Altea, Dénia, Xàbia… are towns in the Marina Baixa region of Alicante that invite you to lounge around, eat good rice dishes and be seduced by a charming architecture that is a pure expression of the Mediterranean. However, the rocky bodyguard they have in the West incites the imagination of those who, in addition to enjoying the dolce far niente, have an inclination to discover unusual landscapes. There is the Serra de Bèrnia to offer very good opportunities.
They are nine linear kilometers of rocky wall of calcareous material that shows its teeth to the sky, and they appear somewhat threatening. Its paths have traditionally been traveled by shepherds, bandits, merchants, farmers who went from one farm to another, pilgrims in search of blessed hermitages, soldiers who posted themselves in the military fort.
Now it is a sensational playground for hikers and lovers of nature in general and geological phenomena in particular. Because Bèrnia, being an immense karst, offers capricious stone in abundance and an unusual or unusual landscape phenomenon: a natural corridor that pierces the heart of the massif and allows a change of slope.
To baptize it, popular wisdom did not complicate life. He is called El Forat (The Hole). And indeed, located at the western end of the wall, a triangular hole opens that invites one to think that it is the previous passage to a cave or chasm. However, when you stick your nose into the hole, you can see light at about twenty-five meters, a white dot. You have to bend down and in the central section even walk on all fours to move to the opposite slope.
The most spectacular thing is to do it in a south-north direction, since it begins through a narrow passage with little visibility -it is advisable to go with a flashlight, although the journey is so short that it can be done without it- and it appears in an opening in the shape of of arc that frames the coast of Altea, the valley of Guadalest and the rocky tip of the Serra Gelada. In the immediate landscape, the mosaic of terraced farm fields, some already abandoned.
The shepherds who moved generous flocks of sheep and goats were the ones who had traditionally used El Forat, so that the cattle would move from the desert north side to the more luxuriant south, with vegetation not too succulent, but enough for such long-suffering animals. Of course, it would be necessary to attend to the way to convince such scary bugs to enter through a dark hole.
Today, well-equipped hikers – the terrain lacks water, you have to wear good shoes and be prepared for a strong wind – will find a mineral desert that leads to interesting historical places such as the ruins of the fortress that was built in this place early seventeenth century. It was supposed to protect this Alicante coast from Berber incursions, but it failed because it was too far from the beaches and excessively isolated.
Another spectacle created by human beings is also fascinating: the cave paintings of the Vicari hermitage, made by the inhabitants of the area between seven thousand and two thousand years ago.
An accessible way to start the walk to El Forat is to go to the nucleus of Les Cases de Bèrnia and let yourself be guided by the paint marks and some signs of the CV-7 short-distance path. If you are a good walker, the complete return to the sierra taking advantage of the natural path takes about three hours and is full of sensational encounters with plants such as the fan palm and small herds of Hispanic goats with impressive horns.
Les Cases de Bèrnia is 15 kilometers from Altea, following the innumerable curves of the CV-75 road.
