BUÑOL - RUTA DEL AGUA
Buñol’s Ruta del Agua was a hike trail that through online pictures and reviews I reckoned would make an alright day out. We wanted to get out to the countryside, and so this little town, about an hour via train from Valencia, seemed like a close-by resolution for our city suffocation. Not sure what to expect, we boarded the train at Nord Station and were quickly carried up into the misty, mountainous surroundings.
You may have heard of Buñol before, for the lazy little pueblo with a small population of almost entirely pensioners, swells in size once a year for one of the most infamous festivals Spain has to offer. 20,000 travellers, from all across the globe, traipse into it’s narrow, cobbled streets to take part in ‘la tomatina’, a festival that revolves entirely around throwing tomatoes at one another. When we arrived in Buñol, although it wasn’t Tomatina time, the town had plenty of character and is definitely worth visiting on a regular day.
Our route began slightly outside of Buñol, with a descent into a seemingly uninteresting valley. But in turning a corner, out breath was taken by the heavenly turquoise waterfall that emerged before us, glistening under the high Valencian sun. I had never seen waters so blue, and had definitely not expected them to be here.
After standing around and simply beholding this sight for a good half hour, thinking that this is what most people come to the ruta del aqua for, we realised that this was a mere dot on the map of hundreds of stops along the way. With this, we were off, almost in a run, eager to be overcome by whatever other wonders lay ahead.
Little hidden pools of liquid-gemstone were tucked into every corner and pointed us in the right direction for the main sights, which were large azure lakes and towering caves lined with waterfalls. As if these weren’t magical enough in themselves, we were also treated to a whole handful of rock-climbers and cliff-divers along the way, only adding to the spectacle of this beautiful landscape. Had it not been for some of the monstrous-looking fish in some of the smaller ponds I would have slipped right in.
The larger lakes can be swam in during the summer, reaching almost thermal temperatures, so we will definitely be back to explore some more and have a dip in the dazzling waters which look like they’d probably bless you with some unworldly powers.
The route consists of a small loop, that most of the main sights lie upon and takes around 40 minutes to walk and a larger loop with more nature to take in, taking around 2 and a half hours. Unfortunately we only made it around about a quarter of the big loop until we had to run for our train back into Valencia, but considering how impressed we were with the part of it that we saw, we will be sure to come back and complete the whole circuit.
So if you look up the pictures online of Buñol’s ruta del agua, and you think to yourself ‘yeah, that looks alright’ as I did, know that it is so much more than alright. Even my own pictures can scarcely do justice this gem of nature. Add it to your list of things to do when in Valencia region. I can hardly think of a better, cost-free day out.