“Sierra De La Solana” (Benissa) And The “Embalse De Guadalest”

Pep and I did a couple of local walking routes during the Christmas festivities. Seeing as we were being holidaymakers at home we thought we’d do a holidaymaker walk. Our chosen location is renowned for being a tourist attraction in the Alicante province. A glorious spot to enjoy the last few moments of our “Navidades”.

First off though a walk we did a few days previous, up a mountain that’s only a few minutes from our home. The Sierra de la Solana is often overlooked, due to the fact that the Sierra Bernia is not far down the road from it. This doesn’t make it any less splendid though. We did a circular route this time, approximately 11 kilometres long. The first 5 kilometres are all uphill, the last few metres involve a bit of scrambling up a few rocks but nothing major. The following 5 kilometres are mostly downhill and are greatly appreciated after the climb.

The route commences just a short distance along the road from Benissa to Pinos. We leave our car at the beginning of the “camino” but you can take it up farther if you want to subtract a few metres from the climb.

The first stop is the “Mirador De La Solana”. It offers views from Calpe towards the Montgó mountain. There are three benches here which let you rest your legs before continuing with the climb. I’ve often walked to here, sat down and admired the view for a while and wandered back home.

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The track divides into two here. One path will take you to Pinos. The other is a concrete road which winds it’s way up and over to the greener side of the La Solana mountain. We took the latter.

We enjoyed the next few minutes walking on the flat before embarking on our last climb, up to the “Castellet De La Solana”.

This part is the most strenuous of the walk, the ascent is steeper than the previous few kilometres but thankfully it’s not too long.

The views are most definitely worth it, as is the beautiful tranquility once you reach the summit. Another great place for a picnic! And yet another “vértice geodésico”. They’re becoming quite popular on my posts! This one’s in a bit of a state mind you.

The descent entails walking along the crest of the “Lloma Llarga” whilst admiring the “Plà de Llíber”, home to millions of wine-producing grapevines. It looks utterly stupendous at this time of year and the views kept improving as we made our way back down the mountain.

After a couple of kilometres we came to a fork. Here you can take either path, depending how energetic you feel or how much time you have. We were getting rather hungry at this point so we took the shorter route. Pep knows his way around this area quite well so I just let him lead the way. Apart from walking through a wood and jumping down a few dry stone walls, we walked along “sendas” (tracks) until we reached our car.

Moving on to the more touristy route we had the pleasure of tackling this past holiday. I hadn’t been to the “Embalse (dam) de Guadalest” since I was a kid. It would be a compulsory day out with our visitors, along with a walk around the quaint streets of Guadalest.

I have been back to Guadalest since my childhood, as well as other villages in the valley, but I’ve only admired the dam from above. So seeing as we were on our hols, what better time to return to this idyllic spot. I’ve always thought we are but mere tourists on vacation on this planet so we might as well make the most of it and enjoy it while we can!

We parked close to Beniardá, on a road that leads down to the dam. A route encircles the dam, some of it is tarmacked. We did this part first, leaving the track which runs right next to the dam till last. Here’s a few pics of our walk, along with a bit of info where necessary.

We had read somewhere that the walk takes between 3-4 hours. Seeing as we left home later than we’d planned and we had a table booked in a local restaurant, we thought we’d best get our skates on. We did the whole route in 2 hours and 15 minutes. You’d really have to dawdle to do it in 4 hours.

One more thing before I bid you au revoir. Ca Rafel (website here) is a restaurant in Benimantell, not far from the dam. We’d seen it had some good reviews on Tripadvisor and the likes so we thought we’d give it a go. If you like meat then you will probably like it. But I don’t eat meat so I wasn’t too keen.

They do a set menu for 25€ plus drinks which, in my opinion, is quite dear, especially when you compare it to restaurants like the Cantonet in Calpe. But as I said, if you like meat, it’s probably good value for money. That day’s menu consisted of two starters to share, one was vegetarian, the other was something meaty. The vegetarian one was very tasty (I forgot to take a photo).

My problem came with the main courses. There wasn’t a vegetarian option on the menu which is pretty common. The odd thing was there wasn’t a fish option either. We were obviously in meat county, quite normal when you go slightly inland. On the menu there is also a typical local dish called “Olleta de Blat”, made with a grain similar to pearl barley, pork and beans. People rave about the one they prepare in Ca Rafel.

We settled on the “arroz al horno”, which around Benissa at least, consists of rice, tomatoes, chickpeas, potatoes, garlic a few pieces of meat and a small amount of “butifarra”, a local black sausage. It looks more or less like this.

Whenever Pep and I have shared one before I just leave out the meat and sausage whilst filling up on rice, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic and chickpeas. Perfect. I got a bit of a shock when the waiter brought this “arroz al horno” to our table.

Not a vegetable in sight, not even a measly piece of potato!!! There was probably a total of 8 chickpeas, along with 4 different types of “embutido” (sausages) and loads and loads of pork. Needless to say I went hungry. The rice tasted solely of sausage which I can’t stand.

Pep thought the rice was very tasty though. There was also enough for 3 hungry people so if you do like meat, please don’t let me put you off going there. The reviews are excellent. There are fish and veggie options on the a la carte menu so we’ll no doubt go for one of those if we return in the future.

Right, that’s my lot for today. I’ll be back on Valley Fm this Saturday. Here’s the link to last week’s spot if you fancy a listen. I’m on around minute 36.

Thanks for reading. As always, any questions or suggestions, feel free to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you. Look after yourselves you lot. See you soon. Lots of love, Georgie and Pep xxx