Family Fun

On arrival back in the UK, Clare found herself embroiled in the Heathrow Airport chaos due to the passport technology failing. Her next flight to Manchester was subsequently cancelled, but thankfully she negotiated the queues and angry mobs and escaped, exhausted and having lost her voice, but otherwise relatively unscathed to a Hotel, where I met her later that afternoon. A brief rest and a stroll around the grounds of the country park, was just enough to get us in a fit state to attend the main event of the weekend - Aunty Gill's 80th Birthday Party!

It was a glorious summers day, with  Andrew and Sarah hosting a wonderful party. Food, drink and lot's of catching up with everyone's news! A special day with some very special people.

To keep us active, there were also plenty of sociable games - what better way to have a conversation than over a game of tennis, croquet or connect four, with a cold drink to hand!

After the sun had set and some of the clan had begun to disperse, more food, drink and chat led late into the night, with some of us who were staying over, retiring to the late night cellar snooker scene, where a fun team 'cousins' match took us into the early hours...

A short family hike was the order of the day on the Bank Holiday, to walk off yesterdays fine foods and see a bit of the Liddington area.

Things got curtailed just below the target destination of Liddington Hill, on the famous 'Ridgeway' hike, due to us not carrying a machete big enough to get through the 'in bloom' stinging nettles!

At one point things got seriously overgrown!

And later, we almost lost sight of the birthday girl among the foliage!

Some of the team were finding it great fun though!

Happily we made it back to the house, all accounted for and in time for another huge lunch in the dining room!

After saying our farewells we've headed north into Worcestershire, for a quiet night or two, to re-group, re-pack and get organised for the excitement of the next few weeks, which currently has travel plans involving several different groups, modes of transport, activities, countries, languages, and for Clare, multiple continents!

Cottage Turnaround Time

After just over four hours sleep, I was back up and out into the brightness of The Cottage gardens around 9am. Ideally, I’d have stayed slumbering for the remainder of the morning, but there was much to be done, and little in the way of available time. Some toast and coffee got things started along with some invigorating sunshine on my face.



By mid morning there were two lots of washing hanging out to dry and I was showered, shaved and feeling a bit more human. Having been up in the mountains of Mallorca, and fully focused on expedition life, I opened my laptop to find I had 176 emails to start working through, on top of the planned activity of writing post expedition reports and accounts. Additional coffee was required later in the afternoon…



I called it a day on the laptop around 6pm and after a delicious meal, set to work packing various bags for the next few weeks of differing adventures. 



To wind down, clear my head and mentally check through that I’d done what needed to be done, I took a short walk at dust to the view point. 



A deep sleep of a much more satisfactory length had me set up and re-charged for getting back on the road. Next stop, find Clare and get ourselves to an 80th Birthday Party….

To the coast and back home

In hindsight, it would have been better to take the bus from Pollenca, where we had been staying (at Refuge Pont Roma - AKA Roaman Bridge), to the Port, but it's easy to think that afterwards!

The town of Pollenca is very nice, but there is a 5km highway between town and port, along which, the GR221 walks. Not the most inspiring finish to a week of great trekking. We had planned to walk up and over to the deserted cove of Cala.... to the north of the port, but the tired trekkers opted instead to go straight to the town beach instead. There were a few interesting weeds and flowers on the trek there to distract from the road at times!

It was somewhat of a culture shock being back in the bustle of a busy tourist town again!

It was rather windy down at the beach, but only a few could resist a final dip in the sea to celebrate the end of our journey!

We had plenty of time in the afternoon, to stroll the marina after a big team feed at an outside restaurant.

A bus to Palma, then another to the airport had us re-packed and checked in in good time for the night flight. I 'pulled rank' on the plane so that I could have a window seat to try and get a little bit of sleep before driving the minibus back to Wales! I managed about 30mins, which was helpful and made the drive a bit easier! It was almost 1am by the time we got to the terminal at Liverpool and the sun was putting a soft glow on the horizon, when several hours later at 03:38 I pulled up at The Cottage, having returned the group to their homes! I just made it up the stairs before falling instantly asleep... A long day!...

