This was one of the most enjoyable, adventurous and exhausting weekends that I’ve had in a long time. I am happy to say that I’ve finally accomplished one of the most difficult things on my Spanish bucket list: hiking the 5-hour long trail in Jávea.
Although Jávea is a very small town, it is known for its beautiful and various rutas de senderismo (scenic routes) that offer great views of the town and a wonderful connection to nature. Some of the routes are quicker and easier while others are a lot longer and more challenging. After doing some hiking in January when my friends came to visit me, I suddenly became eager to do the longer hiking trail in Jávea; not only because I was really interested in seeing some of the places on the route but also because I really wanted to challenge myself physically and I knew mountain hiking would be the perfect way to do that.
A couple of weeks ago I was looking at a schedule of organized group hikes in Jávea and I saw that the one hike that I was particularly interested in would be done as a group this weekend. The registration was free and it was open to anyone that wanted to participate. Since I didn’t have any trips planned this weekend I knew that this would be the perfect time to do it. Last weekend I tried to prepare myself a little bit by hiking one of the smaller mountains in Jávea just so that my body wouldn’t be so surprised when I did the longer one. Most of the routes in Jávea were described as having a low to medium difficulty level including the one I did last weekend. The five hour hike, however, was at a high difficulty level, so I was a little worried about that.
Earlier during the week I asked some of my friends if they were interested in hiking with me. One of my friends is planning to do the Camino de Santiago in June (future blog entry) and I knew that this would be a great way for her to prepare for it. Another friend of mine is a frequent hiker and I knew that she would also possibly be interested. Although both were thrilled at the idea, in the end, my other friend couldn’t make it but one assured me that she would come. On Friday morning I went to the tourist office to get some information on the hiking routes. I was given several packets of information along with a couple of maps. This made me super excited about the trip.
Originally, we were going to do the 5-hour group hike that was scheduled for Sunday morning but my friend and I decided that we were better off doing the hike by ourselves on Saturday since we had each other’s company. She took the first bus out from Alicante on Saturday morning, she arrived in Jávea in the early afternoon and we immediately prepared for our hiking trip. I had bought plenty of water the day before along with lots of fruits to snack on and my friend brought some cheese and turkey chorizo. We packed our bags with sandwiches, water and fruit, along with some other things that we would need for the trail such as towels, sunscreen, first-aid items, cell phones, tissue, etc. (I felt like a real hiker). It was a little cloudy that day. I didn’t think that it was going to rain but my friend suggested that we bring garbage bags with us just in case it did to protect our things.
We left my piso at around 1:00pm and set out for our first destination: Els Molins (or in castellano, Los Molinos), old windmills in Jávea. In order to get there we had to first walk up a long hilly road going out of the town. As we were doing this we passed by a big church with a beautiful blue roof. I’d always seen this church from the balcony of my piso but I never knew how to get to it. We stopped at the church and walked around for a little bit and then we continued to head towards the Molins. About 45 minutes or so after walking, we finally reached them. I have been so curious about these old windmills since I’ve been living in Jávea. They sit on a hill on top of the town and although they are very old and most of them are ruined, they are still very beautiful and fascinating. When we finally reached the Molins I felt like I had finally found what had been looking for. The Molins were huge and even more beautiful up close. As we were on top of the hill looking down at the town of Jávea, we decided to sit down and eat some of our sandwiches. 
When we were finished exploring the Molins, we decided to head to our next destination, La Cova Tallada. This cave is another scenic destination that I’m sure many people travelling to Jávea don’t get to see because it is very difficult to get to. As you can imagine, because the cave is at sea level and we were far above sea level at that time, we had to actually climb down a mountain to get to the cave. When we first left the Molins, we had to walk down a long road to take the path to the cave. Afterwards, we walked across a long rocky field to get to the other side of the mountain. Lastly, we had to hike down the mountain to get to the cave. This included the use of ropes and chains and some really serious mental concentration. Hiking down the mountain was very difficult, not only were there so many small slippery rocks that would move whenever you stepped on them, but you also had to really concentrate on your next move, making sure that you place your feet and hands in the right places. I slipped a couple of times going down. 
Going down the mountain took a long time, whenever I thought that we were close to the cave, we really weren’t. Eventually though, with the help of more ropes, we finally made it down to the cave. Once we got there we realized that the journey it took to get to this particular destination was well worth it. The cave was spectacular. Not only was the inside of the cave so vibrant and multidimensional but we also had such a wonderful view of the sea. Because it was cloudy that day, the water was a different shade of blue and there were many waves. We were surrounded by the sound of water crashing onto the rocks along the edge of the cave. The whole sight was beautiful. While we were there, we decided to take a break and eat a little bit more. I finished my sandwich and I also ate a mandarin.
After a while we decided to leave the cave and head to our next destination, La Torre de Gerro, or The Gerro Tower, a Renaissance watchtower that is a popular attraction not only in Jávea but also in Alicante. Just like the path travelling to the cave from the top of the mountain, the route from the cave to the Torre de Gerro, although different, was also very tricky. After roping our way back to land from the cave, we then had to first climb up many steep steps. We then laterally hiked our way across the mountain. Lastly we had to hike up a different mountain to get to the tower. This was probably one of the most dangerous parts of the trip because there were no boundaries of any sort that would prevent a person from slipping down. There were also many slippery rocks here as well. I not only got a splinter during this part of the route but I also fell.
The journey from the cave to the tower was quite long and strenuous. It had also begun to sprinkle at this point. When we finally made it to the tower, we examined its enormity and beauty. We also had a wonderful view of the sea and of the port of Dénia, a town neighboring Jávea. After spending a little time around the tower, we finally attempted to make our way back to where we originally started. If I could guess I would say that it took us about 45 minutes or so to get back to where the Molins were. Walking back was a lot easier because we were finally walking on some-what level ground. We were basically walking in a huge field full of bushes, flowers, rocks etc. It was a very beautiful sight and we also had a great view of Montgó, the huge mountain in Jávea that I plan to hike in the future. This was the closest to Montgó that I had ever been.
When we finally got to where we started, we tried to figure out how to get back to my piso. We thought that there would be a quicker way to get there from the Molins but we weren’t able to find the way so we ended up going back using the same route that we used when we first began the hike. We were back on the long winding road but this time we were descending the hill. There wasn’t really a path for pedestrians, so we had to try to stay as close to the curb as possible. To make matters worse, it was also raining at this point so we were hoping that none of the drivers would hydroplane. We wrapped our cell phones and cameras up in the garbage bags that we brought so that they didn’t get wet.
It took a while to get to my piso but almost an hour later we had finally arrived. In total, the trip time was a little longer than six hours. We were obviously exhausted. We showered, relaxed a little, ate some fruit and that’s when I got a phone call from one of my co-workers…
TO BE CONTINUED
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