Just some weeks ago I was enjoying a completely different Monday than today. Today will be just a normal day, with work, a rehearsal and some inevitable common tasks, but Easter Monday was a unique one. We went to Chulilla with our friends, a small village that some of your already could see here some weeks ago.
The village itself was not the goal to visit. We wanted to do the route of the hanging bridges which goes between the walls of the mountains, following the course of the river Turia. However, there were too many people. We could not enter that path as the access to it was closed because of the crowd. When you go super hyped for something, as was the case with me, and you can not achieve it, a bit of disappointment attacks your mood. I have wanted to do that route already for months, if not even more. A year, or so. But that is what we had. We were offered to wait an hour and a half at the entrance or go to the village and Charco Azul, which were free to visit. Going home was not an option. Two of us wanted to stay, two wanted to go to the village and the fifth member of our small gang was neutral.
We flipped a coin!!!
Yes, the coin decided what we were doing that day, as we used it later for several other decisions too. That was so funny, the mood immediately improved and we headed on foot towards the village. (note - because of the crowd, there was no parking plot so we had to find a free spot by the road, far away). When we approached the village Chulilla, the view amazed me. You can see the same in the first photo of this post. Awesome, isn't it?
Arriving at the village we have seen several boards with the hiking paths that can be opted for. There are also climbing zones, in fact, we saw a few people climbing the almost vertical walls of the huge rocks. From there, to our destination, Charco Azul we had to find Chulilla Barony Square and then take the path marked as SL-CV 74.
Already in the village, from the square, we followed the signs. There were some caves, that we didn't visit as we already spent more time than we planned. Well, that whole walking to the village was not planned, but once we saw the sign to Charco Azul, the hopes to be finally in nature started to feel closer.
The first part of that route was a bit steep. It consists of the descent to the bottom of the Turia Canyon, so logically we had to go down focused on where we step all the time. There were some forks, towards someone's house where we saw some interesting contemporary artworks scattered in the yard, but we continued towards the river.
Observing the canyon with its vertical walls was a great source of pleasure for me. It maybe sounds weird, why would those rocks mean anything, how they can bring happiness to someone. Those are just some rock formations... But just imagine, how much time was needed for their formation?! A lot of water from the river Turia passed there to make that landscape.
The canyon can be seen from that spot from where I saw the village still approaching it. Impressive view, in my opinion!! But don't listen to me, decide for yourself is it indeed that great or not:
Once we were down, we reached a small natural pool next to the place called Peña Judía. It was a spot where families had a nice time and picnic. Chilling time was voted for us too, and some food came out of our backpacks. That place, Peña Judía, was sheltered by a riverside forest.
There were those who entered the water. It was shallow, and no real swimming skills were required to take a bath, but after a short rest and food and water intake, we continued our hiking adventures.
So, we continued to walk towards Charco Azul. We had to pass some small wooden bridges crossing the river.
Sometimes we had to go through the rocks, but don't worry, we didn't need superpowers. We had the road secured and open:
The day was warming up, the sun worked that day for us and provided a beautiful day. Although, we didn't complain when we could enjoy a bit of shed. The vegetation consists of pine trees, shrubs, reeds, and other trees.
The path was not so long, soon, we arrived at the destination. Charco Azul. Who speaks Spanish knows that Charco means puddle, pool. Azul is blue. Although, the colour of it is indeed something between blue and green, well turquoise is the better description, but the name is not connected to the colour of it. It comes from the Arabic term "azud" - weir, which indicates the existence of a small dam in the zone that was used to irrigate the orchards of Chulilla.
So, in the 12th century, the Muslims who lived in this area built a dam on the Turia riverbed which allowed them to irrigate the orchards around the settlement. Agriculture was already developed here. Nowadays, we can still see many orchards with fertile land, thanks to the water from the river. The pool, which was used for irrigation back in time was nice, not too big, but again too many people have gathered around. We took a super short rest, observing some more adventured ones who found a path to go along the rock walls. I was ok just sitting on that wooden dock.
From here, we could go just back, as the canyon here is too narrow, it can not be passed from this point. However, not to go back on the same trail, we crossed the river (on an improvised path made from some rocks) and took an elevated path with bridges and walkways.
In the XX century, this small dam and the water from it were used as a source of electricity. A small hydroelectric power plant was built there (actually a small building that is now not used anymore for its initial purpose) and these paths were used to approach it. We also saw many holes in the rock walls, I suppose they were part of the hydroelectric power plant project, canaling the water, but I am not sure. Maybe those holes were already here for the irrigation system from the 12th century?
One of my favourite parts of this route was this bridge. On one side was the irrigation canal, on the other side down was the forest and up we were surrounded by the vertical rock walls. I was amazed again.
The trail continued, still up in the middle section. Narrow paths, that after some time started to descend slowly. I also loved this section, well you could ask yourself was there something that I didn't like?
Oh yes, it was. The fact we couldn't visit the longer hanging bridges route, but in the end, this one was super interesting too.
Once on the initial level of our route and walking again by the river, we headed back to the village but with a different transit. We didn't climb the path from where we came down but instead did a long walk through nature and this landscape. Finally, we reached the village from its other side, still enjoying the presence of the small bridges and pools.
