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Cova dels Encantats de Vilamala

A 15-metre-long rock shelter at the Rasa de Vilamala (Navès), 22 metres wide by 7 metres high, with a semicircular sloping chamber.

Navès • Solsonès 15m

A 15-metre-long rock shelter at the Rasa de Vilamala (Navès), 22 metres wide by 7 metres high, with a semicircular sloping chamber.

Characteristics

Location

It is reached from Solsona via the local road LV-4241b from Lladurs to coll de Jou. We will leave the car at the bend or paella de font Fenerals, about two kilometres before reaching coll de Jou.

We will walk east along a well-trodden path marked with white and red paint, corresponding to the GR-7. We will arrive at a col, leave the path, which would take us to the Serrat del Sòbol, and turn south, descending the rocky slope full of cobbles, diagonally towards below the ridge line of the crest by which we have descended. We will descend along the crest line following some green and white paint marks. Halfway along the crest, at a marked point, we will turn right, descending diagonally along a slope down to the wood, and then along a gully with abundant vegetation down to a torrent.

Once we have crossed the torrent we will continue descending more gently along the other side. The path becomes increasingly abandoned and the landscape increasingly wild. The very broken path passes through slippery and very narrow terrain, called rua, which means a path between cliffs. Watch where you put your feet. On the other side of the torrent, hanging on the cliff wall, we will see the coves dels Encantats.

Approximate coordinates to be checked, without much precision.

Map

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Cova dels Encantats de Vilamala

    Elevation: 980 m

    42.116400, 1.556610
    UTM 31T (ED 50) 380771 4663911
Download all entrances as GPX

Description

Morphology

It is a rock shelter 22 metres wide by 7 metres high and 15 metres deep, forming a semicircular sloping chamber.

History

The first exploration of which we have record was carried out on 30 August 1965 by J. Ubach and C. Tarrés (EDECA), Montserrat Ubach (EDECA and ERE), and F. Trepat.

It should be said that to reach the cave, the explorers did so from the upper part of the cliff, overcoming the 125 metres of vertical drop with 90 metres of ladders and other equipment. The topography section includes a drawing of the whole cliff and specifies all the material used for the descent. This drawing, which we believe was unpublished until now, has been found in the archive of the ERE – CEC.

It should also be said that in the Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya. Vol. 5 (1980), this cavity is erroneously assigned the synonym of Cova de la Paret, when in reality this is the synonym that corresponds to the Espluga del Duc, catalogued in the municipality of Oliana (Alt Urgell) and which we now know in reality corresponds to that of Odèn (Solsonès).

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Bibliography

  1. Borràs,J; Miñarro,J.M; Talavera,F.(1980).-”l'Urgell, el Solsonès, la Segarra i el Berguedà”. Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (vol 5):1-233. Ed. Políglota. Barcelona.
  2. Codina, S.(2007).-”Ruta espeleològica pel clot de Vilamala”. Corriol (145):12-13. CE Solsonès.
  3. Ubach, Montserrat; Escolà, O.(1968).-”Operació Solsonès. Campanyes 1962 a 1965 (primera etapa)” Espeleòleg (5):158-162. ERE-CE Catalunya.

Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/