Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019
On the Archduke's Path in Mallorca

Saturday 9 July 2016

A Circuit from Colio

Colio is a small village 4 km up a side road from Tama. Whilst Andrew went on a Collett's amble - 'Lon Circular', the four of us, me, Sue, Dave and Cary drove up to Colio and enjoyed an 8 hour circuit, covering just over 16 km. The first half was uphill and the second half was downhill. There wasn't much 'flat'. The GPS showed 2002 metres ascent and 2002 metres descent. You could describe the going as 'arduous', albeit not 'difficult'.

The wild flowers today were wonderful, even as seen through the haze of vaporising sweat as it dripped from our foreheads.

Our original plan was slightly curtailed when we observed a small group ahead struggling to find the way. We were joined briefly by an Andrew from Rochdale who had been observing them. Prudence dictated a shortcut to our planned route.

Just for the record, we went from Colio up to Los Riscos > past Los Castros > the 1843 metre Collado de la Llaguna. Here we went to and fro for a while, rising to above 1900 metres, before deciding on a short cut down grassy slopes to return to Colio on good tracks past Fuente Prado.

A fabulous day out. Welcome tea then beer back at base before another good meal in excellent company at the Corcal restaurant.

There will be more about the route and the flowers etc in due course. I hope that in the meantime that you enjoy the pictures.

Thanks as always, especially to AlanR, for your comments. I'm keeping my responses to a minimum as they seem to be coming up in triplicate, resulting in time consuming deletions.

Friday 8 July 2016

Potes to Tudes and back

Here we are in the Picos de Europa. 

After an easy journey - EasyJet to Bilbao then hire cars* to Collett's base in Tama - we enjoyed a pleasant evening with the other guests.

Sue and I have Dave to thank for waking us at 8.30 this morning. We just made it in time for the 9 am rendezvous for the day's walk.

There are five in our group - me, Sue, Andrew, Cary and Dave. We were joined today by four other guests - Dave and Sue and Mike and Sue, as well as Collett's 'unleader', Oscar.

Oscar turns out to be a rapper. His 'unleader's' 'disclaimer' rap was the most entertaining briefing we've had from Collett's. 

The walk was a short 9 mile jaunt to a pretty village, Tudes, where we enjoyed lunch at a picnic bench next to two tractors together with the local hounds and a teenage linguist.

Views were excellent, with cloud hanging at the top of the tree line, and jagged snow streaked peaks above.

We were back in Potes by 2.30, after 14.5 km (9 miles) and 500 metres ascent - an easy warm up day, though we may be stifled by unpredictable weather ahead.

Potes turns out to be a delightful town with many bars and ice cream shops. It's about 2 km down the road from our base in Tama, to which we returned for afternoon tea and chat.

Eat your hearts out, Mike and Marian - you have been missed - there was even a place laid for you at dinner last night!

* Typical Hertz: 
H "You have hired a Corsa; it's only €5 a day to upgrade."
M "No thank you, a Corsa will be fine."
H "Ok, here are the keys to your Opel Meriva." [That's quite a big car.]

Wednesday 6 July 2016

Mallorca – Index and Slideshows

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We’ve had a few trips to Mallorca, so here’s an attempt to summarise them and provide links. ‘BR’ = bike ride.

There are still two slideshows and one entire trip to add to this catalogue, which is principally for the benefit of those who came along with us, but at least this year’s entries are up to date!

2016

Friday 15 April 2016 - Hiking and Cycling in the Sunshine
Saturday 16 April 2016 - Manacor to Arta and back (BR)
Sunday 17 April 2016 - A Circuit from Puerto Pollença (BR)

Monday 18 April 2016 - Caimari and Ses Figueroles

Tuesday 19 April 2016 - Costitx to Sanctuary de Cura and back (BR)

Wednesday 20 April 2016 - Alaró-Orient circular walk

Thursday 21 April 2016 - Torre d'Albarca

Slideshow – 263 images

2015

Thursday 2 April 2015 - Port de Pollença

Friday 3 April 2015 - A Bike Ride to San Llorenç (BR)

Friday 3 April 2015 – Cases de Betlem and sa Talaia Freda

Saturday 4 April 2015 - Cuculla de Fartàritx (711 metres)

Sunday 5 April 2015 - A Bike Ride to Coll d'Honor (BR)

Monday 6 April 2015 - Out With The Peleton (BR)

Tuesday 7 April 2015 - Sa Gubia (609 metres) and Pas de sa Fesa

Wednesday 8 April 2015 - Puig Tomir (1103 metres)

Slideshow to follow

2011

Not a Spanish Training Camp

Sunday 24 April 2011 - Overcast in Puerto Pollença (BR)

Monday 25 April 2011 - A Bike Ride to Muro (BR)

Tuesday 26 April 2011 - A Stroll to Penya Roja

Wednesday 27 April 2011 - A Ride to and a Trip to Pollença (BR)

Thursday 28 April 2011 - Three Walks in One Day!

Friday 29 April 2011 - The Mountain Road to Lluc Monastery (BR)

Saturday 30 April 2011 - Puig Sant Martí and S'Albufera de Mallorca Natural Park

Slideshow to follow

2010

Sunday 30 May 2010 - The Ascent of Puig de Maria
Monday 31 May 2010 - The Ascent of Puig de l'Aguila
Tuesday 1 June 2010 - The Ascent of El Calvari
Wednesday 2 June 2010 - Parc Natural de S'Albufera
Thursday 3 June 2010 - The Bóquer Valley
Friday 4 June 2010 - A Trip to L'Havanor
Saturday 5 June 2010 - Cúber Reservoir

Mallorca – 29 May to 5 June 2010 – Casa (Villa) Galvany

Slideshow – 218 images

2006

3 to 11 November – a week based in Puerto Soller - as at July 2016 the record is non digital, and photos have not been indexed…

Monday 4 July 2016

Saturday 2 July 2016 – The Patterdale Parish Boundary Walk

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The Patterdale Parish Boundary Walk (PPBW) takes place on the first Saturday in July every year. I’ve wanted to have a go at the challenging 30 mile route with 10,000 feet of ascent for some time, so when Sue O and Mike P suggested that Sue and I join them this year (Sue O and Mike have done it many times before) we jumped at the chance.

