Day 5: Caves, Calas, and Cliffs

We took a long hike through the amazing landscape around Portals Vells, the Cap de Cala Figueroa, and Cala Rafeubetx.

We started our hike a mile or so above Portals Vells, a small seaside resort village with steep hillsides descending on a beautiful cala (cove).  Among the interesting features is an old quarry which supplied rock for the building of Mallorca's majestic Cathedral de Sa Seu in Palma, so the quarry dates from the 14th century.  In this photo you can see the three openings to the quarry, which is really a huge cave dug out of the living rock.  

Just inside the quarry is a chapel, again carved out of the rock. See V in red to the right for scale.

To her left the wall is carved and there is place set into the wall for a statue or icon. The carving is probably 15 feet tall.

Here is another cool image from inside the quarry:

We then hiked up to the top of the cliffs above Portals Vells and walked toward the Cap de Cala Figueroa.  Here are two views, one looking forward and one looking back toward Portals Vells.

At first the walk along the cliff top was hot, dry, and flat.  A mile later things got interesting as the trail became turned to hardened lava with pits and bubbles and jagged edges...falling on one's face (which I almost did) would have been ill-advised.  Though the walk was mostly pretty easy, good hiking shoes with sturdy soles are a must if you ever hike this trail.

After working up a real sweat we descended into the Cala de Figueroa, with its tiny beach:  a small hidden piece of paradise where we took a dip and dreamed.

Some people have the life...

The view from the beach:

Then up a set of stairs cut into the rock and through an abandoned military base, with reinforced bunkers and gun placements, concrete trenches, and more:

Part of the base included a crumbling Moorish watchtower.  There are dozens of these around the coast and on key highpoints around the islands.  Mallorca was continually raided by pirates and armies, and was conquered, and re-conquered many times.  If the soldiers who manned these towers spotted the bad guys on the horizon, they'd light a bonfire on the top to signal the men in the next tower, who'd light a bonfire...

 
After the abandoned base we continued north around the peninsula, and, still walking along the rim of the cliff, we traversed the most beautiful and stunning scenery I've ever hiked through.  The following photos only approximate the magnificence of the scenery, but for perspective, the path where we took these photos was several hundred feet above the water.

Then we got lost, were hot, cranky, and thirsty, found the road, and drove to Magaluf where we had a pitcher of sangria!