HIKING IN THE "MAR MENOR" AREA

 

Hi there!

I created this new section in my blog to post all those hiking trails I have explored in the "Mar Menor" area. This area is located in the COSTA CÁLIDA  (the warm coast) and it is full of beautiful trails where you and your two-legged friends/family can enjoy both, the mountain and the sea at the same time. Let's start it!:

MORRA ALTA

Here I am in the picture with my human and some friends exploring the trail of EL GORGUEL. Our amazing guide is the one taking the picture 😜

El Gorguel is a beach near Portman, a small fishing village. This beach is surrounded by mountains with different hiking trails to enjoy. Have your human take a look to this link:

HIKING IN GORGUEL AND PORTMAN

This time, I took my human friends to the top of the MORRA ALTA mountain. Just next to GORGUEL BAY BEACH, it is a 354 meters-tall mountain with beautiful views and some cliffs from where you can get relaxed just looking at the blue sea. The trail has moderate difficulty and it took au 3 hours to go up to the top and come back to the starting point.

After walking that much, we were thirsty and hungry, son we went to LOS TRES PACOS BAR. It is a local bar and restaurant located in Portman popular for its "rice with octopus" and other tapas, all of them delicious!!!. I highly recommend you to take your humans there. Dogs are always welcome! 😃😎

BATERÍA DE CENIZAS

Hi everyone!

Today, I along with my four-legged friends Blanca and Rita, took our two-legged families to BATERIA DE CENIZAS (Ashes' battery).

 There are different trails to get there. We started in PLAYA DEL LASTRE (Lastre's beach) in Portman. It is the beach that you can see in the picture above. BATERIA DE CENIZAS is located in MONTE CENIZAS (Ashes' mountain) 305 meters above the sea level. It took us around 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there and the difficulty is moderate. 

BATERIA DE CENIZAS, also known as C-9, is a Spanish coastal artillery support fortification, built and armed between 1930 and 1934. Once you arrive at the top, besides beautiful views...

you can see two 17-meter vicker-38 cannons and some buildings where the military worked and kept the ammunition. Its entrance is a large Mayan-Toltec style doorway inspired by the Temple of the Warriors Banks in the ruins of CHICHÉN ITZÁ in Mexico. It simulates two giant feathered serpents. In 1993, the BATERIA CENIZAS was put out of service and on August, 7th, it was declared an asset of cultural interest. 

Look at us! my friends Blanca to the right and Rita to the left. We make a great team!

To go back to the starting point of our trail, we took LA CALZADA ROMANA, a roadway built by the Romans when they conquered this part of Spain. The Romans used this roadway to transport the minerals that they extracted from the mountains of CARTAGENA REGION (silver in La Unión town and lead, tin and copper in CABO DE PALOS ). 

 Here I am with my friend Blanca at the starting point of this Roman roadway. She is suggesting me taking our humans to EL CUBANO BAR-RESTAURANT that is at the Lastre´s Beach, where we started our trail. 

It was a great idea since we all were thirsty and a little hungry!

REGIONAL PARK "CALBLANQUE"

Calblanque is a set of small beaches. Its name comes from Playa Blanca because that is what the sailors who live in this area called it, due to the contrast between the light color of the dunes and the dark color of the cliffs. 

There are many trails to explore in CALBLANQUE, today my little sister Rita and myself, took hour humans to one of these trails. 

We started on the FOSSIL DUNE TRAIL. They are made of white rocks that are more than 10,000 years old. The sands of the ancient seabed were exposed with the drop in sea level and were petrified by the action of calcium carbonate contained in the remains of mammalian animals.

After walking for about 15 minutes, you will arrive at THE RASALL SALT LAKE, where you all can enjoy beautiful views.

 A little further up, you can find a spot to observe the birds that are around the salt lake.

 

After that, you will see this signs:

 I suggest taking your humans to the trail toward the  MIRADOR DE PUNTA NEGRA (the black point lookout), although before you arrive, you will be able to see other nice things such as CALA DORADA (the golden beach), the color of its sand is the product of the incessant beating of the waves on the rocks of the surrounding mountains that the rain dragged down the ravines or brought from the sea. With a magnifying glass, you can see that its sand is made up of materials of different colors.

Just next to this cozy beach, you can see another beatiful place PUNTA ESPADA (sword point). During the formation of these mountains, the great tectonic forces (that consolidated and pushed the rocks) caused them to bend, bringing about a lying fold formed by black schists.

Here I am with my litle siste Rita and my human 💙 

If you keep walking a little more, you will finally arrive at the BLACK POINT LOOKOUT, where you can enjoy beautiful views of the sea, the cliffs of PUNTA BARRIGA (belly point) or THE ANTS ISLANDS, among other nice things. 

This is it! The whole trail took us 2 hours and its difficulty is low, so it is ideal to take your whole family.

 We hope you all enjoy it as much as we did!

"LOS BELONES" FOUNTAIN

      Hi guys! Here I am again with my friend Blanca and my four-legged buddies! All of them are great!

This time, Blanca and myself took them to an amazing trail. We started in "LOS BELONES" FOUNTAIN. It is located in Los belones a small town that belongs to Cartagena´s district. It is strategically located in the mountains, near La Manga del Mar Menor town, the Calblanque Regional Park and La Manga Glof Resort. 

You can find its fountain at the foot of the "Cantalar or Cabezo de la Fuente" hill. It is a spring of water that rises under the rocks and that in 1808 the brothers, Manuel and José Bellón requested a channel to supply water to the livestock watering hole.

From this point you can find several trails that can take you to the wonderful "Calblanque" beaches and "Las Mulas" beach, as well as, enjoy the Calblanque Park and the Mountain of Ashes.

We decided to take a circular route from "Los belones fountain" that goes up to the highest point of the "el cabezo" mountain (337 meters of high), where you can enjoy a spectacular view. 

Then, we went down all the way through the ravine of "Las cobaticas" to the beaches of Calblanque ("Las Lomas del Negrete", "Cala de Parreño" and "Cala del Reventón")... 

.... where you can have a break, eat something or maybe swim a little if you like.

 Here we are! Blanca and I enjoying the beach together 😀😎 

Once we finished our break, we took a trail which skirts the beaches passing by "Punta del Hacho and "Cala del Hunco", to return to our starting point. 

This trail takes around 2.30 or 3 hours in total and its difficulty is moderate, so it is safe four your human family!

Well..., this is it for today. I will let you know the next hiking trail I have found out.

SEE YOU IN THE NEXT ADVENTURE!