Mountain Driving in Spain

Lovely but Dangerous

The Montgo Mountain divides Denia from Javea along the coast of Spain, and adds to the beautiful scenery of the area. Recently, my wife and I drove across the mountain in both directions. First she drove, and I enjoyed the scenery, and then I drove on the return trip so that she could also take in the wonderful views. This is a perfect microcosm of mountain driving as it has all the thrill, terror and exciting vistas that you could get from a long drive. But the Montgo is only 7 kilometres, and it has a flat ridge that allows some living space and a wonderful lookout at Cap San Antonio.

Personally, I detest driving in the mountains as the driver has to be so completely focused on the roadway as to make the trip a complete waste of time from his point of view. Your passengers have to describe what they experienced when you arrive at the bar at the bottom. Add to that the fact that I do not really like heights and it becomes clearer of what my problem is.

My friends, who have hiked other mountains show me their pictures of cars that went over the edge and ended up way down below. It would not take much for that to happen, especially as so many idiots seem to think that the very winding, narrow roads are some form of racetrack. If you are the careful driver you can expect to be overtaken on blind bends. What is going through these people’s minds? My description for them is : people with excrement for brains.

I had turned off the main road on the Montgo to drive out to the lighthouse on the point. Evidently I was not driving recklessly enough for the mother with her children in the car behind me as she overtook me on a bend in the road and she could not see whether anything was coming towards her. As I arrived at the parking area she was opening her doors and her children were piling out of the car. Why was she in such a hurry? Nothing much changed in the views even while we were there.

As beautiful as these passages are, I would rather walk them than drive them. I must state that the first time that we drove the Montgo was in the year 2000. We didn’t know what to expect, and it came as a really big surprise that the roadside was on fire. That was apparently caused by someone throwing a cigarette butt into the bush. We had no warning, and we could not turn around and go back.

I never forgot it!

Copyright © 2011 Eugene Carmichael