Route from the beach and up gully towards El Faro. Stay right of
gully.| El Faro from Gran
Vista, via beach and lighthouse El Faro |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (May 2009). |
| Parking | Several car parks around trail head. |
| Start height | 102 metres |
| Vertical metres | 160 for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 6.1 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Route from the beach and up gully towards El Faro. Stay right of
gully. |
If you take the costal road south from Alicante towards Santa Pola you will soon find yourself amongst the holiday resorts around Gran Alacant, of which one is Gran Vista. From Gran Vista follow the path down to the beach and onto the road that runs along the beach. When you hit the road turn right (south) and continue along the road until you get to two 90° bends, the first to the left and the second to the right. In the second bend you will see a sign that you now enter Santa Pola. If your starting point is something other than Gran Vista then make your way to these bends.
From the second of the two bends continue south along the road for 1.2 km. You will now see the El Faro lighthouse up on your right hand side, a little ahead of you. You will also see a gully that cuts into the mountain side. Cross the sparsely vegetated flat section to the base of the gully, and then follow the path up along the right hand side of the gully. The path eventually gets very vague, but by staying right of the gully there are numerous routes that will bring you up to the plateau. When at the plateau turn left and head across to the lighthouse, before heading back to where you entered the plateau. Now continue a little further north, onto the road, and you will find yourself at the very unattractive "summit" of El Faro. Continue along the road to get back to Gran Vista, approximately 1.4 km.
Since I had only done a short hike earlier on the day I felt like doing a second small hike this Sunday. The most obvious candidate was El Faro, which meant I didn't have to drive anywhere. After having run down to the beach and along the road I made my way up the gully towards El Faro. It was warm and sunny, but knowing that the pool was waiting for me after the hike I had no need to feel sorry for myself.
After the hike it was straight into the pool, before dinner and a couple of nice and cold beers.