Costa Blanca north
Normally we spend our days in the towns in Costa Blanca. However today we want to spend a day in a more adventurous way, we go exploring four caves. We find these caves in the Marina Alta area, around Dénia and Jávea. They all have an amazing and fascinating history, two of them are on land, and the other two are marine caves. Come and explore with us!
The Skull Cave
This cave (Cueva de las Calaveras) is a true jewel of nature with a great archaeological value located in the municipality of Benidoleig. When you come by car, the entrance is on the main road between Pedreguer and Benidoleig. They found evidence that the cave was habited for 50.000 years a.C. Once inside it will feel like time has stopped when you visit the 440 meters of natural space that nature created over time. We can see and appreciate the stalactites, stalagmites, and the beautiful domes over 20 meters tall.
You can find more information about this wonderful cave, opening hours, and entrance fees on their website.
The cave of Rull
José Vicente Mengual, also known as Uncle Rull discovered this cave in the Ebo Valley (Valle d’Ebo) in 1919. His dog chased a rabbit when he was hunting and entered a hole without coming out. Desperate to get his dog back uncle Rull sends a ferret into the hole hoping this would get the dog to come back out. But to no avail, the dog didn’t return. Only the next day when José came back to remove stones from the entrance to look for his dog, he found the entrance to the cave that now bears his name.
Because of tourism Uncle Rull decided to open the cave to the public in the sixties. The town hall owns this cave at the present moment and it has been open to the public since 1995.
For more information about this beauty of nature, the opening schedule, and how to get there visit the website.
We thought we would save the most spectacular caves in the Marina Alta, at least in our humble opinion, for last. We travel from the mountainous terrain of the first two caves to the rocky coast of Jávea. Where nature, with the help of man-kind, has constructed the next two amazing natural beautiful sites. However, because of their location, they are not the easiest accessible places to find.
Cova del Llop Mari
This is the smaller of the two marine caves and it is located near Cabo de la Noa in Jávea. They gave it this name because they found out that many years ago sea lions came to breed in the cave. And the Valencian word for sea lion is Llop Mari. The cave is almost impossible to enter by foot, you will have to swim, dive or paddle to it from the nearby beach or boat. The town hall of Jávea has prohibited motorized vehicles to enter the cave to not disturb the natural wildlife.
Cova Tallada
The second marine cave is Cova Tallada, which means the carved cave. As the name already implies they used it to extract stone from it, according to discoveries since the Muslim Era. Even the Church of San Bartolomé in Jávea has been build with the stones they extracted from this cave. They also found remains from the twelfth century that indicates that it was already used in Roman times.
This cave is accessible from both Jávea and Dénia and obviously also from the sea while diving, swimming, or kayaking. In Jávea look for the PR-CV 355 walking path next to the Jeronimos Monastery. Be aware that this route takes about two hours, so be prepared and better not do the route on the hottest summer days.
The access from Dénia is the shorter one, about 40 minutes, and starts at the area of Les Rotes. However shorter the sign at the entrance of this path already warns that the difficulty level is high and especially the last part to the access of the cave can be extremely hard with young children. Then you better rent a boat and sail along the coast to get there.
We hope you liked this blog about somewhat different activities than you are used to reading from us. For any comments, or tips that you want to read about feel free to contact us. We will be happy to dedicate our blogs to the ideas our readers have.
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