings you to the bottom of the gorge. Note, the last section of the path is badly eroded and skittery. |
3 hours 25 minutes |
| 3. Bottom of gorge to 4. Juvees d'Alt | At the bottom of the gorge look for a sign on the opposite side Juveees d'Alt 50" A rather rough footpath climbs steeply out of the gorge then turns left (south) ascending through terraces. After about an hour the footpath intersects with an unsurfaced road and a signpost Les Juvees d'Alt. |
4 hours 25 minutes |
| 4. Juvees d'Alt to 5. Benimaurell | Turn right. After about 200m you pass a well on the right near a farmhouse. On the left is a ruin. Keep your eyes open for a signpost on the left indicating a path to Benimaurell (may not be legible) Follow this path down into the Barranc Tuerto.As the path nears the bottom of the gully it turns into the Barranc Racons and regains its clear Mozarabic structure - wide steps and reinforced edges. After 30 minutes you arrive ar the bottom of the gully and the path begins to climb again. After 15 minutes you intersect with a path coming in from the left (2000 steps walk) and a sign indicating Juvees d'Alt 25' and Benimaurell 35' (these are optimistic timings!). The path now zig-zags up a total of 280 metres finally to emerge on a rocky plateau about a km west of Benimaurell. The path joins a rough tarmac road. Turn left and proceed past the Font Olbis to Benimaurell. | 6 hours 30 mins |
| 5. Benimaurell to 0 Fleix | Take the main road which swings to the left of the village, past Bar Oasis and downhill. The road swings right as it encircles the village. Look out for a secondary road, forking off to the left and steeply downhill just before the main road leaves Benimaurell. Take this secondary road which runs parallel to the main road through orchards and huertas (allotments), finally arriving at Font Grossa and your car. | 7 hours |