Today is the longest distance of any day. Even longer than day 1 - but supposedly not as tough. Yet, for some reason, of which neither of us can fathom, we decided when we planned this back home, that instead of finishing at Sant Tomas, we would walk another 6km and finish at Son Bou! Hmm - easy done on paper, but here out in the field is a different story. Given the distance we needed to cover (now 32km) we had an early night, arranged a 'packed breakfast' with the hotel and we made off in the darkness at 5:45am.
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| 12th June 2016, 5:47am- Day 4 - Start of Stage 12.2 |
All packed and ready to go, the sun is just coming up and today we are heading east all day, so that sun is going to be in our faces. Take a look at those lovely feet - after today they'll never be the same again!
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| 12th June 2016, 5:56am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
This picture nicely illustrates one of the features of the cami trail marker posts. If you look to the right of the picture, you will see a small white light in the distance. That's actually a reflection of the camera flash. Apparently, some people do the cami in the dark, with head torches on to pick out the reflectors fitted onto the posts for guidance. Now - what would be the point of doing this walk, full of beautiful scenery, in the dark?
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| 12th June 2016, 6:41am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
The first stage of this walk is coastal all the way. We have passed mostly deserted tourist areas and beaches. But today is Sunday and we have seen some locals out very early on their day off on their way to their favourite beaches and some even having slept overnight on the beach! The sun is right in front of us now and just rising. However today is perfect for walking, quite overcast and a lot cooler. Just as well because today could be a long one!
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| 12th June 2016, 6:43am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
In total contrast to the previous picture, the path changes from chalk dust to red soil. Still by the sea, lovely and cool. We're actually making good time because the weather is so perfect.
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| 12th June 2016, 6:48am- Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
This picture (and the one below) is another example of a tunnel entrance leading to a long tunnel with openings facing out to sea. Our guide book only describes them as caves and tunnels but doesn't explain there purpose. A lot of caves are used as a necropolis, but these seem different. (I've tried 'googling' it :) )
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| 12th June 2016, 6:51am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
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| 12th June 2016, 7:05am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
This is the beach or 'Platges' of Son Saura - we have just passed a family setting up camp on the beach for a nice 'Sunday off - get together'.
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| 12th June 2016, 7:28am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
Another nice beach - this one is Cala des Talalet. Not far now to the 10km mark and the end of the first stage. Still nice and cool and breezy - bliss.
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| 12th June 2016, 7:37am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
Quite a rocky pathway - but lovely coastal views all the way.
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| 12th June 2016, 7:48am - Day 4 - Stage 12.2 |
This is the opening to the inlet (Cala) of Cala en Turqueta (turquoise) and the end of the stage. From here we will head off the coast a little and join up with a track that we have walked twice before from Cala Galdana. We know Cala Galdana quite well and have already decided that this will be a breakfast stop - how exciting!!
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| 12th June 2016, 8:31am - Day 4 - Stage 13 |
Forgot to mention that we had a camera man accompanying us (actually those cami guide posts come in useful as a tripod now and then). Off the coast a little now, with some lovely forest walking ahead.
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| 12th June 2016, 8:47am - Day 4 - Start of Stage 13 |
Walking through beautiful forest of holm oak and pine - the smells are amazing and the only sounds are birds singing. Heaven!!
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| 12th June 2016, 8:53am - Day 4 - Start of Stage 13 |
Things are getting even better, I (Keith) love natural rock - we now seem to be walking through forested rock valleys. When I was a boy I used to climb rocks like these every summer, it reminds me a lot of Claxeugh rock in Sunderland, except it is about 20 degrees warmer!!
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| 12th June 2016, 8:59am - Day 4 - Stage 13 |
If you can't be next to the sea, the next best thing is a rocky forested valley! This part of the walk is stunningly beautiful and a nice change to beautiful beaches. It is possible to get tired of beautiful beaches?
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| 12th June 2016, 9:12am - Day 4 - Stage 13 |
We have now joined the part of the path we have walked before. This is the beach at Cala Macarella - except we have NEVER seen it like this before. The last time we came, there was no space left on the beach and we had to sit way back. The sea was like a bowl of human soup! We probably would have stopped for a swim, but we're not really that hot - the conditions are perfect for walking..... and breakfast at Cala Galdana is calling!
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| 12th June 2016, 9:14am - Day 4 - Stage 13 |
Getting to the beach at Cala Macarella is quite a task. We passed a few people after this point who were walking from Cala Galdana to the beach asking how much farther to the beach - some of them looked like they were going to struggle getting down all the steps to the beach!!
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| 12th June 2016, 9:30am - Day 4 - Stage 13 |
The beautiful bay of Cala Galdana and then end of stage 13 - but more importantly, our designated breakfast / brunch spot for today. We decided to have a long break as there's still a lot to do today and the batteries could do with charging.
