Majorca, 22nd March, a walk to the sea in Port de Pollença

In March Alan spent a month in Majorca, in order to hone his cycling skills. I was going to spend the last week with him in Port de Pollença, when cycling would become secondary!
I duly left dog Hettie with Mairi and Lizzy in Derby so that I could fly out. I was booked on a  Sunday lunchtime exit from Stansted with Ryanair into Palma. Unfortunately the French traffic controllers thought otherwise and went on strike, cancelling the flight. I managed, at great cost, to get another flight from Gatwick at 11.00am the next morning. This was delayed by 5 hours, so that I  would miss my original connection from Barcelona to Palma. We landed in Barcelona at 7.00pm and the only flight to Palma with seats available departed at 7.30pm. This meant a run across the airport, through security again, where my bag was searched as I obviously looked a bit frazzled, and to the check-in desk where I had to wait for 5 nail biting minutes while they made sure that there was space for me. So instead of a nice afternoon looking round Palma I landed at 8.00pm, starving hungry as there had been no food on the flight and £350 out of pocket. I have not even mentioned the hours queuing at desks to try and get information out of the solitary overstretched person working there. The moral is do not take a European flight the week before Easter, as French traffic control will be on strike. They have been, during this week, for the last 3 years!

The weather in Majorca, for the first three days was overcast and cool, although still warmer than the UK. It was also quiet until the Thursday before Easter when the restaurants all opened, the weather became hot and tourists flooded in as if attracted by the sun.
Port de Pollença lies on the north-east side of the island and is well away from the fleshpots of the south. The first morning we took a well trodden footpath that runs for about 2miles down the Bóquer Valley to a small cove, only accessible by sea. We passed through craggy hills where we were lucky enough to spot a pair of Eleonora's falcons tumbling over the summit. There were olive trees to start, which I fell in love with all over again, and then these gave way to low rosemary bushes and spiny palm brush as the terrain became harder and drier. 
Here are the pictures from the walk in. I will publish those of the cove in the next blog.



















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