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Coves dels Desertors

Coves dels Desertors

Two small caves in la Nou de Berguedà, in the serra del Mill, known as la Cova dels Desertors and la Cova Petita dels Desertors.

Nou de Berguedà, La • Berguedà 12m

Two small caves in la Nou de Berguedà, in the serra del Mill, known as la Cova dels Desertors and la Cova Petita dels Desertors.

Characteristics

Location

In the upper part of the western end of the serra del Mill, an east-west mountain alignment whose ridge separates the municipal districts of Sant Julià de Cerdanyola and La Nou de Berguedà, hidden among the crags that face this latter municipality.

From the houses of Malanyeu (la Nou de Berguedà) you must take the track that leads to the masia del Llomà and continue until reaching the Monnell, where we will leave the car. We begin the walk along a path through woodland that will bring us to the Creueta, a good viewpoint where there is a precarious cross made of trunks. The cavity is only a little more than a hundred metres in a straight line from the Creueta, above the cliffs that we have in front of us. Unfortunately, we will have to make a large detour to reach the cave, since access is from the top of the ridges.

From the Creueta we will follow the camí del Mal Pas, which will allow us to reach the ridge of the serra del Mill at a point that is a crossroads of paths. We will take the path along the ridges, heading east. The path runs slightly tilted towards the north side of the ridge (facing Sant Julià de Cerdanyola) and when we pass level with the 1393 m spot height (summit of the Creueta) we must leave it to head towards the cave. From here it is difficult to reach, since there is no path and we will have to trust our intuition and the GPS coordinates. From the path along the ridges, level with the aforementioned spot height, we must look for a passage that allows us to cross to the south side of the ridge and descend down the slope.

Map

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

  1. Coves dels Desertors

    Elevation: 1358 m

    42.207442, 1.890908
    UTM 31T (ETRS89) 408446 4673404
Download all entrances as GPX

Photos

Coves dels Desertors - Photo, Nou de Berguedà, La, BerguedàView image
Click to enlarge

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

Image 1 of 4

Description

Morphology

The entrance is 3 m wide by 1.5 m high, but a wall made of stone occupies the right half of the entrance. The cave has two clearly differentiated parts. The first part (first chamber) has maximum dimensions of 7 m by 4.5 m, although its height does not allow us to stand upright. It is the most “habitable” part of the cave, with a very flat floor covered by sediment.

The second chamber, smaller, is separated from the first by a step and partially by a barrier of concretion. It has a lower ceiling and the floor is more stony. The total route is 12 m and the surface area occupies approximately 45 square metres.

Cova Petita dels Desertors: 6 m from the entrance of la Cova dels Desertors is this other cavity. The entrance is vertical, 1.5 m high by about 0.5 m wide. It gives immediate access to a small rounded space where we can remain standing. Then the ceiling suddenly lowers and a 5 m crawlway begins that progressively diminishes in dimensions. At the end, the crawlway appears to turn to the right, but the passage becomes extremely narrow; perhaps a thin person could get through it. Total route, 7 m.

Speleothems

The right side of the chamber is occupied by some beautiful whitish-coloured concretions.

Progression

Some small downclimbing will be necessary.

History

It is said that the cave was used by deserters who hid there in order to avoid going to the front. The cavity is an excellent hiding place given its situation in a place of very difficult access where one must know the terrain very well. To make the cave more habitable, the deserters built a stone wall at the entrance and arranged a platform in front of it that is pleasant to be in, with stones that serve as benches to sit on.

A cavity known to very few people, which had remained unpublished and which was located and catalogued by members of the Espeleo Club Muntanyenc Barcelonès and Grup d'Espeleologia de Badalona in June 2020.

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Bibliography

  • Totes les dades, topografia i fotografies han estat extretes del web: geb.cat (del Grup d'Espeleologia de Badalona). Apunts del 15-6-2020 i 22-6-2020. Dades: Ferran Cardona (ECM Barcelonès) i Josep Cuenca (GE Badalona)

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