Mallorca Backpacking Trip - Day 5: Tossal Verds back to Sussex

 Today was a long one, but a great end to our adventure.  We had been able to have a private room just for us on this night, which was soooo nice. Here is us moving out and leaving Tossal Verds.

We had an easy shady stroll down the valley on a combination of roads and trails, and we had such a laugh just ambling along talking about whatever.  

Looking back at Tossal Verds in the far far distance

We walked down to a town and caught the train into Palma, which was about an hour. But we all had seats which was awesome!  In Palma, we said goodbye to Chris because her flight was a couple of hours earlier than ours, and then we headed to the beach.  We had planned to swim, but it was really kelpy and wavey, and we decided to have lunch at a nice place instead.

From the beach cafe (which was amazing, by the way), we walked ourselves to the airport! This was our intention last year in Ibiza, but that day turned out to be rainy and too complicated, so we didn't. But this year, Mallorca, YES!

It was a thrill to walk to the airport and then get ourselves on the flight and head back home.

A fantastic adventure with my homies :-)  Looking forward already to next year!

Mallorca Backpacking - Day 4: Port Soller to Tossal Verds

 We stayed in last night is called Refuge Muleta, and it was a giant dormitory with 25 bunkbeds and (thankfully) pretty good ventilation.  It was completely full and there were some noisy sleepers!

The dining room dynamic was funny.. there was a lady who budged her way into the top table near the fireplace and window, which really wound Anne Marie up since she was there first last night.  

Anyway, we muscled in to that table for breakfast the next day and enjoyed meeting Jose from Mexico and Mariana from Madrid.

Anyway, we set out pretty early because today was going to be a massively long day and we arranged for a taxi to take us from Port Soller lighthouse (next to the Refuge) to the town of Soller.  This was a great decision in hindsight!  We shaved off some miles to save energy for the big climb today.

And our taxi driver was a lovely lady who dropped us off at her favorite bakery in Soller so we could stock up on lunch provisions!

 

From the bakery, we made our way through town as it was waking up on this Sunday morning after the night before (clearly there was some kind of party or concert in the middle of town last night)

 

And finally we got to the edge of town to meet the trail going up and over the main part of the Tramontana mountains, for the most spectacular day!

Our trail ran up and over the mountains, and on the other side was a reservoir, which we walked alongside of before going around to the mountain on the other side, up and over that.

Here we are halfway up the slope on the far side of the reservoir, looking back at where we had walked.

And then we got to another pass, and through that to the final leg over to Tossal Verds refuge.  It was a hot sunny day with a cold wind - perfect for our hiking adventure!

There was a tricky section we read about that we were a bit worried to encounter, but it was totally fine. It was more of a via ferrata section with a crumbly cliff and ropes installed.  Bit of drama, but we were ok.

 

First view of the Tossal Verds farmhouse refuge, which was totally remote and rural. So lovely here.

Just arrived, packs off, time for a beer!

And later, dinner, where we reunited with our Canadian friends from the first refuge in Deia and were able to return the socks they had forgotten. We had a great time chatting with them!

Mallorca Backpacking - Day 3: Deia to Port Soller

 This morning we had our first refuge breakfast, which was basic but good. 

In fact, the refuge building itself was a very old olive mill, and loads of ancient equipment was on display and very well preserved.

After checking out, we headed out on our 2nd big day, which was along the coast trail between the Cala de Deia and Port Soler. By now the wind was really strong and we were treated to dramatic crashing waves below us as we scrambled (in some parts) along the coast.

Along the way we encountered a most welcome fresh-squeezed orange juice stand, staffed by a lovely looking but not too friendly young chap. We had a giggle flirting with him though!

And then of course the donkeys...

Most of the journey was along the official cobbled stone, very well constructed pathway, hence the name "dry stone way".

Eventually we made it to Port Soller, where we promptly found a bar and sat to enjoy an afternoon beer.  From here we walked along the seafront to the far end, found another place to sit and have our first dinner.  

We saw that there were masses of blueish creatures that had washed up on the beach there, and found out later that they were jellyfish.

It was a beautiful place, and we so enjoyed our leisurely stroll from the town to our refuge that night which was up on the peninsula overlooking the bay.