Across the Alcúdia Peninsula

Trish joined Karen and I for a walk today. We remained relatively close to our accommodation today and drove to the nearby town of Alcúdia and followed signs for the Ermita de la Victòria which brought us along the seafront. I spotted a rough car park with a footpath sign for the Ermita de la Victòria, so we pulled off the road onto the car park with a small scrape of the exhaust pipe on a piece of rock.
There were several cars parked along the rear of the car park taking up all that available space, so we parked between a track leading from the car park and the road near a sort of ramp which made leaving the road easier but still several metres away.
Immediately a man and his wife, who were standing near the water and had been watching us carefully as we were parking, crossed the road to the car park and said in Spanish that we couldn't park there as it was blocking the “ramp”.
I replied “What's the problem? You could easily get a truck through here!” in Spanish and he just waved his hands and walked off.
We got our gear together, applied sun screen and set off on the path towards the Ermita (Hermitage). We soon arrived on a tarmac drive leading to a campsite and I realised we had gone wrong!
We looked at the guidebook and realised we should start at the hermitage, not walk to it! The footpath sign post said the hermitage was 1 hour 30 minutes away). So we went back to the car and drive further along the road and after a few kilometres we found the hermitage and parked in one of the spaces left in the car park.

Starting out a second time, we followed a wide track uphill for some distance heading eventually towards the top of the Talaia d'Alcúdia (448m in height).

The track narrowed and then zigzagged a little and after passing a large cairn with a footpath sign we were soon on top, where there was a short cylindrical trig point column and a bit lower down and on the opposite side, two small stone buildings, one a ruin.

After a quick look at the views, including across Alcúdia, we sat on the doorstep or window ledge of the ruin in the shade of a tree to eat our lunches.

After lunch we dropped down to the cairn again and then followed a footpath leading to the right which went up a bit, a down a bit then up a bit to the top of the Puig des Boc (345m) before dropping down with a bit of zigzagging to reach a small refuge, which was closed, and some pick-nick tables at Collet des Coll Baix.

We sat on the stone steps of the refuge and ate the remainder of lunch watching Mr Smelly's relative Mr. Stinky (another wild goat) pestering others for their food. Of course this time there were some pillocks feeding the goat, which would ensured his continued presence in the future.

Again there was a lovely beach nearby, the Playa des Coll Baix, which seemed to be the thing wild goats like – at least the ones which like sandwiches!

While we were there, a man and woman arrived and unlocked the refuge and I looked inside as we passed by and it had a pick-nick table, a wood-burning stove, tiled floor and a mezzanine floor – presumably a sleeping platform.

We left the col and followed a vehicle track to and through a small car park, then left at a signpost to start following a dry river bed. There was a small rocky clearing and it was covered with dozens of small cairns plus a stone man with a smile and anatomically-correct details!

We left the cairn garden and Karen shouted out as she spotted a Hoopoe bird which took off and flew away. Continuing along the valley and dry river bed, we eventually reached the Coll de na Benet with shady olive trees and, more wild goats!

Dropping down from the col, we followed the Fontanelles valley and could see the sea and bay of Polença in the distance.

After a further walk along a track, we passed a large circular reservoir holding water in case of forest fire and then a bit more of footpath through some woods and then a small path leading down to a T-junction.

Karen thought the route back to the hermitage was to the right. There was no sign, so I walked a short way down to the left as both ways were marked with red spots of paint. Soon I reached the start of a gorge and as we needed to be on the other side, so obviously this was the wrong way.

The other route soon started rising steeply, which matched the guidebook description. We kept on up the light-coloured route which had some ruts from water run-off and after a short while arrived at a wall which turned out to be the hermitage car park.

We walked over to the car and opened the boot. Then we heard a voice which sounded very like Keith! It turned out that the cave the others had gone to was nearby and they had also parked at the hermitage. Plus, we had parked right next to Dave Phillips; rented car without noticing!

They had been in a very warm cave and had crawled around looking for a way on and Keith had decided that he had had enough of that cave and left them to it. He had walked back to the car to wait for Waggy, Brian and Dave to return and had been waiting about an hour so far.

We all went to the hermitage's small restaurant and had a cold drink and ice cream and then left Keith (who had Dave's car keys) to it. Elaine Booth had gone with Brian and Dave to walk to the cave didn't have to await their return, so she came back with us.