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WALK 3

Serra Segaria

Start/finish	Benimeli
Distance	6km
Grade	Moderate
Time	3hrs
Terrain	Mainly on good paths
Height gain	350m
Map	Costa Blanca Mountains (Discovery)
Access	From the N332 coast road take the CV 715 through Xalo towards Pego and turn off right at Sagra on the CV 729 to Rafol and Benimeli.
Parking	On the main road below the village.

On the Costa Blanca all ridges are measured against the magnificent Bernia and inevitably tend to be found wanting. But in any other company the Segaria would be rightly lauded, a cockscomb of limestone pinnacles that catches the eye of travellers on the road to Pego. This relatively short walk climbs an old mule track to the ridge to visit some prehistoric ruins before making its way around the back of the mountain on waymarked paths to return to the start. It provides fine views out of all proportion to the scant time and effort it demands.

From the main road walk up into the village where there are two squares, the smaller being the Placa Rector Domenech. Leave this by its top right hand corner towards the ridge. Almost immediately go up a flight of steps into Carrer Calvari. From the top of the steps turn left aiming for the small Stations of the Cross, each in its small white shrine on a path marked with green and white flashes. This whole walk follows a recently designated and improved SL, the CV-109, but in places it is also marked with the yellow and white flashes of the PR-CV network.

Station of the Cross depicting Christ's first fall is passed on the way to the first col

Follow the Stations up another flight of steps and keep going until you pass between two water tanks. From the top of the Stations turn half left beside a wire fence and passing a pair over even older Stations, making your way towards a deep gully leading up to the ridge. The path climbs steadily up the barranc to a col where it reaches two marker posts

Although this path is now very dilapidated the remains of pitching and steps suggest it was once an important route, probably supplying a Moorish fort on the top. Just by the marker posts is a dry well and water trough where the mules, which once used the trail, were watered and rested after their climb. The post also points the way to the Poblat Iberic, the remains of a village that has been dated back to around the third century BC.

One PR-CV carries on straight ahead but another joins the SL109 in going left, as indicated by the post to weave up overgrown terraces aiming for the transmitter aerials on the ridge above. Go up this. At the ridge the path encounters a tarmac road and a picnic area with stone benches and tables, which provide a handy spot for a welcome rest. The path continues up the road to squeeze between the buildings of the transmitter station and aerials and then carries on along the ridge, first on the north side and then the south with the double summit of the Segaria ahead.

Summit towers of the Serra Segaria above the prehistoric Iberian ruins

The views have opened up in all directions. To the north the coastal plain and rice-growing marshes stretch away while to the east Montgo is seen from a particularly impressive angle and to the south the ridges of the Cavall Verd and the Bernia stand out from a crowd of peaks. The Segaria itself is revealed as a broad crest stretching away to a pair of huge rocky towers.

The paths comes to a belvedere at the foot of the first tower with fine views of the archaeological remains clinging like swallows’ nests to its side. From here the route becomes a serious scramble and this is the end of the road for walkers.

Return to the picnic area and from just below it a path, signed with green and white flashes, heads off downhill through the dwarf palms of the northern slope. It plunges steeply down at first before starting to trend generally leftwards across the slope until finally curving right to rejoin the road. Turn left down this for five minutes to reach a house with a large concrete water tank beside it. Just above the tank a track goes off left signed to Benimeli.

It drops gently across the hillside and eventually joins a farm track. Turn left along this as it curls round the end of the ridge. About five minutes further on it meets a concrete waterpipe and the path breaks off to follow it downhill briefly before the green and white flashes of the SL indicate a left turn down abandoned terraces making for Benimeli and entering the village close to the Placa Major.