Wednesday 16 April 2014

Over Fumat to Cala Murta (and Mr Smelly, the goat)

This walk started further along the road we followed on the first day around the peninsula heading for Cap Formentor. Another road popular with cyclists, it had a section of switch-backs and a short tunnel.
A short distance beyond the tunnel we parked at a small car park by viewpoint and when we got out of the car it was quite cool at 16 degrees and with a strong wind. We put on lightweight windproof tops and set off back along the road until 250 metres before the tunnel, we found a sign-posted footpath gradually rising up along the steep slope along the side of the road.
This was a narrow but well-built path with large stone blocks on the downslope side and brought us to a short section of zigzags on reaching steeper ground.
This is part of an old path used to reach the Cap Formentor lighthouse, and at the top of the zigzags we reached the Coll de la Creu. There is a huge horn of limestone dominating the road and beach below called El Fumat. We followed a cairned route up rocky slabs to the trig point (a short concrete column) at the top where, as you would expect, there were 360° views.
After dropping back down to the col, we followed a larger section of zigzags down to a valley below and then up the other side on yet more zigzags to reach a very small notch in the ridge. On the other side of the notch, there were even more zigzags which were more overgrown than the others and also there were more sections of collapsed retaining wall.
After following the zigzags for quite a while, we reached a wire fence belonging to a private house and followed this as it dropped steeply down among shrubs (including on with thorns which punctured the foil container of my fruit drink!) to reach a track.
We turned left along this track and were soon at the pebbly beach of Calla Murta. This beach was lovely with blue water and the large white-painted private house whose fence we had followed. There were others who had arrived earlier sitting on rocks eating sandwiches.
We saw a large male wile goat calmly lying down at one at one side and he wasn't bothered as I approached closely to take some photos.
We sat on some boulders nearby at the water's edge and Karen emptied some plastic bags out of here rucksack and stood up. Immediately Mr Smelly the goat got up and sauntered over to stick his head towards the bag of sandwiches!
I shouted and Karen retrieved the bag and started to eat a ham and cheese roll. Mr Smelly followed her around very closely, lifting his head up trying to reach the food as Karen kept it higher in the air, much to the amusement of everyone else on the beach!
Eventually Mr Smelly gave up and trotted off towards a couple of German women sitting near the water causing them to scatter holding their sandwiches while the goat examined their remaining belongings.
Finding nothing interesting, Mr Smelly wandered off towards his earlier resting place. In the meantime I had been eating my sandwich and then heard a clatter as Mr Smelly leapt up onto a pick-nick table and made off with a man's sandwiches!
Having finished our lunch and goat-evading, we followed the stone steps from the beach for a short walk to a nearby rocky promontory called Es Castallet.

After a short wander around this small rocky promontory sticking out into the sea, we headed back to the car park following the same route as before except for the short diversion up the peak of El Fumat.













































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