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.

Mallorca Backpacking - Day 2: Palma to Deia

We took the bus from Palma to Valdemossa, and started on foot from there.  Here we are in Valdemossa, and we were noticing that it was quite a bit cooler here than we were expecting - only 12 C compared with 20 C back in Palma. So we knew we would need to walk quickly to warm up.

We followed Heather's lead and she guided us very well up along the GR 221 "Dry Stone Trail", although this first day we followed smaller paths that went the same direction but slightly more interesting route.

We walked along the ridgeline for awhile, and then down a path that took us into Deia, which is such a beautiful little place!  We couldn't check in until 4pm so we dropped our bags and headed down to the beach, Cala de Deia.

We had the most lovely swim in the sea here, and it was beautiful and clear water, though wind was rising and waves were increasing during the hour that we were there.  We made friends with some other travelers but mostly just enjoyed being at this beautiful beach

Then we got back to Refuge Can Boi and moved into our dorm room, changed clothes and then walked into town to find a place for sundowner drinks and food.  We found the most lovely place here in the golden sunshine up on a terrace

 

In fact, this turned out to be our "first dinner", because our accommodation package included dinner, bed and breakfast.  However, since it is a refuge hut type place, there are rules and one of them is that dinner is served at 8pm.  8pm!! We were ravenous by 5pm, so we decided to not wait. A great decision! 

After our episode here, we headed back to the refuge for 2nd dinner, then pretty much straight to bed!

Ladies Backpacking Trip to Mallorca - Day 1

Mallorca (or Majorca, as it is sometimes spelled)!

Ahh, finally today is here and we can finally set out on our adventure!  We went in Heather's car to the secret parking spot and then walked to the train to Gatwick Airport.  First up, sampling gin to decide which bottle to purchase for our occasional enjoyment over the next few days.  We met a very friendly Duty Free agent who helped us sample various bottles.

Had a good flight and then reunited with Chris at the Palma airport!  Such a happy moment.

We took a taxi to our apartment, dropped our bags and found a place for dinner nearby.  Then off to sleep because tomorrow it all starts for real!

Here we are the next day, ready to check out of this place.

Signatories

 This evening we had our final planning meeting before going on our Ladies Backpacking Trip to Majorca, and Rhodri and I took this opportunity to have my two friends witness the will that we have finally done.  A momentous occasion.

New overhang on the garage

This has been going on outside, and the new posts have meant that we needed to have the brick wall tidied up a bit.  Not too exciting but its nice to get this sorted.

 

Cat's Birthday Swim

 Today was Cat's birthday and we had a lovely swim followed by a bit of a party at Mamoosh in Newhaven. I don't normally go swimming mid-week, but this beautiful morning combined with the fact that it was Cat's birthday convinced me to fit this into my day.  And it was lovely.