Sadly, when the day arrived, neither Mike nor Sue O, who we’d picked up from Ann and Alvar’s in Penrith, felt fit enough to attempt the whole route, so Sue and I agreed without demur to alter our ambition and tackle just the easier second half of the Boundary walk, from Kirkstone Top to Patterdale. This meant that we could join David, Heather, Carmen and Rowan, who were doing just the second half as the organisers don’t allow under 16s like Carmen to do the whole lot (though Rowan, who is also under 16, may have managed to sidestep that particular rule).

So the long anticipated 5 am start passed us by as we lay in our beds or tents listening to the rain, the morning slowly drifting into a leisurely affair with Mike and Marian, who had kindly allowed the Sues and me to stay for a couple of nights in their homely and conveniently positioned library/garden.

Eventually, on a showery day, setting off at 11.40 from a car park inundated by banana thieves on an unrelated endurance event, we tackled the second half of the Patterdale Parish Boundary Walk, starting from Kirkstone Top. Here we are - David, Sue, Martin, Carmen, Sue, Heather and Rowan.

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It was showery enough for the waterproofs to stay on all day, but without getting particularly wet. Albeit I think someone who used Paramo did get a bit soggy!

Here are the others near the start of the walk, ascending St Raven's Edge to John Bell's Banner.

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In gaps between the showers there were good views to the Kentmere summits, including Froswick and Ill Bell, and from Caudale Moor we could see ahead to Thornthwaite Crag and High Street. Whilst the pictures don’t really show it, the hillsides were covered in the small white flowers of Heath Bedstraw.

It was a slithery descent in rain, with good views down Trout Beck to Windermere, to Threshthwaite Mouth, where we enjoyed lunch in and out of showers, trying to protect sandwiches and crisps from getting soggy. This boosted energy levels for the steep ascent to Thornthwaite Crag.

Here’s the view to Trout Beck and Windermere from the slithery descent.

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The path to High Street from Thornthwaite Crag looked easy as we paused to regroup and chatted to a resident couple in the welcome shelter of the protective wall by the beacon at Thornthwaite Crag, from where there were clear views to Froswick and Ill Bell beyond.

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Our route turned north, with the wind conveniently on our backs as we headed over High Street towards The Knott and Rest Dodd. Hereabouts there were lots of folk wandering around in pairs, scrutinising maps, as we enjoyed the views towards Hartsop and Helvellyn. We later discovered that the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon was taking place and that the puzzled looking folks with flappy maps must have been taking part in that event.

We admired distant views towards Place Fell as we passed over The Knott to reach another climb up to the summit of Rest Dodd, from where there were good views towards Ullswater.

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It’s a lovely path down to Angle Tarn, past various lumps and bumps that we didn’t bother to ascend on this occasion.

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The views from the two Angletarn Pikes summits (eg as in the header picture) are however excellent, so the Sues and David and I popped up to those summits whilst Carmen and her mum and pet enjoyed a second lunch.

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The Angletarn Pikes are gnarly nobbles with sufficient telephone reception to enable us to warn Mike P, aka The Patterdale Canary, of our presence should he wish to join us for the final stage of our walk.

Turning my back on the sunny scene above, Ullswater and Place Fell seemed to be temporarily engulfed…

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We strolled slowly down to Boredale Hause, catching up with the family rejuvenated after their second lunch. No sign of the canary. The six of us regrouped on our final summit -  Place Fell. The rev (David) seemed relieved; he had been feeling a little fragile - a state probably worsened when I reminded him that this was the last hill, and he could ‘put his back into it’.

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We now took a short cut, despite David’s presence not sticking religiously to the Parish Boundary, and headed west before reaching The Knight. The path now led easily down to Patterdale. Shortly after starting the descent we were joined by the trusty aforementioned canary (you’ll see why I’m describing him thus if you view the slideshow to which there’s a link below), Mike P testing his damaged leg. It hurt, he reported. It hasn’t really fully recovered from a serious ski accident in 2015 and Mike was clearly frustrated not to be able to join us for more of the walk.

Low down, near where the path passes above Side Farm’s campsite, there's a bench on which residents of Patterdale can pause to admire their Parish. Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a view like this within a ten minute walk from home?

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Time was marching on. We had a table booked for 7.30 in the White Lion. So we marched on, past a Patterdale relic, just for AlanR….

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…. to the PPBW finish at the local school, where we were plied with tea and were awarded medals, bunches of bananas and certificates. We were told that over 80 people had taken part, just 7 managing the entire circuit. We were the last to finish, at about 6.40 pm, though this final checkpoint is normally open until around 10 pm as strugglers (sic) make their way off Place Fell in semi darkness to complete the entire 30 mile route.

Next year, perhaps.

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The route (the second half of the PPBW) is about 20 km with 1200 metres ascent. It took us 7 hours.

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Here’s a 37 image slideshow. Click on the first image then click ‘slideshow’.

There is no entry fee for this Beating the Bounds of Patterdale event, which raises much needed funds for St Patrick’s Church in Patterdale and the Patterdale Church of England Primary School. Participants are asked to gain sponsorship or to make a donation at the end of their walk.

A worthwhile cause, and a lovely event to take part in. The full route is a challenging day out. Diarise 5 am on Saturday 1 July 2017?