Sue and Martin in Mallorca 2019

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

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Sunday 29 April 2018 - Na Blanca

We made it here by 11.30 last night, rather later than hoped for due to errant passengers in Manchester and the not unexpected couple of hours it took to get our hire car - shuttle bus from airport to OK Rentacar, an hour's wait in a queue, then it was deemed our responsibility to identify all the scratches etc in the dark. "You get what you pay for" - £40 for a Citroën Berlingo for a week (plus £60 insurance - there's something not quite right about all this).

Robert and Lyn were waiting up at Edificio Mar in Puerto Pollença with a nice salad and some beers, so after a very late night we enjoyed a good lie in this morning before venturing out into the rain to photograph the damage to the Berlingo we hadn't spotted in the dark the night before.

The dynamic duo set off in their van for a bike ride, whilst Sue and I chilled out and lunched before heading a short way along the peninsula to Playa Formentor. We chose an easy 8 km walk from the large and expensive car park, to the 332 metre summit of Na Blanca, more or less as described in route 37 of Charles Davis's 'Walk Mallorca' book.

The weather had improved to become a nice clear day with sunny spells. Germans and a large French party were encountered on the rough paths marked with small cairns, but it was pretty quiet up there, with lovely views. Brown goats were munching the vegetation and ravens were dancing and diving using the thermals from the cliffs - they looked to be having a wonderful time.

We couldn't resist the temptation of ice creams before heading home, rather slowly amongst the cyclists, for a welcome pot of tea before we hit something stronger.

I've added some images of our route, courtesy of Viewranger, not quite up to Cary's standard - see his excellent 'From the Bottom to the Top' blog
https://ftb2t.wordpress.com/
but contesting well with Robert's niche postings on his 'Brexton Travels'
www.brextontravels.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You've brought back happy memories with this post. Super views.
Alastair, Andrew and I climbed Na Blanca last month although we came back down the valley rather than retracing our steps.

Phreerunner said...

We went on Al''s recommendation. If we has looked at the Cicerone guide we'd probably have taken your route, though the high level circuit and the views on the descent were excellent.