There are many ways to dive in the summer: arriving in a camper to the most inaccessible beach, searching the seabed for everything that we cannot find outside with our diving goggles, burying our feet in the night sand under the reeds of a beach bar or enter coastal caves aboard a kayak. However, one of the most exciting (and simple) ways consists of spying on the sea for just over an hour until we take the final dip, like the best summer seduction game.
The Route of the Cliffs of Alicante (also known as Penya-Segats) proposes an adventure that connects two of the most beautiful beaches of El Poble Nou de Benitatxell, a town located between the paradisiacal towns of Moraira - to the south - and Xàbia - to the north -.
From a superlative blue to old policemen's houses that seem frozen in time, we put on our trekking shoes (and our booties in our backpacks) to succumb to one of the most fascinating coastal hiking routes in our country.
Upon reaching the Cala del Moraig car park, the blue color takes over the entire view. Far below, the chromatic fantasy embraces a sandy beach that looks like sugar, and the cliffs promise to share all their secrets if you dare to descend the marked route. Large, small and pets: the Alicante Cliffs Route takes just an hour and a half at a slow pace and is a low-difficulty journey that invites you to let yourself be carried away by all the charms between the Moraig cove and the Llebeig cove .
From the starting point, nothing better than melting into the pines, down the road, through a path once frequented by horses loaded with contraband tobacco, and fishermen who used to risk their lives to catch squid at midnight. The traces of history appear once we leave the Moraig cove behind to camouflage ourselves in the bowels of the coastline.
An example is found in the cave of les Morretes, the first of the excavations erected by ancient farmers that we will find along the route: "the caves on the route were temporary homes, normally used by people who had dry land and carob trees nearby, and they used to stay overnight”, says Quico Llobell Marqués, Culture technician of the El Poble Nou de Benitatxell Town Hall. "In the case of Les Morretes, it is the only cave that contains an oven, since they used to make bread."
The viewpoint of the Cueva de les Morretes also allows you to obtain a unique panoramic view of the Moraig cove, the Cova dels Arcs and the Moraig fault, an almost vertical rocky wall, formed during the Late Miocene - 11 million years ago - which protects the underwater entrance to the Riu Blanc.
A walker behind, another waving as they pass, while the background tapestry takes us back to an eternal summer in the form of clouds that appear among the pines, seagulls reaching the peaks and the magical uncertainty of not knowing what the path will bring us. Some detached rocks camouflage the Cova del ti Domingo l`Abiar. And a little further on, on the coastline known as Els Pegats, the Pepet el Morret cave completes the gallery of old dwellings built into the cliff itself.
You know you are close when you reach Punta de L'Aldera and begin the descent to a unique Mediterranean oasis, almost a mirage. In the distance, a group of white houses seem pushed by the Widow's ravine against the sea, forming a timeless postcard where we could stay the rest of the summer.
Considered one of the last semi-virgin beaches in Alicante, Cala Llebeig speaks of contraband, new blues and fishermen's shacks by the sea. The history of the Alicante coast cannot be understood without this corner controlled by the carver during the pirate and berber conquests of the 16th century to ensure that no one had accessed land. Over time, Cala Llebeig became the main access shortcut for smugglers who brought tobacco, sugar and even Manila shawls from the large ships docked in the city of Alicante, a reason that led to the promotion of the construction of police posts to control this activity at the end of the 19th century.
The passage of history still breathes among these white houses with blue doors, and external cane roofs where the daily catch used to be hung. And in the back, a boat that someone forgot, another with the name of a mermaid tattooed or the presence of covets, excavations in the reddish rock itself to store fishing gear.
The Llebeig cove is made of gravel and invites you to take off your sarong. Its arrangement is disorderly, between large rocks and posidonia fields, so typical of a wild beach where the fishermen's shacks host various festivals organized by the heirs of those who once lived in this hidden paradise. There is a mortar of all i oli on the table, a beer toast and a boy with a float that takes us back to that vintage summer, so unique, so universal. The summer that deserves to be protected - as an allusion to the recent fire that almost claimed the entire environment...
And there, after completing a Route of the Cliffs that breathes a little more saltpeter into the heart, you cut the tortilla for your unexpected picnic. Meanwhile, you wait for someone to look out the green window of the hut to tell you what the sea brought today and invite you to enjoy a seafood stew in the bowels of history.
