Gallery Notes - Spain's Costa Blanca Mountains
This collection of images of the Costa Blanca in Spain is part of an expanding project - "Mountains of Middle Earth" - featuring the Mediterranean mountains of Europe. It includes photographs of Puig Campana and Monte Ponoch, the major dividing range of Sierra Serrella, Sierra Aixorta and Sierra Bernia, the coastal icons of Penon d'Ifach and Montgo, and many more photographs of the Costa Blanca mountains and villages.
I suppose most people know the Costa Blanca for its Mediterranean beaches or for the nightlife excesses of Benidorm, rather than its magnificent mountains. How many people, I wonder, spend their holidays in Europes largest resort without knowing that there is a mountain of Ben Nevis proportions 10km inland called the Puig Campana? How many even notice it is there at all? Under this magificent peak is the town of Finestrat, behind which is a beautiful, tranquil semi-wilderness of a character that extends across the entire region - so far away and yet so near.
And if you're looking for accommodation whilst walking or climbing in the area, you could do worse that The Orange House in Finestrat, or, in the beautiful village of Castell de Castells, Casa Yvonne.
The mountains are known as La Marina Alta and La Marina Baja, separated by the divide created by the huge and imposing Sierra Serrella, Sierra Aixorta and Sierra Bernia, which terminates abruptly in the sea at Calpe with the iconic Penon d'Ifach. The galleries here currently cover the region from Montgo and Javea in the north to the Puig Campana, Monte Ponoch and Alto de la Pena de Sella. The higest mountain in the region, Sierra Aitana, is for now untouched, but there are many delights elsewhere.
Costa Blanca
