The walk was described like this...
CAS CATALÀ -
BENDINAT - PORTALS NOUS - SON CALIU - PALMANOVA - SANTA PONÇA - COSTA DE LA
CALMA - PEGUERA
The trek begins in
Cas Català and continues along Bendinat, passing by Portals
Nous until reaching Son Caliu and then Palmanova. From that moment on it
skirts the coast via Santa Ponça and Costa de la Calma. The route continues
until reaching Peguera, the end of the route.
A trek that invites
you to discover the most urbanized cities of Calvia and that skirts the coast
via the different residential areas that form the municipality. This route goes
through the most tourist part of the area, which counts with famous sports ports,
hotels, leisure areas and white-sanded beaches. Furthermore, this route allows
you to discover the military zone, an area that borders with the coast forming
impressive cliffs and one of the most stunning landscapes of Calvia.
This was our route.
Today involved a bus ride to the start of each of the walks. The 30km walkers were taken first as we had the longest route back. It was a bit chaotic, but eventually we were on a bus by 9:10 and got to the start at about 9:30.
Here are some of my photos.
Here we are at the start, patiently waiting to be called forward to board a bus.
This was our start point.
I was a bit slow starting. Miranda and Chelle were already well away!
I was startled to see this... I was just too slow to catch this bird standing in the road next to the path, but it is a hoopoe.
More lovely flowers again today.
Someone couldn't resist a ride.
Eventually we got to a bit of coastal path and some nice views.
More flowers...
...and another bonsai tree nursery.
We went past a swanky Golf Club...
...and onward and upward into the forested military zone.
There were lots of these flowers by the wayside. I think they are Weasel's Snout or lesser snapdragon, but, again, I could be wrong.
Once again we were on a hard, stony path, but at least I had my thick socks on today!
So far, today's walk had been relatively unspectacular, but as we descended and left the woods, after passing some military personnel checking we weren't going where we shouldn't, we got a fantastic view and everyone stopped for photos.
Still on the stony path we now descended....
...to reach the second rest point. Of course, as with the first rest point, a lot of 20km and 12.5km (and 30km) walkers had got there before me and, again, there were no bananas left. Who ate my banana? I got a confession later!
Now I was in among the pack of 20km walkers as our routes had converged.
We passed the Giraffe house, which I had failed to spot on Thursday.
At the viewpoint where I had my photo taken on Thursday, I again caught up with the distinctive flag man, who I remembered from Marbella.
Everyone was stopping there too to admire the view.
Now it was down to the Platja de Santa Ponça for a third day in a row....
...and a repeat of the route via the Costa de Calma of yesterday, although not so calm today.
And yey! I'd made it to the end for a 3rd day!
Beers, of course were needed. Those tokens are handy! Although not walking today, Helen and Nicky joined us at the finish. But why is Helen hiding under a blanket?
The sunshine was too bright for her to see her phone!
In conversation I mentioned that I was disappointed not to get a banana at either of the rest points. "Well I got two", said Miranda. "Oh, so it was you who ate my banana", I teased.
On our way back to the hotel Nicky. Miranda and I stopped for some delicious ice-cream at the award winning Ice Eis Daddy ice-cream shop.
Mine was a rather tasty Chilli Chocolate. Yum.
But the day wasn't done yet. And now we come to the whole raison d'être of the trip. "It's my birthday on the 7th April and I've discovered there's a walking festival in Mallorca", said a message from Miranda. "It's my birthday on the 6th", I replied. So we just had to make it a joint birthday celebration!
I mentioned earlier that I had shopped for things for lunch but wasn't going to use it all. So I came up with a plan. Let's have a little appetiser tapas session before going out to dinner. So I supplemented my provisions and made some Sangria and nibbles.
One of the benefits of having an apartment rather than just a hotel room, was that I could host the other 6 members of our party.
I neglected to say earlier that, at Stansted airport on the way out, I'd mentioned that I was in danger of the trousers I was wearing falling down as I had bought them when I was rather more overweight and the belt wasn't tight enough as I had run ought of holes. Miranda handed me a thoughtful birthday present bag with a new belt that you could put the fastening spike through anywhere... and a banana!
While we were out on our walk today, Nicky, who was resting a sore foot, did some research into places to eat traditional Spanish food, and came up with this, Restaurante Las Poetas. We checked it out on our way back to the hotel in the afternoon and found lots of locals eating there... always a good sign. So we booked a table for 7.
Several of us shared some paella.
We didn't manage to eat it all.
And then I got a surprise.... a birthday cake, complete with those candles that relight after they've been blown out! Watch me in an epic fail!
Well that was a bit of a different birthday. I had a lovely time with some lovely friends, none of whom I had met a year ago! Thanks to all for making it a special day.
Here is a slideshow of my photos (Flash required)
You can find all my photos here on Flickr and more details of our route here on MapMyWalk.
Tomorrow, the Mountains.. and Miranda's birthday.
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