4 December 2017 – Baranco Negro

We wanted to do a recce of this walk as we had heard reports that the track was badly eroded.

Despite the bright sun and clear skies it was cold enough for the rain puddles to have turned to ice.

This is a walk that we used to do regularly until a few years ago, when part of the track was closed by the new owner of an isolated finca

I thought I knew this walk very well, but soon found that the recce was a good idea.  I found parts of the path which were unfamiliar, including a path leading to this finca

The track itself was not as bad as I feared.   It has always been difficult, and now is more overgrown as well.  But we both felt it would be suitable for our Thursday Explorers group.

It took us three hours to reach the Col de Rates and the restaurant which was closed.   However we had come prepared with our own picnic lunch.

We were warm and comfortable in our sheltered picnic spot

And had wonderful views of both the Jalon and Orba valleys

Plus an epic view of Parcent and our house on the hill behind the village

The walk was only 12 kilometers, but more difficult than we remembered and seemed much longer

We found this interesting information post on the return track.   We knew that the path had been sued for transporting raisins from Tarbena to Denia, via Parcent.   But not that paths like this were still used until the 1970s.

We enjoyed our recce and were pleasantly tired by the time we got back to Parcent

Stats

Time – 5 hours

Distance – 12 kilometers

Ascent – 570 metres