“Ruta Dels Riberers” Walking Route (Backwards!) And Lunch At Casa Parra (Gata)

The one thing we really love about this area once the temperature starts to drop are the incredible walking routes we’re privileged to have close by. We’ll never tire of discovering new ones but we often repeat others we’ve done before. Each time we have a different experience, a bit like reading a good book you’ve previously read or a brilliant film you’ve already seen. There are always places you haven’t noticed, views you didn’t enjoy the first time round, etc, etc.

A few days ago now (you’ll have to pardon the delay since my last post, I’ve been in between computers and busy with the music school) Pep and I agreed we both fancied doing part of the “Ruta Dels Riberers”, with a stop in Gata de Gorgos for lunch. We’d done this route a couple of times before, lunch in Gata included, but had always gone a certain way round, which entailed a rather steep climb up a mountain just minutes after having a 3 course meal. Certainly not good for the digestion.

The last time we did this I swore (once I was half way up the climb after having a delicious menú del día, fig cake included, at “Ca Dora”, a restaurant which is unfortunately no longer open) that I would never again stumble up that hill with a full stomach. I remember having to stop every 15 seconds for fear of (sorry about this) bringing up my dinner. But enough about that, I don’t want to make you feel ill. Back to our recent outing.

Because we would be stopping for lunch we thought it a good idea to do the same route in reverse, this way avoiding that ghastly sensation as much as poss. It was a beautiful day, we’d gained an hour overnight so we were up nice and early (for a Sunday). So armed with two litres of water and a couple of bananas we set out on our mini adventure.

We could have walked from home but it would have added another hour to our “stroll”. It’s quite a long “ruta” and we didn’t want to have to do part of the walk at night (due to the clocks going back) so we thought it best to take the car to the road at the back of Lidl in Benissa. From there all we had to do was walk over the entrance road to the motorway and we were on our merry way.

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If you google “Ruta Dels Riberers” it will tell you to turn left onto the road that goes to the cemetery. This is the way we’ve always gone and is the way the “Riberers” would walk to the “Ribera Del Xúquer” (Cullera, Sueca, etc) years ago, along the old road to Valencia. They would go twice a year for work, first to plant rice, then later to harvest it. It must have been a blooming long walk!

So off we trot in the opposite direction to how we’ve normally done the walk, through Partida Canor and up the Mallà Verda mountain. Making our way up the hill, we start to see Moraira, Benitachell and Teulada, and the Peñón d’Ifach starts poking it’s head above the hills in the distance. The tarmacked road turns into a “camino” (dirt road) and Benissa disappears behind us.

We arrive at the “car park”, often used by other walkers and hunters. It’s here where the dirt road becomes a thinner track and we wind our way round to the next “junction”. There are various signs, indicating three different routes to Gata, one to Senija and Parcent and one back to where we had walked from.

We had plenty of time before lunch so we thought we’d go up to the Cim dels Serrellars to see the views, then come back down to the same junction and take the route down to Gata which we had climbed on our other visits after our “menú del día”.

We hadn’t seen anyone on our travels but it was Sod’s law that when we arrived at the summit a load of mountain bikers had just beaten us to it. So I was photobombed by a couple of bikes and helmets whilst having my picture taken on the concrete structure. But never mind, it adds a bit of interest, don’t you think?

The views on the Cim (summit in Valenciano) aren’t half bad. Benissa, Gata, Moraira, Teulada, Vergel, Ondara and even Cullera sit below us and we get the added bonus of seeing the Montgó in all it’s glory, along with Bernia, L’Oltà, Segària and a few more local mountains. We could even just make out Ibiza, despite it being a bit hazy.

Once we’d got our breath back and eaten our bananas we started our descent towards Gata, and more importantly, “Casa Parra”. It took us approximately an hour to arrive at the restaurant from this point. Whilst we were making our way down I was quietly thinking to myself how pleased I was that we’d made the choice of doing the route this way. Although the climb isn’t super steep it’s pretty longwinded and best to avoid doing after a heavy meal.

“Casa Parra” is a Spanish owned restaurant that’s often full of foreigners and Spaniards alike. They do a daily menu for 16€ every day of the week, except Monday when they close. The menu includes bread and all-oli, salad, first course, second course, home-made pud, water and coffee. Other drinks are extra. They also do a la carte and a nighttime menu from Wednesday to Friday, also for 16€. You can check out all of this on their website. It’s in English too, as well as French, German and Russian.

Right, on to our food. We started with the house salad, followed by “boquerones fritos” (fried fresh anchovies, not the salted kind). The salad is substantial and very tasty. The “boquerones” are always fresh. I’m not a huge fan of fried fish but these anchovies are always delicious. They’re never overly greasy.

