Mallorca Day 18 - Tramuntana Road Trip

Eve went and had a coffee at a cafe while I walked down to the Tramuntana Tours office (they do walking tours and rent bikes, paddle boards etc and their office in Port de Soller has just re-opened) to buy rubber tips for my hiking poles (I lost them on the last hike). Thank you, by the way, to all who have wished Eve well with the twisted ankle. We are going to take it easy on it today.
Map in hand, we set off, to drive the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range.

For the first part of the drive we were stuck behind a tour bus. This was a positive and a negative - it cleared the way, we knew we would have warning if a tour bus was coming in the other direction but it was also pretty slow, I was constantly in 2nd and 3rd gear. It pulled over at a mirador, so we did too, great views down to the Port.

Photo by Eve. There's the bus, in front of the car in front of us. We lost him after a while. I was very glad that we were here in the low season. These roads would have been much more difficult with more traffic - especially buses and bicyclists.

Sometimes we were twisting and turning with trees on either side, sometimes cliffs and drop offs, sometimes bare rock. Overall it was a good road with guard rails where they need to be but a bit narrow in places.

There were a couple of reservoirs up in the mountains with lots of walking paths around them. Eve had an app on her phone that gave us our elevation - highest we saw was 850metres. The mountains them selves are as high as 1500metres.

As we drove North East, up the mountain range it changed. Sometimes the rocks was sandy, almost golden and other times grey with dark steaks.

I wonder if 2 tour buses can pass through this at the same time. Photo by Eve.

Wherever we could pull of the road, we would to take pictures, otherwise Eve was trying to take shots with her phone, out of the car window.

Trees grew out of crevasses and sometimes we could see the sea in the distance.

Eventually we were heading down. Sorry Heather, this is the only cyclist that I saw when I was out of the car with my camera in hand. All the rest were whizzing down the road or struggling up while I was trying to navigate around them (harirpin turns, other traffic and you are supposed to give them 1.5 metres space!).

We found a vineyard, nestled in a mountain valley, and drove down the rutted  dirt track to a surprisingly modern winery and tasting room.

Unfortunately we didn't much like the wine, but the location was superb.

Out of the mountains and along some lovely flat, straight roads to Pollenca. I had considered renting here and am so glad that I didn't. It has a lovely beach and marina but is modern, no real character.

Photo by Eve. We had lunch at a restaurant by the marina, in the sun and sheltered from the wind.

Vestiges of our meal. Eve had a mixed salad with chicken and bacon and a russian salad tapas. I had 2 tapas; mushrooms in garlic and calamari with garlic mayonnaise.

We decided not to drive home through the mountains but rather drove to Alcudia (which is a walled town and I will go back to), Inca (a shopping mecca and famous for leather goods, we just drove through) and Binissalem (where we stopped at a few wineries as Eve had discovered she liked the wine from here, we may be back) and then through Banyola to the main road and home.
Tired from driving but what a lovely day. What I am loving about this island is the variety and the size (we explored about a third of it today), as well as the climate and the friendliness of the people.
Tomorrow we are thinking of going on a boat trip.