Sierra de Benejúzar
- The Devil's Cauldron
Looking at
the hill from ground level, the sierra doesn't appear to be anything special.
However, when you get up there, you see that there's a big depression in the
middle of it, nearly surrounded by nice ridges from which there are excellent
views.
When a
friend and I last did the walk in autumn, we saw a V flight of storks on their
migration towards the straits of Gibraltar. It was really interesting to see
that, shortly after they passed us, they must have found a thermal, and started
lazily circling and gaining quite a lot of height. Then once back at ground
level we saw some stilts in a reservoir.
Lots of
dragonflies, butterflies and grasshoppers, but the only mammals we saw were 5
other Brits - not a Spaniard in sight.
The whole
walk is only 7 kilometres, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a
bit of exercise and some great views.
I did log
the track to open in Google Earth, but unfortunately it's not now displaying
properly, and I've not got time at the moment to mark it up on a map.
See if you
can follow the following instructions on Google Earth. If not, I'll either mark
it up on a Google Earth image, or just give co-ordinates for each of the
waypoints.
Go into
Benejúzar. At the little roundabout, where there's a narrow right turn if you
were going to Charlots, instead turn left.
Follow
this up and out of town. Where the road forks, I prefer to go left, through the
Pilarica picnic area, and round a bend to the church - Santuario del Pilar.
Park
behind the church.
Go left
along the road for a few metres until you see a track going off at right angles
- take that (there's also a track going diagonally left up the hill, which goes
to the shrine).
After a
few metres, the track forks - take the left fork and follow it all the way up
to the ridge line.
After
taking a breather, go right.
After a
couple of minutes, there's a bit of a path going uphill, and a narrower one
going left and down - take that.
Just
follow this path. At one point there appears to be a path going right, but this
is just to a viewpoint, so keep left.
Emerge at and
cross a wide track at the 206 metre Cabezo Redondo (round head) peak (it is
possible to scramble up to admire the view), and pass this on its left.
From here
on, there are a number of tracks, but take whichever you wish - they all go in
the correct direction.
Probably
the easiest to walk on is that beside the wire fence, but you then lose sight
of the caldera.
You can
soon see the trig point on the horizon, which is your next stopping point.
Have a
rest at the Alto de la Escotera trig point, where you have views down to La
Finca, and also a view of a little urb of Pete Seeger's 'little boxes' (yuk).
Continue
on. You're about half-way through the walk.
The track
starts to descend, and is a bit loose underfoot in places, so be careful.
You then
come to a point where there's another clear track coming in at an acute angle
on your left, a track straight ahead descending down between the banks of a
gulley, and one to the right going down to a house.
Turn left.
The track
starts to ascend, then over the rise it descends down to a road. It's quite a
long descent, and again a bit loose underfoot.
At the
road go right a bit, then left off the road - there are two choices:
1). Go
left on the track up the hill (longer and harder):
It’s a
long ascent, fairly steep after a dogleg to the left, then winds its way up.
You then
follow along the top of a ridge for a few yards, then turn right on a prominent
path and follow this downhill, with quite a few twists and turns.
Nearing
the bottom, you can see a road below you. If it's safe to do so, you can save a
few yards by going off track down to this.
When you
reach the road, turn right.
When you
come to the end of this, turn left on the road coming up from the church.
2). Go
a little bit further and left on the path paralleling the farmer's fence
(shorter):
All you need
do is follow the path which contours around the bottom of the hill.
At one
point there's a warning sign about beehives - if necessary go left a few metres
onto the higher track and follow this - Spanish bees bites are worse than
English, and as there must be twenty or thirty beehives, it would be daft to
try and pass between them.
Look out
for birds on the reservoirs - there's usually a few different types.
Eventually
you come to a metalled road - just go left on this, then left again, back to the church.
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