Malla del Llop (1357m)

You are at: Home > Quatretondeta walks > Malla del Llop

The first walk of the holiday was on the Sierra de Serrella ridge just south of Quatretondeta. The minibus dropped us in the village of Facheca, a short drive from Quatredonteta. From Facheca we walked west along the Seta valley to the next village of Farmoca, from where we ascended the slopes leading to the ridge.

After a while we arrived at our first snow well, also referred to as Neveras or ice houses, which are popular places of interest in the mountains of the Alicante region. The ice houses are huge, with the largest having a capacity of over 1 million litres of ice. They date from the 14th to 17th century and were used up to the end of the 19th Century. Some of the ice was even exported to North Africa.

Many of the ice houses have roofs, so if you are in this area and you have not met one before, do NOT use them as a shelter from a storm - there are entrances that look like doors - but have no warning, and you would step on a very large drop.

From the ice house we soon gained the main ridge of the Serrella just east of the Pico de Serrella (1319m). We then walked up to the peak (lunch) and continued along the ridge to reach the summit of Malla del Llop. From the summit we descended to a valley, Barranco de Canal, between two prominent rocky ridges. A golden eagle was spotted flying above the rocks. Lower down we had a short climb out of the valley to pick up a path which led down to a forestry track.

Most of the party continued down this track to pick up a path that led to the village of Castell de Castells. Unfortunately one of our party was unwell, and so the three of us stayed here until Brian came out from Quatretondeta in his car to take us back to Els Frares.

Back to: Home > Quatretondeta walks > top

Full set of photos available via flickr.

This page was last updated on 18th March 2011.