LENGTH: 5.4 km Circular Route.
DURATION: 3 hours.
DIFFICULTY: AVERAGE
START. Sanctuary: “Ermita del Pare Pere”…………From the city centre of Dénia (Pl. Jaume I), go by the road, Camí Pou de la Muntanya up to the Sanctuary at Ermita Pare Pere, which is 100 m above. The dirt path starts where there is an information panel next to a chain which stops the vehicles going through.
Continue hiking and turn left at the fork of Camí de la Colònia. After a few metres, exit this road and take the upward path towards the Cave: Cova de L’Aigua. Then pass through a shady area of Montgó which has been declared a micro-reserve, and has a wide variety of plant species, including endemic species in danger of extinction.
Following on, continue to walk along that path and you will arrive at the cave entrance after climbing up several very steep steps and you will see 3 compartments which were once used as water reservoirs long ago. It is only possible to access this, the cave’s initial section. The visit requires a torch and the cave is frequently flooded so do not visist after heavy rainfall.
COVA DE L’AIGUA
The cave entrance has a Roman inscription dated 238 A.D. Ruins have also been found inside, which provide evidence that the cave was used in the Iberian Age, or in the 4th and 5th centuries, as a place of worship and subsequently in the Islamic period. It even had clay pipe channels to supply water to the settlement which existed in one section of the Montgó mountainside in the 16th and 17th centuries.
RACÓ DEL BOU
Return on the same path and at approximately 200 m, take the bypass to the left towards Racó del Bou. First, you will see an ascending section and then it descends until it connects to the end of Camí de la Colònia on the West where you follow it to return to the starting point.
