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Hike G - San Carlos to Cala mastella
This hike starts in the centre of San Carlos at 'Anita's Bar'. From here we turn left towards Cala San Vicente and almost immediately take a right turn into a camino heading up the hill. (photo 1).
Having reached the top (photo 2), leaving San Carlos behind us in the January mist (photo 3), we take a left fork in the camino (photo 4) and follow the track down into the valley with the sea in the distance (photo 5).
We pass a renovated old finca (photo 6) and then take a right turn at an old ruin housing a tree (photo 7). This path takes us down through the forest (photo 8) until we see a transformer by a small vineyard on our left (photo 9). Here we turn left (photo 10) and the track soon bends to the right past a white finca and on down into the "torrente socarrat" valley.
The camino stops at a house being built to the left (photo 11), but the ancient track continues straight on meandering along the side of the valley. To our right we encounter a finca with a huge walled garden (photo 12).
At the brow of the next hill we can see the sea and follow our road down past several lovely villas till we meet the Sant Carles - Cala Boix road. To our right is the Sa Seni restaurant (photo 13).
We head through the restaurant's car park (photo 14) past a small orange grove to our left (photo 15) and follow the path along the side of the valley bottom (photo 16) down to the beach (photo 17).
At the right hand side of the beach a blue arrow (photo 18) indicates the start of a path, which leads to Cala Llenya. This involves a little clambering up the side of the valley for the first few dozen metres (photo 19) (photo 20), but offers a fabulous view across the bay to the famous "El Bigote" fish restaurant (photo 21).
At a prominent pine marked with numerous blue arrows (photo 22) the path heads to the right into the forest (photo 23). Following this you soon come to a brick wall, which leads you past a wrought iron gate (photo 24) onto a tarmac road (photo 25).
This wide track and a parallel camino lead you past a transformer box (photo 26) and eventually to a junction at which you turn right (photo 27). Heading gently uphill you pass a large threshing area to your right and a restaurant (photo 28) before passing a turning to your right (photo 29) leading back to Cala Mastella.
Shortly after this the road forks to the left (photo 30) bringing you up to a restaurant on your right with an old boat in front (photo 31).
We follow the main road on down and to the right towards San Carlos (photo 32). Some 70 metres after the junction a path goes off to the right into the forest (photo 33). Unfortunately local fly tippers have been using parts of this to dump their garden and building rubbish, so it needs to be negotiated with care.
This path soon rejoins the main road (photo 34), which we follow to the right until we reach the next right turning (photo 35). We take the first option following the track along the side of the forest until we reach a crossroads (photo 36) at which we turn left.
We follow this track through farmland turning right where indicated by a blue arrow (photo 37) and continue up this unspoilt valley (photo 38) until we join a tarmac road (photo 39). Here we head left and up the final ascent of our journey. From the top we can see San Carlos nestling in the valley with the hills of the Morna Valley in the background (photo 40).
The path takes us gently down into the valley (photo 41) until we come across a beautifully restored 17th century country house, where we turn right back up to the house(photo 42) overlooking the valley (photo 43) (photo 44) (photo 45).
From here it is just a short walk down the hill (photo 46) to San Carlos and the end of our journey.
