This was Sue's first bike ride on Mallorca. I think she enjoyed it. Her bike was hired for just one day, but it hasn't been returned. She's using it again tomorrow.
We chose a scenic, low level, route of about 87 km, with 900 metres ascent, taking nearly 9 hours, including some lengthy breaks. The sun shone intermittently throughout, and despite one or two seriously dark clouds, we avoided any rain.
Having picked up hybrid hired bikes from Rent March (€46 for two good bikes for two days), we set off along familiar lanes to the church of Sant Miguel near Campanet. The mountains on which we are just as likely to be found provided a fine backdrop for the first picture of the day.
Continuing through Campanet to Moscari, following minor roads that resemble English country lanes, we paused for coffees after about 26 km.
More minor roads took us through Binibona, Caimari and Mancor, before we skidded to a halt at the excellent Bar Mayorga in Biniamar. Beers etc and luxurious cheese and Parma ham baguettes, shown in the second picture, set us back €22. No wonder the place was busy. 'Menu of the Day' looked excellent. A smart kitten spent a long time coercing Sue into feeding it slivers of cheese from my discarded crusts.
From this roughly half way point, we headed back in an anticlockwise loop through Lloseta and Inca to Sa Pobla, a pleasant town with narrow streets and a main square full of schoolchildren on a 'book day'.
Here, the Placavuit café supplied tea, coffee and cake on what turned out to be another long break. Great chocolate cake.
A short section of not so pleasant main road deposited us at an entrance to the Parc Naturel de s'Albufera, where the gravel tracks made for a good contrast with the earlier tarmac.
We mounted a viewpoint above the trees and watched bird life and adventurous cows. Egrets, Kites, Kestrels, various Gulls, Pigeons, Swifts, Swallows and other birds of prey were seen from this elevated position.
Back at ground level we continued slowly through the park. We were delighted to spot a rare Crested Coot, communing with a bog standard Coot, from one of the bridges over a wetland channel. As I was unable to get a good picture of the coot, I took one looking back to the mountains in the west of the island. See third picture down.
Flowers don't move like birds, and since there are no wild haggi here (they thrive on orchids) we went on a hunt for more camera fodder in the form of orchids. As usual in this particular spot, Bee Orchids were soon discovered - see bottom picture.
Then it was off to Alcudia and thence to home, via pleasant back lanes and Rent March.
Back at base, after the obligatory beers, vegetable curry dominated the evening.
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