Beach of the Genoveses – Cape of Cat

The road that arrives to Saint José from The Pozo of the Friars by the north (To THE-3108)  continues by the round of this population from where goes out the way of Mónsul to the southwest. Some three hundred metres advance since it finishes the revestimiento asphaltic, goes out a way to the right near of the mill of The Genoveses. In the crossing initiates the footpath. The restored mill of wind was built in mampostería of stone revoked with cal or plaster. His upper level is covered by a chapitel or tejadillo of wooden tables, that houses part of the machinery of transmission of the aeolian energy to the molienda of the cereal. We will split, therefore, in a southwesterly direction, to the foot of the hill of the Bird María, of 133 metres, that will leave to our left. Beside the signal of start there is an interpretative table on the sight that observes from the same, if we want to save us the rise. The hill is the extreme north of the inlet in which it is the beach of the Genoveses, used like fondeadero. In front, looking south, sees the contrary extreme -the Morrón of the Genoveses- adentrándose in the mar. Tierra inside distinguishes to continuation a dune fossil, the Hill of the Barronal and after the flat of the Romeral the volcanic saw of the Cape of Cat. The vegetation is varied in so wide space, giving an impression of continuity with north landscapes of Africa.

We will begin to walk by a footpath that directs us to the beach. To some setecientos metres will find a crossing of ways with hileras of pines in his margins,  plants that call the attention between the places desarbolados that they are here common, with a vegetal cover formed by bushes (palmito, cornical, bufalaga, rascamoños, pita or chumbera) and plants herbáceas of fleeting life, taking advantage of favourable moments. More advance, already very near of the beach, will go through the mouth of a small rambla, in which they grow eucaliptos of wayward forms. Also they will call our attention the curious plantations of chumberas in the balates of the fields of crop of the homestead of the Romeral. We continue our march until arriving to the ruins of a búnker  already in the edge of the beach, that has a series of fixed dunes and mobiles in which it grows a typical vegetation composed mainly by the barrón and the algodonosas. Also we distinguish to our front a more depressed zone, liable to the flood, in which they abound plants adapted to means salinos (halófitas), between them the tarajes.

We will advance by the same beach, by a way little or at all defined between the sands. To our right will have the Campillo of the Genoveses and to the left the Mediterranean sea. After some quinientos metres by the beach will arrive to a rocky zone, with white colours-yellowish, that is not another thing that a big dune fossil.

A bit more advance, at the end of the beach, finishes our footpath, beside the fondeadero of the Morrón, place in which surely it produced the known episode of the disembarkment of the genoveses in 1147, saved for ever in the memory that expresses the toponymy. It is advisable, anyway, continue and go up to the Morrón of the Genoveses, a volcanic promontory of 74 metres of height from which will be able to see the route realised, and where will be surrounded by one of the six marine reservations that has the natural park. These transparent waters house vegetal communities and animals of big transcendence for the Mediterranean surroundings, as it is the case of the meadows of posidonia.

The historical disembarkment of a fleet genovesa in the 12th century left a deep footprint in the local toponymy. The inlet where sucedió the event has one of the most emblematic beaches of the natural park, looked for and enjoyed by tourists of all the continents, that in addition to sun and beach value the landscapes and the wealth of the natural and cultural heritage.

The footpath visits the beach of north to south, from the hill Bird María until the Morrón of the Genoveses, two accessible peaks from where can contemplate beautiful seen of the coast.