Day 7 - Mallorca

Todays walk is from Lluc To Caimari Via Menut.  14½km ascent: 300m

Starting at the Lluc monastery we walk around the Moleta de Binifaldo along part of the GR 221 path seeing some dramatic mountain, karst and woodland scenery north of the area.  Visit "Camel Rock" and then to Caimari, a traditional village.

I’m finding it difficult to take a photo that shows the dramatic cliffs and 

jumble of rocks in the countryside here. 

Lluc monastery. 

Lluc monastery. 

Lluc monastery. Fabulous stone buildings. 

Lluc monastery. 

Start of the walk. 

Perfect stone walls everywhere to assist terracing and for fencing. A natural spring harnessed here. 

Looking down upon the monastery. 

Beautiful stone house.

Ronnie.

Monastery getting smaller. 

Amazing stone formations. 

Lunch time. 

Lunch break. Note the safety fence. 

Lunchtime view with some great karst rock. 

Aquaduct. Instead of dams they have open rectangular stone tanks 2m high water to catch natural spring water and it is is pumped from these or it flows via aquaduct. 

Another lovely stone building. 

Have to be fit to farm here. The house is at the bottom of the hill which is terraced which are accessed via a staircase in the middle. 

Typical Hand made gates. 

Dinner at Hotel.

Day 6 - Mallorca

Today we walked the Puig D’Aguila and Siller Valley. (12 km - 350m ascent) 31*C predicted today but it’s generally cooler by the coast and there was a breeze. The pharmacy is closed on Sunday and their sign was out so we couldn’t check the actual temperature!
Bus to Cala de San Vicenc. A dirt track to a headland to ascend the Puig d’Aguila for views. Then a different track back to to Cala de San Vicenc then over the Siller Pass and back to the hotel.

Cala de San Vicenc is the brilliant aqua blue cove you can see in the middle of the picture.  We walked through the Siller Pass which is the lowest dip to the right of the picture. 

The group climbing up. 

Us about half way up. The Siller pass is to the far right. 

Dramatic sea cliffs all the way around. 

A remote cove you can only get to by boat or on foot. 

Clouds floated in while we were at the top and brought a 

bit of shade and a cool breeze. 

There were some brown and white goats up there 

but you can barely see them in the photos. 

Some welcome shade on the way back. Actual - 16.4km. 

Dinner at the hotel - salmon salad, grilled bream and cheesecake and sorbet for me. Roast aubergine, roast lamb and Spanish chocolate cake with ice cream for Ron. 

Day 5 - Mallorca

 Beach day as it is 26*C and washing today. 

Ronnie in the Mediterranean. It is warmer than home. 

And relaxing on a Bali bed by the pool. 

Met the walking group for a tour around town and then a drink in the bar to hear about tomorrow’s walks. Mostly British an Americans couple from Oregon. And an ex photo journalist from the ABC who lived in Narrabeen (such a small world) but has now returned to the UK. A very nice group we’ve met so far. Walked 9.3 km today. 

Dinner at the hotel and I had my first paella - paella here is always a minimum of 2 per serve so I’ve missed out so far - one advantage of travelling in a group. 

Day 4 - Mallorca

 Pine walk and Old Town of Pollenca.

Beautiful old windswept pine on the pine walk on 

the north side of Port Pollenca. 

These piers stop the sand from being blown away 

but they still have to import sand each season. 

Not an effective sand preserving pier. 

Perfect yacht to sail Croatia?

Avoiding hiring a car this trip. Caught the bus (masks required) to Pollenca old town and found Plaza Major.

Mare de Deu del Angels Church.

New steps.

We walked up the Calvari steps - 365 ancient steps (one for each day of the year) and 56 new steps at the beginning - 421 total 

to the tiny Calvario Chapel. 

Over halfway. 

The Calvario Chapel has an elliptical floor plan and a semi-circular apse. The 14th century statue of Jesus on the cross with Mary at his feet is silently paraded around the town as part of the Easter celebrations.

From the top there are great views of Pollenca 

and the sea in the distance. 

Doorway at the top. 

Pollenca old town. This little opening led to a lovely garden and the entry to the museu de Pollenca which used to be a convent. 

 Gnarled Saracen olive (just means it is ancient)! 

The Convent. 

Pollenca old town. 

View from our waterfront table at Stay restaurant - an early wedding anniversary dinner. Superb food, fabulous setting and lovely staff. Walked 17.4 km today. 

Day 3 - Mallorca

 

Morning view from our balcony. One of two lap pools and there is a much larger pool to the side. The beach is just across the road and promenade. 

Walked around Port de Pollenca. Water temp warmer than home for the fist few metres but gets cooler after that. Our large pool is slightly heated and we have unlimited use of an indoor pool and spa which we will test tomorrow. 

Dinner at El Positano. Walked 11.4 km today. 

Dinner at El Posito with traditional Mallorcan food. Perfectly cooked prawns and John Dory with no bones! Chicken with tombet and Galatian lemoncello and Orujo (alcohol added to the final pressing of grapes). Very potent! 

Day 2 - BCN to Mallorca

After panicking that we’d missed our flight 

because my watch hadn’t updated to Spanish time we had 2 1/2 hrs to get to our flight to Mallorca. An English passenger we spoke to checked his bags all the way through to Mallorca even though we were on Emirates and it’s a Vueling (pronounced Welling) flight to Mallorca. Interesting. 

Picked up bags. Breezed through passport control with vax certificate and the SpTH (Spanish health form) in record time. Queued to get through domestic security all up under an hour from actually landing. 

The plane to Mallorca left 20 mins before scheduled departure time! Took shuttle bus which dropped us at the hotel door.

Typical stone farm house on the way to Port de Pollenca.

Staying at Hotel Uyal, Port de Pollenca. Front sea view with a balcony. It’s lovely and quiet. Dinner at Restaurant Siurell, 5 mins walk from the hotel along a lovely waterfront promenade. I had sea bream (some bones, unfortunately, but I think that is typical of Europe). Ronnie had exceptionally good olives to start and very tender grilled calamari. 

View from our balcony. 

Walked 6.1 km today. 

Day 1 - SYD to Mallorca

Mallorca and Menorca 2022

This trip has been cancelled three times but we are at last departing on our first trip overseas since 2019 because of the covid pandemic disruption. It looks like we will be the early scouts for all of our friends. We are pretty happy with the covid numbers in Spain so fingers crossed.

Mallorca is the Spanish spelling of Majorca.  Since we are going to Spain we thought we’d use the Spanish spelling. Either way the pronunciation is the same.

Michael very kindly drove us to the airport which saved us having to schlep our bags on and off the train at Central and the airport. 

Emirates wanted us here 4 hrs before departure. Security was not at all busy. It took 1hr from when gate opened to get to the gate but we were pretty close to the front and we did online check in. Ron got a random drug check and I was scanned. Depart at 9pm for Dubai.