My name is Heidi and I come from Helsinki, Finland.

With my husband Olli-Pekka and our 3 dogs we live in Gran Alacant and enjoy the brilliant Mediterranean climate and possibility of discovering new hiking routes all over our Alicante province and sometimes even a bit further.

Ironically, I have a fear of heights, but I love the views from tops of the mountains too much to stay away. Our dogs are getting older so all the hikes need to be suitable for them too as they always go on our adventures with us. I also love photography and always take load of pictures from our hikes.

Barranc de Tarongers in Ontinyent, Valencia is a nice start for two separate hikes.

  • Driving Time: 1hr 10mins
  • Walking Time: 2-3 hours
  • Google maps directions: Aparcamiento interior Barranc de Tarongers, Ontinyent, Spain (But leave your car to the parking lot right next to CV-81)

1) You can choose to hike to Bocairent and back along the river with it’s mills. Or

2) You can make a circular hike to Alt del Castellar starting with the Bocairent route, but before the big mill you choose to continue up with the Castellar sign. You can see the circular route map in the small parking lot right next to the road CV-81. We went to the top, but also visited the biggest mill, the fabric factory too, which was just few hundred meters from the crossing of these two routes.

If you do the circular route, it’s about 6 km and if you go to Bocairent and back, it will be about 10,5 km.

Routes are well marked and easy to follow, but I recommend good mountain boots.

You can fill your water bottle at the fountain right at the start of the route. There’s also big Aldi close by if you just continue the road CV-81 downhill to the roundabout. You can get your snack and drinks from there too.

Quite soon after starting the route you will pass a rock climbing area. After that you will begin to see the remains of five water mills that were mostly used as flour mills and as textile factories. The raw materials were brought into the ravine by animals. Materials were coming mainly from the towns of Banyeres de Mariola and Bocairent, but depending on the demand, they were also supplied from the livestock areas of Castellón, Teruel and Castilla.

These mills were active until the 50s of the last century. Due to the electrical restrictions, some of them would become hydroelectric power stations abandoning their main activity for what they were built.

We were lucky and saw some Spanish wild goats over the parking lot area on top of the mountain. So keep your eyes open!

As the summer is getting hotter, the following months we’ll introduce few amazing natural pools you can dip into while seeing sights.

Next month we go on foot again,
Hasta luego,
Heidi & Olli

Check List:
Always when going on hikes check that:

Your Mobile Phone is fully charged
Water – climbing up is hard job & you will need it
Snacks (Remember to take all the garbage back down with you!)
Have good shoes for walking
Have small first aid kit with you
Have layered clothes. Up hill might be
– very windy and cold, even on a warm day.
– Coming down might be chilly, so extra dry
– t-shirt to change into if needed is not a bad idea

Always tell someone where you are going and when you’ll approx. be coming back