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Cova Gran del Bonretorn

Cova Gran del Bonretorn

Estreta i complexa cova de 142 m. de recorregut a l'Albiol (Baix Camp)

Albiol, L' • Baix Camp142m22m

Cova estreta (narrow and complex cave) with a 142 m passage in l'Albiol (Baix Camp), with descending galleries, a side branch, a small pit and a maximum depth point of -22 m.

Characteristics

Location

From the Selva del Camp one must take the TV-7046 road towards l'Albiol and la Mussara. Very soon, at km. 8, one finds the houses of Bonretorn. From here, and in a N direction, one must go to find the Font Freda and above it, at the foot of a small crag, is the one catalogued as the Cova Petita de Bonretorn, and following the crag upwards, a little less than 50 metres, one finds the Cova Gran.

Mapa

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Bonretorn, Cova Gran del

    Elevation: 535 m

    41.247715, 1.128619
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 343201 4567945
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Cova Gran del Bonretorn - Photo, Albiol, L', Baix CampView image
Click to enlarge

Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

Image 1 of 6

Description

Morphology

The entrance to the cave is made below a flat rock, where a small vestibule is formed from which a gallery emerges, descending in its initial part, up to the point where it communicates with a side branch. The gallery continues, now flat, until totalling 18 metres in a terminal little room, connected through the ceiling with the outside and, through a hole in its floor, with a lower fissure that descends to -14 metres.

The side branch that begins 6 metres from the entrance is slightly descending and heads SW for 17 metres, at which point it bifurcates, forming a small pit of 3 metres, followed by a new gallery that rejoins the other stretch after 8 metres of passage, at which point there is, above a rise, an exit to the outside through a narrow hole.

At the foot of the junction of the last two galleries described, a crawlway opens that leads to a new descending gallery, which after two rises reaches the point of maximum depth (-22 m).

Very possibly some narrow communication exists with the so-called Cova Petita.

History

First cited by Joan Ferraté (1918), who had visited it a short time before with his companions from Reus and gives a fairly complete description and attaches a sketch of the plan.

Nothing more is known of it until September 1951, when it is visited by F. Español and A. Lagar in search of subterranean fauna, although it seems that they only found the neighbouring cova petita of the same name. At that time they name them Avenc Nou and Avenc Vell de la Font Freda, it not being clear to which of the two cavities they were referring. In 1982, Joan Borràs with companions from the GES – CMB, survey the cavities and deduce that the two narrow upper entrances correspond to the names that Español had given, but this we do not have very confirmed.

According to what our friend F. Fadrique tells us, very locally it is also known as Cova Calenta.

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Bibliography

  1. Borràs, J.; Miñarro, JM.; Talavera, F. (1984).- Catàleg espeleològic de Catalunya. Vol. 7 (el Baix Camp, el Priorat i la Ribera d'Ebre. Políglota: 283 pp. Barcelona.
  1. Español, F. (1952).- “Coleópteros cavernícolas del macizo de la Musara (provincia de Tarragona)” Speleon III: 197-203. Universidad de Oviedo.
  1. Ferraté, J. (1918).- Espeleologia de les comarques tarragonines. 133 pp. Agrupació Excursionista de Reus.
  • Coordenades, fotografies i dades biospeleològiques facilitades per l'amic Floren Fadrique (SIE-CEA; BIOSP)

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