Hiking through Castellón - Day 6 to Penyagolosa

It’s possible to take ‘place-to-place’ walking too literally and go crashing on to the next town missing out on local treats.  At Vistabella del Maestrazgo, with Penyagolosa on the ‘doorstep’, this would be madness, you just have to take ‘a day off’ and walk up what is Valencia’s most iconic mountain.

The full circular

Last time I walked the GR7 (on my E4 - Tarifa/Budapest trip) the weather was poor and I hardly saw the mountain. I  was down on the coast and long past it when it revealed itself for the first time and but its importance to the locals was immediately apparent.  In good weather you can see it for miles, it stands out like a sore thumb.  The mountain (Peñagolosa in Spanish - Penyagolosa in Valencian - golosa derived from collossal) at 1813m is not the highest in Valencia (pipped at the post by Cerro Calderón - 1838m) but it’s by far the most prominent.

Hiking through Castellón - Day 5 to Vistabella del Maestrazgo

Walking through Castellón is getting better and better.  Day 5 was wonderful and it’s hard to see how it can be topped.  The weather was perfect, it was a tough, challenging walk, and the scenery was absolutely amazing.  The only thing not to work was the discovery that the anticipated lunch stop, a restaurant in an ancient monastery, is only open at the weekend.  Even this wasn’t a disaster, however, because after a rushed last hour we managed to get to Vistabella del Maestrazgo before they stopped serving lunch. The drama of being the last people to arrive (3-30!) only added to the sense of achievement.

Hiking through Castellón - Day 4 to Villahermosa del Rio

If you’re on a relaxed schedule than Montanejos is an excellent place to stay for an extra day.  There is a good choice of great value accommodation and some brilliant local walks.  In particular, if you decided to visit Montan on the previous stage, and missed the Barranco de la Maimona, than you can complete an exciting, but quite short circular walk up the gorge on your ‘day-off’.  An excellent description of the route can be found by following this link.  It’s an 8km walk and can be combined with a swim in the springs.  The springs, which used to be the private preserve of a 13th Century Moorish King (and his harem), are supposed to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter and give Montanejos its spa status.

Day 4 itself is a full day’s walk, 27km long with around 1,000m of ascent and descent.  The walk splits neatly into two halves with San Vicente providing an ideal half-time stop-over point. The first half is tougher, involves a route that passing through densely wooded countryside and crosses a deep valley.  With all the hard climbing done the route then crosses a fairly flat, arid and open upland plain before making a steep descent into another valley accommodating the beautifully located Villahermosa.

Hiking through Castellón - Day 3 to Montanejos

Jerica is a good place to start a journey north through Castellon.  Located on the southern border with the province of Valencia (Valencia confusingly is an ‘autonomous community’, a province within that autonomous community and a major city) it’s the first of the chain of hilltop towns that make this walk special.  It’s easy to get to from the coast by train and has plenty of accommodation.

Approaching Caudiel

The day as described goes all the way to Montanejos is 28km long and with over 1500m of climb takes at least 8hrs.  There are two shorter options: the first a 14km walk to Mas de Noguera; and the second, a 22km walk to Montan. There is interesting accommodation at both places.  There are also two routes.  One, followed by the El Cid trail, tracks the GR160 and the other the GR7.

The most important difference is that the GR160 goes through Montan which the GR7 misses. The GR7 however heads into Montanejos via the fabulous Barranco de la Maimona, a gorge famous for its cliffs and water sports.  Montan is a lovely place, a personal favorite,  but the walk from Montan to Montanejos on the GR160 is pretty average compared to the GR7.  If you have enough time stay at Montan and next day retrace your steps slightly and then pick up the GR7 and head through the gorge to Montanejos.

Hiking through Castellón - Days 1 and 2 to Jerica

Although I'm really pleased with the walk through Castellón as a whole I wouldn't do the first two day's of my itinerary again.  It's a flat, fairly monotonous route with the first day in particular involving a lot of road walking. Cycling along this route, particularly given the wonderful weather we enjoyed, would have been brilliant. 

The roads followed on the first day were minor rural ones, which in Spain are virtually traffic free, and on the second day the route joins a disused railway line which, with its gentle gradients, was a perfect for cycling. The first three days of the walk through Castellón are based on the relatively new 'El Cid' route which extends over 1,000km and goes all the way from Burgos in NW Spain down to Elche on the SW coast.  The route is probably designed as an alternative to the popular Camino de Santiago and as well as walkers has been developed to attract road and off-road cyclists and even motorists. The website is brilliant providing trip notes, accommodation suggestions, and GPX trails with variants  for each type of traveler.

Hiking through Castellón

If you're a walker like me who is looking a challenge, somewhere different and not yet 'fashionable', and a route that takes you through great scenery to special places to sleep at the end of each day's hike than my suggested itinerary for Castellón should be interesting.  It combines remote walking (not hard in Spain) along ancient but largely abandoned footpaths with visits to a series of stunning hilltop towns. It's accessible from the UK and elsewhere (fly into Valencia or Barcelona) and a hike can be combined with visits to the wonderful cities of Tarragona and Valencia. It's easy to self-organise and the accommodation and food are excellent, interesting and great value.

Day 9 - Rota Vicentina to Cabo do San Vicente

Portuguese Shepherd

From Vila do Bospo to the end of the walk, the Cabo do San Vicente, is 14km. To avoid a simple repeat of the outward journey I walked the last Fishermen’s Way variant, which heads 6km along the coast from Cabo do San Vicente.  This variant is excellent which is just as well as the Historical route, the main route, is just a little dull.

The scenery on the main route has none of the valley walking I enjoyed on the previous two day's and spends most of its time crossing a huge open but fairly flat rock garden.  The multi-coloured vegetation, including broom, erica, lithodora lusitanica, rosemary and thyme provided some compensation on what would otherwise have been a pretty monotonous walk. I did meet a couple of shepherds, one of which was herding/shepherding a herd/flock of sheep/cattle/goats and was covered with an animal skin (not sure what type).  He was a bit bashful but the second let me take a picture of him.  I also met a couple of young Canadians who were walking up the Rota Vicentina and were trying to decide where to go in the summer.  Their short-list was the Alps or Iceland - not a difficult choice as far as I was concerned, so hopefully put them on the right track.