Sierra de Aitana - a mountain that tests your strength

The wide blue of the sky, which has merged with the sea at a distant point, is what I was seeing in front of me. I stood there for a few minutes and watched, absorbing that wideness that has helped me a lot to forget about my neck pain. It has moved into my everyday life to remind me that I have this body to take care of, not just to use it until it serves me. Years pass and we have to slow down sometimes - too much work will not make my pain go away.

Back to the view of those mountains and sea! How a small thing can make your day, right? Although this excursion to the mountain was not the original plan... This walk wasn't even the plan B. After contemplating the idea of visiting one cove I remembered we should go to the spring to take water. We packed the empty bottles, drove to the Font del Molí water spring and saw there a woman who was filling countless bottles of water... and she just started. We gave up on the idea but no worries, we decided to hike instead.

We took the PR-CV 464 trail, which is a path that connects two water springs, Font del Molí in Benimantell and Font de Partegat in Benifato. At this point, we were somewhere in the middle of the path. However, we didn't make it until the end. It was me who couldn't continue because... oh, now you will say how weak I was haha, but that is true, I was so hungry and didn't have food with me. I already started to feel the first signs of my "hunger depression". 😂

This man with the bike was cheating a bit - he had an electric bicycle. It would not be that easy to ride a bike uphill. Neither it was easy to walk uphill... or it was just me who got weak already, with the thoughts that we didn't have any food in the bag. Just some candies, a type I don't really like, so it doesn't count.

Yes, it seems that I was the only one with the strength problem because watching this group of people that carelessly progressed and climbed and laughed... OK, next time I will be prepared for unexpected situations. Water and some food are a must when we go to Sierra de Aitana. And a hiking stick, because now my knee hurts too. {getting old sucks 🤐}

Still, I loved every single step and the views that we had. Look, on the right. There are two villages, on the right, surrounded by tall rocks is Guadalest and on the left is Benimantell. Those who followed my posts for some longer time had the opportunity to meet both of these little towns... At this moment, we were already at a much higher altitude than those villages.

Although the vegetation of this mountain mainly consists of pine, almond and olive trees, there are pieces of land that have been cultivated. It is a blessing to spend here the summers, but the winters can be cold at this altitude.

Speaking about winter and high altitude... At one point we saw this thing, that looked like ruins or a path that was used for something in the past. At the end of this "path" there was a huge hole.

That deep hole was only fenced with a rope, so I came closer. Luckily, I didn't fall into that crater. Well, it would be interesting to see if I would survive and how I would come out of it.

We didn't even know why this hole was there... but I did some investigation later. So, believe me, or not, these holes were used to deposit snow! There are several of these snow wells on the northern side of Sierra de Aitana, some of them are bigger and better conserved. The snow was used to treat fever or conserve food like fish.

Hay and dry grass were placed in the bottom of the hole, then a layer of snow, followed again by a layer of hay and so on until the well was filled and covered again with a layer of hay. It served as insulation, so the people who lived here could use the snow and ice during the whole year.

After the snow hole place, we continued and arrived at another interesting spot. Els Penyonets. The path passes between two rocks.

Does it look like a face? I see the eyes, a nose, and a crown on the head. Well, could be that I saw that because of my hunger 😂

That is the passage between the rocks. Here we wanted to turn back, but my husband was brave and with more strength. We continued a bit more.

The views from this spot to the other side of the valley. The board showed the mountains with their most significant peaks. There was one peak called Alt de Tronca. I remembered that @godfish likes this word, tronco, as it was the first Spanish word he learned. (I am not sure if it can be seen well from the board, so I say it is there, in the middle)

The other side of these rocks was nothing special, and the path was also not very demanding. However, this little hiking was soon over and we turned back. I also had a little guest with me on this excursion. Can you guess who?

Yes, it was Prince Hefromund!

Unfortunately, he didn't see snow (the snow hole was empty) but the fresh air of Sierra de Aitana also did good to him. The pain in my neck disappeared at least for the time we were there and little ph16 was happy to get out from the pocket where he slept for some time. Good luck to me, with my hurting knee now. 😂