We went to the border of Valencia and Castelleon to explore the impressive Cueva de Cerdaña as well as see wind turbines and beautiful scenery. We followed parts of the GR7, took some detours and made new four-legged friends.
The walk started from Mas de Noguera, a small collection of houses and a duck pond with ducks and geese. We followed a broad and flat path for a short while before turning on to an actual trail. The trail varied in width, often only wide enough for single file. The terrain varied from compact mud, to stones and shingle on this trail and we enjoyed the colourful trees and views across the valley. One of the highlight of this part was seeing deer running across the higher parts of the mountains. They were well camouflaged against the rocks and trees and leapt over the area with ease. There were also a few areas of this path that were exposed and we really felt the wind, fortunately the majority of the path had trees and braken to act as wind breaks.
As we headed up to the wind farm, we enjoyed spectacular views of the area. One our route, we could go right up to the wind turbines to fully appreciate their size and speed. The hamsters, which run around inside the turbines to make them rotate, were doing a great job and producing plenty of electricity.
After exploring a ram-shackled old house, which we decided we could rennovate and plug into the nearby turbine we headed down hill for a bit and away from the wind farms. We took a brief stop at a well preserved well to drink in the scenery before continuing downwards.
The hamsters were working hard and well, well, well, what do we have here then.
The path to the cave was mostly through forest and had a lot of loose stones. When we came out the forest, shortly before the cave we saw a viewpoint… well a big rock that we could climb up. The rock had plenty of hand and footholds for climbing although the wind meant that we had to go up cautiously. The climb was worth it. We could see the wind farm in one direction and the valley and mountains in the other direction, it was certainly a recommended detour.
Going down, admiring the view and walking towards the cave.
A few minutes more walking, mainly across rocky platforms and we arrived at the cave. Most importantly we found a very friendly and very good cave dog who enjoyed lots of petting. The entrance to Cueva de Cerdaña is rather unremarkable and could easily be missed without signage, however the inside is anything but!
The cave opens into a grand chamber with many impressive stalitites and stalimites. There is a wide area at the start of the cave where you can look and admire and eat lunch or you can go further into the cave to explore. Exploring the cave can involve some climbing and scrambling depending on which way you go. Much of the Cueva de Cerdaña can be explored using natural light but torches were really useful as we went deeper and further back. The cave is unspoilt, inhabited only by bats and often the cave dog who takes himself there. There are tunnels and caverns that experienced cavers with the correct equipment would probably love.
Who’s a good dog, the enterance to the cave and exploring the Cueva de Cerdaña.
After a thorough exploration of the cave, we exited back into the light. From here it was downhill all the way. Again the trail was single file for the first half and unlike going up, reasonably steep in parts. The trail lead through forest again and zig-zagged down which allowed us to fully appreciate the landscape.
We arrived back on the broad trail where we started and headed back to the car park. To our delight by the cars we found cave dog, THE dog and some puppies. All the dogs were very friendly and this give me an excuse to put photos of dogs in this article. It was a fun hike with plenty of points of interest along the way as well as the fantastic cave which was brilliant for exploring.
Going down and good dogs.