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A Reverse Pilgrimage

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Monday 31 st July – Lluc to Pollensa My walk today should have started at 9.00am with a taxi ride to Lake Cuber, but because I wanted to change the plan a little, my only option was to postpone departure until 10.30. So a leisurely breakfast was in order, with the occasional passing tram. I passed the time very pleasantly in Porto Sóller, wandering around “my” end of the harbour, examining the local fishing boats (that is suspected were serving as day-boats for tourists), all immaculately painted white with varnished wood, with clean decks and their characteristic vertical prow.  I walked down to the Tram terminus and puzzled over the points on the way. I was interested to see how easily the lever could shift a section of the rails across – it looked to me as if any passing Tom, Dick or Harry could flip the lever over and send the tram careering down some unplanned route. I watched as a tram arrived and people for Sóller town disembarked and took a moment to get their bearings. ...
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Cala Tuent to Soller via Paradise

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Cala Tuent to Sollér It was a straightforward pick-up yesterday morning from Kevin, named after Costner he explained, though he looked more like a young Barak Obama. We settled on Kevin Bacon. After a short while I was transferred to another cab, this time with Juan; John he said, no not John Wayne, Johnny Depp, he said and laughed.  We passed through a couple of tunnels, heading north-west. It’s amazing stuff limestone. How much easier to carve one’s way through than other rock, and such a direct route to one’s destination. I knew it would be a one-hour journey to the starting point, and as time went by I was baffled at how I could make it back on foot in 6 and half hours.  I have heard that far more of the surface of the Earth is theoretically accessible by horse than by car, and I realised that massively extensive engineering would be required for roads  to contour around some of the slopes that I had taken footpaths on. I also had to climb gradients that w...
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Reasons to be Cheerful - Part 2

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  The day started with a taxi ride. I was to be taken to Deia and my bags to be taken on to Porto Soller, so I had to be up early to pack. The driver was a little vexed that he had to detour to be within 50m of my digs, because the centre of town was closed in anticipation of more holy ceremonials, and festivities for Santa Catalina. Soon we were on the road and within 30 minutes at a lay-by above Deia. Deia is such a cool place. It’s obvious what attracted so many artists - painters, poets, musicians – to settle here. The topography of the town is convoluted, with a long climb to the Church and cemetery at the top of a natural outcrop – that was to be first port of call. I had promised my nephew Mikey that I would find the final resting place of two musicians, Kevin Ayres and Ollie Halsall, in whose work and lifestyle he felt a connection. He told me also about the artist Mati (Abdul Mati Klarwein), whose elegant headstone is alongside.  As well as a body of work that fused p...
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Reasons to be Cheerful

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  It was a shock awakening. My plan had been to turn up for breakfast at 8am sharp WITH my backpack, ready to make an early start. As it was, a half-opened eye happened to spy 8.00am on my watch, and it was then a race to get that 5-star breakfast inside me, and myself on the road in short order. Fortunately, I had packed my back-pack the night before, and had just a few extras to attend to. I filled my camel-back with the hotel's chilled supply, put it in a carrier back and slipped that in my backpack, along with lunch in a Tupperware, an orange, some toasted almonds and fruit pastilles. I was set to go. Getting out of the town and to the start was easy, but the first section was a shock. A narrow rocky track runs alongside the chainlink fence that forms one boundary if a conservation area. Ironically, it was provided with a silky smooth tarmac drive – the hikers path being a rocky afterthought – literally marginalized… but I was being conditioned for things to come. One of ...
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