Vallone delle Fornaci from Marina di Camerota (Playa El Flamingo) to Camerota

Premise

This route was traveled on January 14, 2025, and all subsequent observations and considerations fully apply only to that day.

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From Marina di Camerota to Camerota climbing the Vallone delle Fornaci

From the parking lot, you quickly reach the road bridge that passes over the small stream of the Vallone delle Fornaci just behind the beach areas and the outlet to the sea.

From here, you can already assess whether the day... will be crossed with dry feet and, if necessary – within certain limits – to plan to use rock sandals or similar.

Today it was all possible with mid-height waterproof hiking boots, remaining well dry.

The entire first part of the ascent cannot use the trails or paths indicated on the maps because both wide banks of the valley are 100% private property.

Therefore, you go down (with some steps on the west side of the bridge) onto the riverbed and start.

The stream bed is flat up to a small concrete weir, today with a dry stretch where it was easy to climb while staying dry.

Then you pass next to the boundary wall of the treatment plant, and more or less here the areas marked as private property on the valley banks end.

According to the maps, on the right side in the ascent direction or left hydrological bank, there is a path running along the wide banks with tall and not too dense vegetation.

I chose – given the ease and... my greater enjoyment – to always stay inside the stream bed.

Out of curiosity, I tried to climb on the right bank (or left hydrological bank) in a couple of points with a small path or exit road, but I always found a continuation blocked or nearly so by bushes, branches, brushwood, and brambles.

I did not look at all options: maybe a good path still exists outside the stream bed, but the bed is easy to walk on.

After the part with the wider banks, however, the maps indicate a break in extra-bed paths until the start of the path that definitely rises from the valley floor to arrive near Camerota.

This section, which is forced along the stream, is not at all difficult with the right (small) water flow.

After more than 2 km from the starting bridge at Marina di Camerota, you arrive under a vertical rock band (with an evident landslide) that shortly precedes the exit point from the stream bed.

In theory, just after the vertical rock band, the path indicated on the CTR Campania maps climbs back a stretch towards the southeast, then makes a left hairpin to resume northward toward Camerota.

The exit point from the stream bed is easy to find, but after the first few meters (where you should turn right) I found a very dense band of bushes and some brambles that completely hid any possible continuation traces.

At that point – knowing (or rather... trusting the map) that higher up the path resumed northward – I climbed vertically up the steep slope along lines relatively free from low vegetation and actually found a wide and easy path.

The off-trail climb was about 40 meters elevation gain and can be done by eye without necessarily following my exact lines.

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At this point, after deleting the GPS recording, I wanted to go back on the good path found, but I had to stop at the edge of a landslide: therefore, I believe the short initial off-trail section that I had to do to exit the bottom of the Vallone delle Fornaci is mandatory.

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Once the path is found, it is always easy to follow, and it is also "assisted" by various CAI-style painted markers showing "C.M. 7".

After more than 2 km mostly in the woods, you enter a wide dirt road that in a few dozen meters leads to a small bridge for the final crossing of the bottom of the Vallone delle Fornaci now in open field: on the bridge there is a CAI-style marker with indication "C.M. 8".

Here we are on the northeast side of the elevation on which Camerota stands, and to climb it most directly after the bridge, you leave aside the wide dirt road that continues and take a small path (indicated on the maps) with a sharp left turn.

The path immediately crosses a small ditch, but today this crossing was blocked for about ten meters by a dense band of bushes and brambles.

I bypassed this annoying band high above "too hard to break through" and the GPS recording reflects this.

After the thick band of bushes and brambles, the trail remains faint and requires attention to follow it in an area where you still have to push aside some isolated bushes by hand: today no problem – I suppose that during peak vegetation growth season, more attention and extra clearing will be needed.

The path then exits the dense forest to enter a more flowing grassy band, diagonally on a good slope, and meets a real mule track.

The mule track is practically abandoned but remains easy and this leads to Camerota emerging onto SP 164 road just below a small children’s playground with a statue of Padre Pio.

The entrance to this mule track from Camerota village is not at all obvious for those who want to try it in the opposite direction.

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Return to Marina di Camerota from Camerota

It is clear that this excursion can be considered one-way only and arrange the return with a double car or a nice downhill bike ride on SP 66.

I chose to do it all on foot, initially crossing the most historic part of Camerota but, this time, without dedicating all the time it deserves: Camerota deserves to be visited outside an excursion.

So, first I made the detour to the Grotta di San Biagio (beautiful view of the entire Vallone delle Fornaci) and then randomly crossed the upper part of Camerota aiming, as a final reference point, at the Church of San Nicola di Bari.

From there I connected to SP 66, exiting it after a few minutes toward another road with indications for the "Cappella di Sant’Antonio del Gualano".

I re-entered SP 66 only after 3 km without seeing cars on various roads between asphalt, cement, and natural ground.

Then about another 1.5 km to the Playa El Flamingo parking lot.