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| 12th June 2016, 9:47am - Day 4 - End of Stage 13 |
Down in the bay, things are suspiciously quiet! Normally this beach would be packed. It is still early but we think the main reason is that although the weather is perfect for walking, it's not that good for sunbathing. We found a nice beach restaurant and had a long break.
Decision time!! The book mentions that there is a coastal path that 'the walker' may prefer to take from Cala Galdana. We found the map (above). The blue route is the original cami trail and the red route is a more scenic route around the coast. Whilst 'breakfasting' we pondered on whether we could reduce our days kilometre tally by choosing correctly!! Keith decided that the red route looked shorter - later on, Elvis was to seriously disagree!! We set off after brunch and headed for the 'red' route.
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| 12th June 2016, 11:23am - Day 4 - Start of Stage 14 |
The 'red' route didn't start particularly well!! Straight up the sheer side of the inlet - already we were beginning to wonder if we should have took the blue route!
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| 12th June 2016, 11:51am - Day 4 - Stage 14 |
Once at the top, the 'red' route levelled off but only until a beach came along, then it went down to the beach and back up the other side. All the ups and downs was beginning to tell. I (Keith) started to get problems with my knee - fortunately Elvis carries a full pharmacy on her back and was able to administer ibrufen and paracetamol with ease - which kicked in just in time! We've been on the go 6 hours now and we were probably just starting to feel it. This beach looked very nice at Cala Mitjana.
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| 12th June 2016, 12:28pm - Day 4 - Stage 14 |
By the next beach at Cala Trebaluger we were getting tired of the very rocky path and the ups and downs - fortunately, a couple of km's after this it seemed to level out for a while.
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| 12th June 2016, 1:06pm - Day 4 - Stage 14 |
There are some quarries around these parts, although this cave is probably not connected. It looked like it had been blocked up and then re-opened again - possibly another necropolis?
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| 12th June 2016, 1:41pm - Day 4 - Stage 14 |
Some lovely Menorcan fence work to protect the walkers from the cliffs. This is the end of a lovely stretch of path, quite flat along the coast just before the resort of Sant Tomas and what should have been the end of the day, but alas, the planners had a different idea.
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| 12th June 2016, 2:05pm - Day 4 - End of Stage 14 |
Elvis had devised that when you see people lying on a beach or walking towards you in swimsuits and flip flops - then you can't be far from a resort! This is the edge of Sant Tomas, mostly locals enjoying a Sunday on a quieter part of the beach. We're now adding stage 15 to then end of the day and heading for Son Bou.
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| 12th June 2016, 2:53pm - Day 4 - Start of Stage 15 |
Thankfully, this picture doesn't show Elvis's face - if it did, it would show a woman in the grip of a serious 'sense of humour collapse'. Stage 15 starts with another route choice, there's a route that veers off inland and goes around a salt marsh or there's a more direct route that goes straight over a sand bank. No points for guessing which we took! The shortest! The book described the walk across the sand bank as 'along six wooden walkways' and even shows pictures of board walks stretching off into the distance. Not quite!! The walk was on sand and the board walks were for people to access the beaches. At this point we had walked about a mile in soft sand, which is very difficult! Also, it had caused some major blisters on Elvis's hooves and the dummy had been spat right out and stamped on!! We ended up walking in the sea to try and get some relief - by the time we got to the hotel we were fit to drop. The hotel was possibly our worst booking yet. It was a massive family resort - we knew we were in trouble when we were met at the reception by Freddie Flintstone and some other cartoon characters! Fortunately they didn't 'greet' Elvis or they may have got a blistered foot in there face!! But actually, the room was fine and the breakfast the next morning was really good.
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| 12th June 2016, 5:44pm - End of Day 4 |
We finished at exactly 4pm, so that was 5:45am to 4pm on the go, with a 90 minute stop at Cala Galdana - quite a day!! Here is Elvis all showered and dressed up ready for eats and drinks at that bar in the background on the beach. I wonder what kind of footwear would go with that little black dress........
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| 12th June 2016, 5:44pm - End of Day 4 |
WHAT'S THIS - BLACK SOCK AND SANDALS!!! The hooves are so badly blistered and bloodshot, that they have to be covered up, otherwise guests in the restaurant may be put off their food. Finding somewhere that sells socks isn't easy at a beach resort - fortunately Elvis found a little Chinese lady with some socks and a pharmacy to get some anti-septic cream and an industrial strength blister plaster pack. Elvis had to perform some 'home surgery' on a 'dirty blister' - no pictures thankfully!
Had a lovely meal on the beach, a few drinks and collapsed into bed. It's another long day tomorrow, but it has the bonus of our first night of three in the capital, Mao. We beginning to think we might just do this - IF the hooves recover by the morning!
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