For our main course we’d chosen one of the many rice dishes they serve, the “Arroz Meloso Casa Parra”. “Arroz meloso” is a “wetter” type of rice dish than the paella we all know. They cook it in a large pot which is then brought to the table and the waitress proceeds to stir it for a minute or so to release some of the starch from the rice. This particular “arroz meloso” is cooked with “sepia” (cuttlefish), espárragos (asparagus), pimientos verdes (green peppers) and “cigalas” (translated on their website as Dublin Bay prawns). Now I know!

It’s divine, flavoured with fish broth and loads of saffron. We never finish it all so they put it in a small Tupperware for us to bring home and I think it’s even tastier the next day. If you don’t fancy this rice dish though there are plenty of others to choose from, there’s even one made with “sobrasada” (a local red sausage) and parmesan cheese! I doubt I’ll ever try it but I’d love to know what people’s opinions are of it. Most unusual.

The desserts are all homemade (except the ice cream) and there is quite a selection. I won’t bore you with the different ones, you can check them out on their website, but whatever I’ve eaten has always been delicious. This time I had the fresh fig cake and Pep devoured the three chocolate cake (well there’s a surprise 😁).

Also included are the coffees or infusions and if that’s not enough, they treat you to a complimentary “chupito” (shot) of either limoncello, baileys, “orujo”, “mistela”, etc, etc. Even though we didn’t finish all our rice, we left the locale feeling utterly stuffed. And now we had to walk back to Benissa! We’d have to take it easy, at least the first hour or so.

We’d forgotten where the route continued so we took the road back to the “Font De La Mata”. This then joins the track we would have followed if we’d have remembered where it started!! From here you have two options, either go down to the “Font De La Mata” or take the track just above it. We chose the first one, knowing that the latter has more of a climb, followed by a tremendously steep descent down to the track that would take us gradually back to Benissa.

The “Font De La Mata” is a very tranquil area, great for a rest or a picnic. It gets it’s name from the 600 to 800 year old mastic tree that has grown between the rocks and is possibly the oldest of it’s kind in the Iberian Peninsula. There is also an Arabic well and because of this, the area has provided shade and water for shepherds and cattle since muslim times.

From here we start our descent down to the “camino” that will take us back to our car. Unfortunately part of the route has deteriorated quite a lot due to rain and possibly mountain bikes and trial motorbikes. It isn’t considered a walking route though, you have to take the other track for that, but we just didn’t fancy the climb. Still, we made it down to the bottom in one piece and then wandered along the Camí de València which lies quite close to the motorway.

The “camino” passes through a couple of tunnels that have been home to quite a few raves in their time. The raves attracted hundreds of people who would spend the weekend partying in said tunnels, you could hear the “music” from quite a distance away. One day in 2012, I was driving south on the motorway, on my way to Altea. I suddenly saw a girl in the other carriageway, right in the middle of the road, arms flailing out as she turned round and round in circles in a trance, completely high of course. If I’d have stopped it would have been far too dangerous for me to cross to the other side to try and get her to go back down to the rave. I’ve often thought about her and hoped she was ok.

After the tunnels we came to a sign announcing the “Roca De La Salve”. The “Riberers” would stop at this rock on their walk to the “Ribera” to pray for a safe return. It was a very serious ritual. Planting and harvesting the rice was much harder back then and the workers could become ill or even die. This rock has since been the cause of endless dispute between the people of Benissa and Senija. The rock had to be moved a few years back, whilst they were working on the motorway. One day it mysteriously appeared in the fenced in grounds of the Senija school where it remains to this day, much to the disgust of the people of Benissa. Maybe one day they’ll come to an agreement. They could cut it in half!

Not long after we passed the famous spot where the rock used to be, we start to see Benissa in the distance. It was dusk and we were more than ready to collapse into our car and go back home. We made it back to the road behind Lidl just before dark. Including going down into Gata for lunch, my phone informed me we’d walked approximately 19 kilometres, taken 30.702 steps and gone up 55 stories. I don’t know how reliable it is but I must admit, I was pretty knackered!

It’s a great walk to do, some parts are ever so slightly tricky, mainly due to the terrain. Just make sure you’ve got a decent pair of boots or walking shoes on and you should be fine. You can make it shorter by not going down into Gata but we like to use our walk as an excuse to go out for lunch too, if possible that is. There are walks that it would be better to take a picnic on. No doubt we’ll do one soon.

Right, toodle-oo for now. Thanks for reading. Any questions or suggestions or you want to say hi, you know what to do. I’ll be back on Valley Fm this Saturday between 12pm and 2pm. Listen online here if you so desire. Here’s the link to last week’s spot. See you soon. Lots of love, Georgie and Pep xxx