Are you into small Spanish towns, waterfalls, beautiful nature and eerie forests with cool looking caves? Then the hike from the small Valencian town of Anna to the Cabrentà de Estubeny is for you. But if you time your visit on a summer weekend or — worse yet — a holiday, you’ll probably find yourself the beauty of nature, without the peace and quiet it usually affords.
We choose to embark on this excursion, during the long Easter weekend, and unfortunately this was a mistake. The first stop of the hike is the Cascada de los Vikingos, which is always popular given its proximity to Anna. But today, it felt like every single person in the vicinity of Valencia had the same idea as we did, and on the short hike to the waterfall, we actually found ourselves in the middle of a couple human traffic jams. We never planned on staying long, but the sheer number of other visitors guaranteed that our visit would be very brief. Besides, we had other plans: next, we’d be checking out the La Cabrentà de Estubeny, an enchanted forest, with several small caves and stunning rock formations.
The forest is found just two kilometers outside of town, the hike which leads there is not difficult, so we arrived in no time. The Cabrentà de Estubeny is also called the Jungle of the Mediterranean and we could totally see why. The vegetation is intense, and we speculated that something in the ground water here must be providing a type of fast-grow steroid to the foliage. There just seems “more” of it here, and for a moment you might forget you’re in southern Spain. The moment you descent into this area, the plants seem to be growing on a tripple pace, due to the shady valley and the abundance of water. For a moment you might forget that you’re actually in Spain.
After exploring the forest and its caves, we had to rush back to Anna, since we had booked a tour to see the Palacio de los Condes de Cervellón. This palace is hailed as Valencia’s own mini-version of the Alhambra in Granada, and we’ll be focusing on it, in our next post.
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