Vam anar a Mallorca, Day 10: Isla de Cabrera, Cala Romantica, Cova del Pirata, Cala Falco, Cala Mitjana, and near Arta

December 10, 2019

Went to bed late, woke up early, and was up late again on this day. Had to soak in as much as we could in the short time we had.

Laura slept in as I went to go photograph the castile at dawn. The "castle" was actually more of a fortification and signal tower. Around the end of the 13th century, Isla de Cabrera was used as a launch point for Barbary pirates to attack Mallorcan coastal towns. The tower was build so that the inhabitants of Cabrera could light fires to signal the main island of coming attacks. Although I didn't go inside, we were told that the stairwell was made barely shoulder width so that the villagers could easily fend off attackers coming up, thwarting advances one attacker at a time.

I reached the top of the hill by the castile right at dawn. As had been the trend, the sky was fairly clear, so the sunrise had less "character" than a landscape photographer may hope for. So, I quickly turned my attention to the warm glow cast onto the castile.

After Laura woke up and we ate breakfast, we moseyed back toward the port to catch our ride back to Mallorca, stopping to take some long-exposures along the way.

Two versions of the same shot. I couldn't decide:

Well rested, Laura stayed awake for the ride back. The boat holds a max of 50 passengers, but we were one of two couples on the boat.

I took so many pictures on the ride back. The sky was so amazing! It looked like the streaks that I hope to get in long-exposures, but that's just what the clouds looked like. These single shots and panoramas were all taken from a boat going about 20-30 mph!

Quick lunch at the harbor in Colonia Sant Jordi before walking back to our hotel to pick up our bags and the car.

Oh the sweet payoff of hours of research! At some point in my nearly endless investigation, I came across a research paper about caves on the east coast. One cave in that area, Drach Caves, is a well-known tourist attraction with a boat ride inside; Ted and Calla gave it a lukewarm review and said there were lots of people in there. Luckily, the paper detailed some other caves and I found scant stories of people accessing them. On that glimmer of hope, we took off on a hike to see what we could find. We started by parking near Cala Romantica, aka Cala de s'Estany d'en Mas, crossing the beach, climbing up out of the valley, and walking south.

I had planned to follow the coast to Cala Falco, then return on an inland route that may take us by some caves. But I caught the wrong trail, so we did it backwards.

We tried to find Cova des Xots first, but didn't have great details on it. Laura walked around and found a doline, but no great way to enter the cavern- seems that the boulders had blocked the entrance when it collapsed. She also found this little poke.

The entrance for Coves del Pirata was more clear to us. Some may see this eerie portal and turn around. We donned headlamps and stepped in.

And we were rewarded big time! We explored several rooms, including one massive cathedral, and didn't even have time (or the safety equipment) to see it all.

We noticed that many of the bundles of stalactites had cracks running through them or that they had broken off of the ceiling at some point. This could be due to earthquakes, as this has been a tectonically active area.

Look at Laura down there for scale!

Here are some broken-off stalactites. Those rings inside form from layer upon layer of calcite crystals that are laid down by dripping water.

We then headed down to Cala Falco. Laura said there were a lot of jellyfish, and we didn't have much time, so we just enjoyed the view. Some tour groups came via boat, bringing spelunkers and snorkelers to enjoy some other caves with water in them.

Our schedule was dictated by a need to arrive at the El Castilo de Sa Duaia de Dalt within their check-in period, which is required for stay there. After checking in, we tried to ask about restaurants. It was one of the few times on the trip where I had to use Spanish for more than courtesy or entertainment. We finally conveyed that we were looking for dinner, and were handed a postcard for what looked like a great restaurant at an agrotourism venue. It was one of the few missteps in our planning. We had assumed that the restaurant, Sa Duaia, was at the castilo, but it was a few miles away. It was also... ...closed that day.

After a moment where exhaustion, hunger, and frustration came together in a bad way, we gathered ourselves and came up with a plan. We had food in the car, so we drove down to Cala Estreta and Cala Mitjana for a makeshift picnic. The road down to either was in serious disrepair! There were quite a few washouts and gulleys where I seriously thought we may get the car stuck. Somehow, we made it down to this better stretch by the coast and I took a deep breath and relaxed my knuckles.

We drove around the point down to Cala Mitjana, where we were greeted by this sign that was accompanied by some other, more obscene warnings. The beach was empty, so we went anyway.

The tripod and I got soaked when this wave that was substantially larger than those prior, caught me off guard. Besides a bit of spray, the camera was fine.