Mallorca Day 33 - Tramuntana Tours guided walk to Cala Deia

It stormed through the night, rain and high wind, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go for an 11km hike in that. In the morning it was still windy, but not as bad, grey, but not raining. The weather forecast  said showers and 12 degrees. Time for layers. I walked around to the Tramuntana Tours office.

This office has been closed for most of February but the one in Soller was open and they were reachable by e-mail.

As well as the walking tours they sell walking and cycling equipment and maps and rent road bikes

and mountain bikes.

There were only 3 of us on this hike and a guide and an "apprentice guide" (an Irishman who had given up his law practice in England to become, with his wife, a Mallorcan resident). At 10 am we started out on the path I knew up towards the lighthouse.

This, pointed out by our guide, is a caterpillar of the Pine Processionary Moth. If you touch one its spines are very irritating and make you itch. They build nests in pine trees and are very destructive, defoliating them. I have heard gunshots and been told that people are shooting down the nests to destroy the larvae.

Walking as a group meant we were going a but faster than my usual pace but having people to talk to distracted me from the increased heart rate. The clouds had cleared away although it was cool.

Rebuilding a dry stone wall. No sign of mortar, he was just carefully choosing and placing stones, tapping them in to position with the hammer.

These olive trees had been recently pruned. Our guide (I think his name was Diego) was Italian and said that where he came from, near Florence, they cut down an olive tree once it is about 15 years old, because the olives get bitter, and plant new ones.  Here they prune away the old branches and the olives are still good on the new young branches. He said he was surprised how good the olive oil was from these trees (though not quite as good as the olive oil from his home town)

Sheep were eating the pruned branches. About here Diego pointed out the Mallorcan Trio; Olive, Almond and Carob trees, that all grow well without irrigation here. He also pointed out the Aubo flowers (I had sketched one 2 days ago) as also growing well in the mountains.

He said that this prickly little bush is a form of asparagus and you can eat the young shoots.

After a bit of searching he found one and then ate it.

This was the point at which I had turned off to go to the lighthouse, so from here on was new ground for me.

At this point Diego pointed down the coast, just to the left of that headland, where there are 3 rocks in the sea and said we would be going there. Whew, that looks a long way.

Passed this little restored chapel next to the path. It was built for the huge finca we were about to get to, to provide a place of worship for the workers (so they didn't use up good working time walking into the village to pray).

This huge finca has been owned for generations by the same French family. Now they serve orange juice and baked goods to the hikers.

Fabulous views back to the Soller valley.

Through the big doors we were served refreshing glasses of fresh orange juice and Diego showed us the original kitchen with its huge fireplace and chimney that goes up into the centre of the ceiling, that the family would sit all around on cool nights.

The sink in the kitchen was a huge slab of stone. Gradually the family is working at both renovating and restoring the huge stone building.

We went back outside to sit on the terrace and eat the food we had bought with us.

This was a flowering tree.

The path was steadily descending now and there was a cool wind off the sea.

Two young donkeys came to see if we had any food. We decided cookies were not on their diet.

Looking down into the cove that was our final destination.

We made it down to the 3 rocks that Diego had pointed out from above

and could see up

and down the rocky coast.

We headed down to Cala Deia. The other couple had been here in the summer and said it gets very crowded, especially the restaurant, which from up here looked closed.

If you watch "The Night Manager" a very popular, BBC show, one of the scenes was shot at this little restaurant. On the internet tonight I also found out that a scene was shot in Port de Soller.

 

Ca’s Patró March, Cala Deià

Roper and party at exclusive C’a’s Patró March fish restaurant in Cala Deià. Photograph: BBC

Fishy goings on are ten a penny in The Night Manager, but possibly the fishiest of all is the dinner that evil arms dealer Richard Roper hosts for his overblown entourage at the Ca’s Patró March restaurant in Cala Deià, northern Mallorca. This restaurant – serving grilled seafood platters and Mallorcan Nou Nat chardonnay – is on a cliff above a small cove and likes to attract the cognoscenti - –from The Guardian, online

We were given a few minutes to look around and then were to meet Diego and Jeremy back at the boat slip.

There was work being done on the restaurant but no workmen there, so I sat at the old wooden table had had some water and a couple of cookies.

I've never seen The Night Watchman but I can see what the location scout saw. Lovely view.

Could have looked like this for 100s of years.

We were picked up by a van and driven back on that twisty turny road (and I was reminded, I am never going to drive it again!). We were back by about 2:45.
The hardest part of the trail was the part I had already experienced, the rest was flat or only up for relatively short periods. There was a time when we had to walk on the road, but not for far and then down hill to get to the coast. It was very nice to have someone to ask all those questions that occur to me when I am walking. I will probably try and take another guided walk when Mum and Dad are here.
I got lots of congratulations, on the computer, from my fitbit, over 22,000 steps today. No kidding!