The Serra Gelada Natural Park celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. For the city council, it is an important fact to highlight its ecological and environmental value, so they also made a short video clip about the park and the anniversary. It is in Spanish, although the landscape you can see, whether you understand the language or not, is already worth watching.
Although I have walked these paths countless times, especially the one leading to the lighthouse, I always like to see aerial footage as well as pictures from the other side of Serra Gelada. We once visited a part of this park that can only be approached from the sea by catamaran, where we saw these high cliffs and how completely different this mountain is from that other side.
What we usually see from the side of the town, gentle slopes covered with vegetation, gives a different picture. Tame. So attractive that people settled and built streets and houses in some parts, I assume before the territory was declared a natural park.
Birds and other small animals, such as squirrels, lived here before people arrived. Last Wednesday, when I walked here, I saw a few of them, but I have no proof in the form of a photo. Two quails ran across this path, and later, one squirrel came down from a tree, drank water from a puddle, and returned to the tree in its super-dexterous acrobatic act. It is as if they have all practised for the Animal Olympics, perfected their speed, and left people unable to photograph them. Ah, maybe I am just slow and no longer used to photographing scenes on my walks at all.
Anyway, something I got from this walk. Nice moments of tranquillity and that blue background - the blue blanket covering the shore and the cliffs, as I said to my husband the other day while talking about the sea.
The water was so calm in the bay that afternoon. It provided a perfect place for those having a little boat to come here and spend some time in the bay, maybe having a nap or taking a snack.
It is perfect to have such a watercraft to visit this paradise; however, even though one doesn't own a boat (like me), our feet can be used to reach these corners and enjoy the views. It is also much easier than some decades ago, when this asphalted path didn't exist.
It just happened in 1961 when this tunnel and the current path to the lighthouse were built. Before that, it was more challenging and dangerous to reach the part where the lighthouse is.
The text on the board explains when and how it was built. It says that drills were used to cut into the rock so the explosive could be placed there to open a bigger hole. There is also a question asking can we recognise the marks of the drill.
On the left side, we can clearly see these marks in the rock.
In this walk, I didn't make it to the lighthouse as I had a date with an old friend/former student, who was spending some weeks here in Spain, so we agreed to have a cup of coffee together. Somewhere here, around halfway to the lighthouse, I turned back, considering the time I would need to get back to the town.
The boats in the bay got smaller...
...but some rocks were growing huge in front of me!
No worries, the tunnel is there, I can pass it (interestingly, there is always light at the end of a tunnel, of course, in case you don't walk during the night 😁) and arrive at my meeting point without being late.