Walk 2 Tossal Grau
Walk 6 Tossal del Moro and the Serrillas
Walk 8 Penon de Ifach
Walk 9 Serra de Olta
Walk 10 Circuit of the Serra Bernia
Walk 11 Bernia East Summit
Walk 12 Bernia West Summit
Walk 13 Serra Ferrer South Ridge
Walk 14 Serra Ferrer North Ridge
Walk 15 Cau Ridge
Walk 16 Alt de L’Ample
Walk 17 Carrascal de Parcent
Walk 18 Penya Talai (Rates)
Walk 19 Penyo Roig
Walk 20 Cavall Verd Ridge
Walk 21 Collado de Garga
Walk 22 10,000 Steps
Walk 23 Barranc de Racons or 5000 Steps
Walk 24 Almadic Ledge Circuit
Walk 25 Barranc de Malafi
Walk 26 Serra Forada
Walk 27 Serra Gelada
Walk 28 Head of the Algar Valley
Walk 29 Bolulla Castle
Walk 30 Bolulla Circuit/Raco Roig
Walk 31 Cim de Aixorta
Walk 32 Els Arcs
Walk 33 Embassament de Guadalest
Walk 34 Aitana
Walk 35 Penya Mulero
Walk 36 Alt de la Penya de Sella
Walk 37 Barranc de l’Arc and Barranc del Xarquer
Walk 38 Tour of Xanchet
Walk 39 Monte Ponoig
Puig Campana
Walk 40 Volta del Puig Campana
Walk 41 Coll del Pouet
Walk 42 Puig Campana Summit from the Coll del Pouet
Walk 43 Penya del Castellet
Walk 44 Mallada del Llop
Walk 45 Pla de la Casa
Walk 46 El Recingle Alt (Pic de Serrella)
Walk 47 Cabeco d’Or
Walk 48 Penya Migjorn
Walk 49 Barranc del Cint
Walk 50 Montcabrer
Appendix A Route summary table
Appendix B Valenciano–Spanish–English glossary
Appendix C Useful contacts
Bernia Circuit (Walk 10)
INTRODUCTION
The 'sleeping lion' of the Ponoig as seen from near Polop
Think Costa Blanca and, as likely as not, you’ll think Benidorm and lager louts. Well get ready to think again.
It’s true that this was one of the first areas discovered by tourists during the package holiday boom of the 1960s and 70s, helping to make Benidorm Europe’s biggest holiday resort, but in recent years those who came in search of sun and sangria have been joined by a new kind of visitor not content to pack the bars and clubs into the small hours and sleep it off on the beach next day. First it was climbers who discovered the ‘sun rock’ potential of the inland crags and coast but in recent years they have been joined by growing numbers of walkers and cyclists so that today rucksacks and bike bags increasingly jostle with the matching Samsonite and fake Louis Vuitton on the baggage carousels of Alicante.
The key lies in a climate that offers more than 300 days of sunshine a year. Summer temperatures may be stiflingly hot but for the rest of the year they are more amenable to exercise, akin to those of an English spring or summer.
And just beyond the beaches and high rises lies a completely different world of accessible, rocky mountains rising to 1500m – higher than Ben Nevis – and knife-edge ridges that stretch away in long chains of gleaming white limestone pinnacles like the bleached skeletons of dinosaurs’ spines. Of deep, dry barrancs – the local catchall that encompasses everything from wild canyons winding their way for kilometres on end between
