The Ultimate Picnic Walk. Torre Picada &Sa Illeta

We woke to rain. Bouncing down rain. We had breakfast and called into the outdoor shop to check on the gorge walk we booked for the next day.

With the weather looking a little better, but the mountain tops still covered in cloud,  we decided to walk along the coast in a east direction. The walk in the book was called a picnic walk.

 From the bay we headed back in land to where the main bus stop was and we carried on along until we reached a track.. A sign told us where we were on the map and we could match up with the map. The map was not 100% correct.  We now start following the track steadily up in between the olive terraces. Now it start raining and we waited thinking it’s just a passing shower, but the spots get bigger and faster it come down. So waterproofs come on and we carry on little further to where we find a group huddled under some trees. So we join them for a while and now its bouncing down. In the end we carry on as a true British would do along a track that leads up to Torre Picada Tower. From where should have had grand views but not today. 

We retraced our steps back down the track and met the other track to carry on round the hill side. We could have gone back to the weather but hey ho its only water. The track now starts to climb though more Olive groves. We are being circled high up by 4 eagles we think. To our right the Penyal Bernat pinnacle towers above us. We pass a few buildings which must be second homes for people and could be part of the Olive groves and lot of them don’t seem to be picked any more. So we carry on the track and it reaches a gate which is our turning point to head back down. 

  You do have the option of going on but the path comes more rocky and as the cloud is still down we did not fancy walking in the mountains in the cloud. So we head back down and we get different views as we had our back to on the way up.

Mallorca. Port De Soller

 We spent a week in Mallorca to do some walking in good weather. Our base will be Port de Soller north of Palma. Flying from Manchester to Pamla with Rynair, which had the best flight times compared to other airlines.  Cost of return flight was £162 for two.

We had no delays either way with and the loading was quick. Only thing I noticed was the hand baggage, they were keener on the return flight on the size. If it did not fit in the slot you had to pay for it to go in the hold.

Once at Palma airport we took the number 1 bus to the centre, which runs about every 15 mins. Cost was 2.50euros and you get off at the main station.  Then you take the express bus to Port de Soller which goes through the tunnel. Cost 3 euros.

Our hotel for the week was the Citrus hotel which is on the far side of the bay. The bus drops you off at the other end of the bay so you have a 20 to 30 min walk around the bay.

The hotel is a 1 star and we booked though Travel Republicweb site. £246 for both of us. This was cheaper than going direct to hotel. We booked double room with balcony and sea view at half board. You have options of room only, bed and breakfast or fully inclusive. We went for half board as it was only cost us an extra £10 each for the whole week. So if you only eat in once or twice you are a saving. I think if you pay there you will be paying about 7 euros each night for the meal.

The meals are ok and the breakfast was your standard with orange juice, bread rolls and cereals. The evening meals were 3 courses. We ate in 4 times and out the other times. Starter was always a salad with another item. For the main courses we had steak and chips, fresh fish with roasted vegetables, roast chicken breast with roasted vegetables and Goulash which was bland. You helped yourself to desert, usually fruit and e.g. apple flan, All in all 4 meals for 10 euros you cannot grumble. The only problem is there is absolutely no choice on the starter or main course, and there is no menu up (we used to ask beforehand what it would be to decide whether to eat in or out). 

The meals in the town came to about 40 to 50 euros with wine for two.

The room we had was sea view with balcony. It had a small ensuite with shower and small bath. The rooms were cleaned each day and all floors mopped. Down stairs you had a seating area with the bar and books to read. Bottle of house white wine was 8 euros and a whiskey was 4 euros.

Overall the hotel was good for 1 star and you could walk in with your walking boots on and no one said anything. It was away from the main area but that was a short walk away.

parkrun

Another Park Run today. 10th run for me and Helens 5th run. Some will think why get up and do a run at 9am on a Saturday morining. You must be mad! But you dont know what you missing as you feel a lot better later on.
So we at Heaton park run and its wounderful to see so many out from elite runners to people who will walk and jog round the course.  The best thing is out there and enjoying the run and fresh air early on in the day. Today we did not break our records but thats not the aim.

Heaton parkrun

Brothers Water camping

We just did a quick camp in the lakes. Went up Saturday moring and arrived at Skyeside campsite about 1pm.  After setting up the tent we did a small walk down to Patterdale and enjoyed a pint of beer. By now the weather was improving. We followed the sane route back to the campsite where we enjoyed a BBQ.

Next  day we packed up and few clouds around eheaded up to Hartsop Dodd. We took the path opposite the casmpsite where we should have found a path. But there was no path so we yomp up the steep hill, calfs were burning us.  On top we found a lovely wide path and we had fine views all round. Our next wainwright was Stony Cove Pike which was a easy route from Hartsop.  From Stony cove we could look at the hills we did early in the year from the kentmere round. We could see many figures doing the round but we no one on the hills we doing. From the here we had a choice of coming down pastures bottom or going west and come back down caudale head and though the mine which we did.  By now the wind was getting gusting and a the clonds were starting to build up ito the south. The route down was down a grassy path not too steep. We were surprise how steep we had climbed up Hartsop as it did not look a gradually hill.