27 April 2026 – Alcalali to Parcent

 

 It was nice to get back to our comfortable valley ramble after Montgo last week

There were 21 of us on this walk

That included Adrian who is here for a few months

It also included Barry and Linda back again after a few weeks in the UK

Ideal walking conditions with blue sky, warm sun and a light breeze

And the valley was looking particularly attractive

It was very colourful with yellow, white, pink and purple flowers

No idea what they are all called, but they did look lovely

It was particularly pleasant walking along the pipeline with the sunlight through the trees

I have taken this view many times, but I never tire of it

I was quite surprised that I did not get much feedback from our Montgo walk

It has made me consider whether to continue to offer the challenge walks or not

The aim is to give everyone the opportunity to get a taste of one of the best known local walks

For example we walk to Bernia fort, rather than through the forat

It is still a harder walk than our normal valley walks

But most members should be able to do it with a little more effort than normal

However the reward of impressive views has got to be worth the extra effort

And the lack of response has made me wonder whether that is the case or not

I don’t want to stop them entirely, but I will not offer the more challenging ones again

Most weeks we now have 20 plus on each walk

Which is too large for some of our usual bars

The exception is NoNombre which welcomes larger groups

The owner is a very loud character, who always makes us feel welcome

Temperature – 22c

Time taken – 3.5 hours

Distance – 9km

20 April 2026 – Montgo Iberian Settlement

 

Every few months we like to offer a more challenging walk

The idea is to allow the group to sample a relatively easy mountain walk

In the past these have included Montgo, Olta, Benimeli Aerials and Col de Rates

Today it was Montgo Iberian Settlement

This is a very popular walk with Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers

It has long been one of our favourite walks

And one that we always considered one of the easier CBMW walks

When I planned the walk the weather forecast was a comfortable 22c

By Monday it was 26 to 30c, depending on the forecast

There were 19 on the walk, a respectable number for a challenge walk

The route starts at Los Lanos and immediately enters the woods there

As soon as we entered the woods we found a large tree across the track

We crossed this obstacle with a little difficulty

The remainder of the path through the woods was clear

However it was obvious there had been a lot of tree felling

After the woods we walk along the lower slope of Montgo for about an hour

This is followed by a steep climb to the “tail” of Montgo

By the time we reached the foot of the Iberian Settlement hill we were all feeling the heat

Jan decided to wait at the bottom in the cool shade of a large tree

The rest of us climbed up the Iberian Settlement, where we had our picnic lunch

We returned by the same route and collected a refreshed Jan from her shaded lunch spot

The return journey followed the same track, but of course downhill

We were fortunate to have a cool breeze which made it much easier

We also managed to avoid the fallen tree in the woods

The walk was considerably longer than expected, mostly due to the heat

 

Temperature – 22-28c

Time taken – 6 hours

Distance – 8km