Walk Mallorca July 2011

I plan to add some stories and photos over the next few weeks… so if you visit here, scroll down to see the latest.

Posted 13 July 2011

For 10 days in July, we had a holiday in Mallorca – and we did a bit of walking. Everybody seems to say that July is not the month to walk in the Mallorcan hills. They are right! It is too hot – but we still loved it!

The image below is from a very large poster on the wall of the tourist info office in Pollença. I photographed it – with permission of course. I couldn’t resist it, especially because “the large roundabout in the middle of nowhere” is so clearly there!

Aerial image showing one area where we walked

A LARGE ROUNDABOUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

Posted 13 July 2011

Our first walk was from Port de Pollença to Cala St Vicenç over the Siller Pass. We were following the route in Charles Davis’ book Walk Mallorca: North and Mountains – and we wanted to see how good his instructions were. Two summers ago in the Glencoe area of Scotland, we were well confused by the guidebook somewhat cavalierly written by a guy who had conquered some ridiculously difficult route on Ben Nevis when 8 years old! I don’t trust people like that to write good walking guides for mere mortals… it’s a bit like IT nerds who can’t teach!

But Charles passed the first test. The walk was well described and with a nice touch of humour. He paid tribute to the many stone cairns that mark the routes (and the occasional splash of red paint) and encouraged us to get to know our cairns well. The walk was good; the little beach coves at Cala St Vicenç were beautiful – and we returned there several times.

Cala Molins

We returned by what Charles calls the push chair route which, as we climbed a steep and increasingly rough track, belied its name. However it was the comment that the track would level out at a large roundabout that made us think Charles had confused something. It was hard to believe that anyone would want to build a roundabout up here, but there it was – with an extensive clump of pines in the centre. I never did get around to taking a photo of the roundabout, but if you look carefully, you can spot it in the aerial photo above.

If you are curious about Charles the walking guide writer, take a look at his blog. Thank you, Charles for smoothing our first walking in Mallorca. You were right: July is too hot for it!

WATCHING RAFA IN MALLORCA

Posted 18 July 2011

3 July 2011 Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon

Since the final didn’t start on TV until 3pm local time, and it was overcast and not too hot, we decided to walk over the Siller Pass, have a swim in the cool waters of Cala Molins – and maybe catch some of Nadal versus Djokovic in Cala St Vicenç.

Rafa on the verge of defeat

And so we did… watching Djokovic win in the fourth as we drank a good cup of coffee in Café Alba not a million miles from Rafa’s home town of Manacor. I wonder… in how many different countries in the past decade have we looked for a TV to watch a Wimbledon final?

At the top of the Siller Pass, we met an English couple on bicycles (not mountain bikes) contemplating the descent of the rocky path down to Port de Pollença. They had cycled up the push chair route from Cala St Vicenç and now met their first rough terrain of the day. Hope they enjoyed their descent.

CALA BÓQUER: STONY BUT BEAUTIFUL

Posted 18July 2011

We were out early on our 4 July wedding anniversary for a swim in Cala Bóquer.

Goat silhouetted on Creveta Ridge

But first we had to walk up and over the Bóquer Valley, a lovely walk with the stark cliffs of Creveta Ridge on our right, goats silhouetted against the skyline, and the scary jaggedness of the Serra del Cavall Bernat on our left. The valley in July is extremely arid and yet there is an abundance of low vegetation with colourful little flowers.

Bóquer Valley- on the way back

And eventually, sweating in the humid morning, we saw Cala Bóquer below us. The beach is stony but a few careful steps lead to the sandy bottom and a cool swim in a beautiful cove. A few pictures are better than many words…

Fairly early at Cala Boquer

Cactus in Boquer valley