After arriving at the civilisation, we also climbed to the fortress, but don't worry, the story of it will not come now. We hiked enough for this post, don't you agree?
Also, I can assure you, that evening when we went back to the home of our friends in Valencia (we stayed with them for some days doing these hiking adventures), the homemade veggie dinner tasted perfect and we all slept more than well.
That place is so cool! Huge rock walls and water at the bottom. Perfect :D
Now back to work!
Unfortunately 😂
I was missing this in the previous comment... :p
Yeaaa... you tell 'em!
😂
I told them...
😂
I think we either need to switch lives or locations at least 😆
This looks so fun, especially with friends, I would have loved this adventure.
I don't have these adventures every day either :))
It was during my Easter break, so we could use it for fun stuff 😎
I don't have fun ever 😆 so I will take even a bit of it.
Good day @mipiano 👋🏻☀️
What a shame that after so much anticipation you couldn’t go on that walk. But you did find some treasure. Wow… So beautiful. The surrounding nature.
Love this walk. The views, the straight rocks, the water and platoon to walk on.
Amazing… would love to walk this one, one day 😎
Have a wonderful start of the new week!
In every bad there is good, so in the end, this Charco Azul also turned out to be interesting, but yeah, I wanted that other route. We picked the busiest day haha, it was Easter Monday and nobody works that day here. All the families were out, in nature, but why did so many have to pick the same destination as we lol?
Anyway, all was fun, the coin made many decisions that day 😂😂
I am sure you have heard of Caminito del Rey. So that is a route I also wanted to do one day... Chulilla could offer me a similar experience with that route of hanging bridges but so far it still stays on the bucket list ;))
Thank you for stopping by, have a great Monday evening you too 😇
Yes, Easter Monday was busy everywhere. I know it always is busy in Spain.
Even in England where I was at that time.
To bad they decided to go all to your walk 🤣😂 Hope you can go there one day again when it is not busy. And walk it.
It’s fun to let a coin decide hahaha
Walked the caminito 2 times now. 😎 it is indeed stunning. Maybe I post it one day as made loads of photos. You should try to do it one day. It is an amazing experience… also the surrounding lakes and forest are worth to include on that walk.
You are so welcome @mipiano 😁
Good evening 👋🏻
Oh, you walked the Caminito twice?? That's cool! I would so much like to do it also, but that when we visit Andalucia again one day. Actually, the Easter break was a free choice of where we would go. The idea to go to Andalucia crossed my mind, but then my friends invited us to their home one afternoon. The next morning we were installed in their house lol! It didn't take much time to think :D
It was pretty cool 😎
You have to visit one day Andalusia 😉 maybe one day… I let you know when I post some photos of my first visit, one day about it.
The second time wasn’t great but that was because we (a friend and me) got attacked by a swarm of wasps 😑😬
A tip: They do have tickets for the caminito most of the time and when they release them they are gone quickly as only a certain amount of people a day are allowed. So keep that in mind. They do a few days/ weeks at a time… Get tickets first before you go to Andalusia and the caminito.
Aha, I understand… especially when friends invite you. It is an easy choice then. Hehehe
When you post, don't forget to let me know :)))
Oh no , a swarm of wasps?? OMG....
Yeah, I checked also the tickets and saw nothing available 😂
The same when we went to Granada - Alhambra, we bought the tickets some two or three weeks before we went there. Though a friend of mine risked and went without a reservation or ticket and could enter. I don't know what magic he has done to get in to Alhambra without previous reservation 😅
It was. And it was super!! 😇
Oki doki 😁
Yep, got 14 stings all over and needed to get to the pharmacy to get antihistamine and cream to get the allergic reaction down. I survived… clearly hehehe
That won’t work for the caminito I’m afraid…( hehehe he was lucky )… as there are not all days of the year that the caminito is open, and when the amount of people per day is not much.
Great to hear… so well worth it.😁😎
The coin did a great job and I would have come here even if I didn't have to flip a coin. Waiting for an hour and half doesn't seem very pleasant and I imagine it would have been packed with people once you entered, probably making it not a very nice experience.
That waiting thing was not very inviting, and yes, it was not granted that we would enjoy it. You are right, it would have been just too busy.
I guess we picked the busiest in the year to go there 😁
Still, it is staying as a wish, I just have to make my friends want to repeat the journey there 😇
It seems that you are very nature-loving. it's very interesting to me that you express it in such details👌👌
You are right. We are nature lovers, and many times when we have the opportunity to spend some time in nature, we choose the mountains. For closer destinations, we are ok with the sea and more modest hills or forest, river... :)
Thank you @discouragedones for reading my blog posts 😇
It is so stunning to see the vertical rock walls surrounding the lake whose water is green like jade. I'm glad that your group flipped a coin to decide what to do instead of going home haha. That was a wonderful idea, and you guys had a great day, right :)
We indeed had a great day (days) together, and can't wait to meet them again. The spot was absolutely stunning, I was sorry for not being able to fulfil the initial plan, but the coin decided well hahaha. Thank you @trangbaby for your visit, hope you are doing well 🤗
Hiya, @lizanomadsoul here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Honorable Mentions in Daily Travel Digest #1551.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
thank you @lizanomadsoul 😇
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
😍