Lluc Monastery to Pollença - GR221

Lucky for me, I wrote down at the groups room numbers last night, as it all looked a bit the same in the corridors of the monastery when I went to wake them in the morning!

Breakfast was superb and a welcome change from our recent standard of dry bread and cheese. 



It took a while to get organised after multiple plate re-fills and sourcing some lunch from the local shop. Eventually at gone 10:30, we set off from Lluc. You can just see the monastery in the left of this photo.



It was the first day of clear skies, which on one hand was lovely, but made also made things a bit tougher and certainly sweatier. 



At least we only had a small height to climb and then the rest of the day was descending down to the lower valley. 



It was certainly warmer down at sea level, having spent the last few days up in the mountains.





The last 6km or was was flat but seemed to go on and on through the fields.

Finally at around 17:30, we found ourselves outside the refuge on the edge of a town called Pollença. It was an old stone building and inside it was cool, as well as having a small shady garden area. Showers, a brew, then soon dinner followed. A big day at just over 19km.

GR221 - Refuge Tossals Verds to Lluc Monastery

There was a bit of a commotion this morning at breakfast when a cheeky Pine Martin broke into the kitchen!

He didn’t seem that bothered about me, so must be a regular visitor, but it was nice to see one so close up. 



Today is a step up from the previous two in terms of distance and with nearly 1000m of height gain required to get up and over the highest Col in Mallorca and down the other side to the Monastery in Lluc. This is the hut we stayed in last night and the distant views.



For once I was happy for it to be overcast as it kept the temperature down and much better for trekking uphill in. We actually set out in light rain (less ideal), but quite cooling. Not enough to both with waterproof jackets though. 



A steady up hill through the forest, then up on to the open mountainside, got us to the ‘Col du Prat’. Here we could see the sea on both sides of the island and also some very threatening black clouds, which thankfully only dropped a few drops of rain on us.



From the Col, we had to drop and then climb a further 100m of altitude to access the correct valley from our high point of just over 1200m.



A small path soon turned into a well laid track that dropped height quickly via multiple switch backs.



As we entered the forest, we could see the roof of the Lluc Monastery on the far distance. All we had to do was transport ourselves there, which we eventually did, arriving at around 5pm. 

As the nearby refuge was already fully booked, we have the luxury of staying in with the nuns and monks! No bunk bed tonight and an en-suite room! Bliss! Hot showers were the first port of call followed by tea in the square feeling much fresher.

We a Spanish Omelette for dinner at the village restaurant, then took a quick look around the buildings and Basilica. 



This is a wonky photo of the front - we are staying in there somewhere!



The view from the front door…



The courtyard Basilica.



A five minute walk to the cross above the grounds, gave fantastic views and an unexpected sunset treat!



Time for bed. 14.9km hiked, with 918m of ascent. 

Cúber Reservoir to Refugi de Tossals Verda

After dinner at the Refuge, we were treated to a spectacular sunset before heading to bed.



Once again, my ‘one eared-mess’ ensured that I slept reasonably well, given that we were bunked in with 30 other hikers! Apart from some strange dreams, I woke relatively rested all things considered.



Through a combination of concerns regarding the weather, terrain and group ability, we decided to reduce the distance of the day and uphill climb from Soller by taking a taxi up to the Resevoir at Cúber. From here a short steady climb, of less than 200m put us on route to the next refuge. The sky was grey, windy and overcast with the temperature around 14°C but there was colour around us.





The view over the Col was impressive and from here it was gentle downhill all the way.



Lunch was provided by the hut warden and was best described as ‘dry’.



By taking this route, we went through a gorge section.



The short steep and exposed section had fixed chains for assistance, but was technically easy to negotiate. I’d taken advice about needed a rope here before leaving the UK and was glad I hadn’t bothered carrying one! 



Once through the gorge, the pace continued at its very leisurely plod, interspersed with plenty of stops for photos, drinks or just to stop and chat. We arrived at around 3pm and gladly changed into sandals after checking into our dorm. This time only 8 bunks!

Dinner was served at 8pm (lentil stew), which seemed like an age away, but once everyone had showered and been inducted into Grandma Martin’s ‘Shops’ card game, the time soon flew by! Naturally I was the Milliner!