castillocadena Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(regular)
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In ruins of 12th Century Arab hilltop fort - Castillo del Puerto de la Cadena.
The 12th Century castle walls sit on top of a rocky outcrop and can easily be seen when driving on the motorway between in to / out of Murcia in the direction of Cartegena. As you look up to the castle walls (ok, your passengers, you need your eyes firmly on the road on the steep, twisty motorway), you may wonder, as we did, a) what it is (something from Franco's time?) b) how you get up there (it looks like there are cliff faces on all sides) and c) how they ever built it (helicopter?).
Well, if you come off the N-301 motorway at the junction of Corvera / Baños y Mendigo @ km408, you will need to take the country road from the roundabout on the East side of the motorway in a Northerly direction (towards Murcia). After about 1km, you will see an underpass under the motorway (i.e. a left turn). Take that and head on up hill into the sierra (or park the car here and start walking if you want to make a day long walk of it). The dirt road runs for about 3km - there are a few forks at which you always take a right turn. As always with dirt roads in Spain, don't consider them with a normal road car when it has been, is, or might be about to start raining.
The car park is at 37.89981 deg North, 1.15255 deg West. From here, you will see a trail marked going off up to the fort. It is on the South face of the fort and is marked with the usual Spanish trail mark style, in this case yellow and white paint stripes. You will need walking boots with ankle support! When you get to the top you can enjoy amazing views (visibility permitting) to over 50km away. You will appreciate why the Arabs decided on this strategic location over the pass.
We left a local Murcia guide book and some Hong Kong dollars.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur nzzb obk vf cynprq haqre fbzr ebpxf ba gur Jrfg fvqr bs n ybj jnyy, orgjrra gjb byvir gerrf.