Vam anar a Mallorca, Day 9: Isla de Cabrera in Cabrera Archipelago National Park

December 09, 2019

Another long one, but good one. I bet you're getting used to that by now!

I have to say that I was really impressed by Laura on this trip. I had all these hikes and long days planned, but then figured I would have to dial the adventures back a bit after we (so excitedly and thankfully) found out that she was pregnant. I did the toughest hikes on my solo days, but she still impressed me, eagerly joining on the other hikes and so many beaches each day. So, for the boat ride out to Isla de Cabrera, it was understandable that the hum of the motors and breeze on her face put her right to sleep.

We landed at the port and underwent the briefing from the park staff. This archipelago that lies a few miles off the coast of Mallorca is a national park, so there are some rules for the preservation of the native flora and fauna, and the staff did a great job of informing the arriving tourists of those constraints.

We then went into the park office to check in for our stay at the "hostel" or "refugi". It is a converted military barracks with only four rooms (12 beds) and a shared living/kitchen area and showers. We got some great news in the office. They asked if we wanted to do any guided tours while we were on the island. We asked what the options were and they told us that we could choose from any of the multiple hikes offered or a kayaking trip. We already planned to do a hike around sunset, so we asked how much the kayaking was. Free! They said it is included with the stay on the island! What a great surprise and what an amazing place to choose to go kayaking!

I booked it months in advance, so we got an bay view room with two beds to ourselves! The conversion was done much more elegantly than I figured for a "converted military barracks" or a many "hostels". We arrived on the first boat of the day, a while before our room was ready, so we had an early lunch with the Lilford's Wall Lizards (Podarcis lilfordi) in front of this view.

The housekeeper let us know that our room was ready early, so we went in to the room to find this view! As I spent so long setting up this photo, Laura laid down on the bed with the sun on her face. I teased her that she couldn't possibly nap like that. Two-and-a-half hours later, we both woke up and walked a couple hundred yards to the beach for some snorkeling. It doesn't get much better than this!

I haven't figured out what this fish was, but it looked like a cross between a bonefish and snapper.

Some more Culerpa algae

My spotter helped again; Laura came and grabbed me to see something cool. The pile of shells tipped me off to what we were looking for. I dropped down and looked in the hole to see this sucker.

Part of Laura's dissertation was about rhodoliths, hard "tumbleweeds of the sea" algae. Most of the research about them and thus many of the papers that she has read were from the Mediterranean Sea, so she was stoked to see that part of the debris pile in front of this octopus' lair was a rhodolith (pink "rock" on the right side of the image).

After paparazzi-ing the heck out of this octopus, I swam off to look for other critters. Laura soon got my attention again to excitedly, eyes open so wide, tell me that it was "tenting". This is a tactic used by octopuses to catch prey. They will use their body to form a tent over a section of seafloor and then reach underneath with their tentacles to grab anything caught beneath. Seeing depredation in action is always a highlight for us, so this was really cool.

A view of our room from the beach. Our room is the window under the flagpole.

Then, we headed to the pier near the hostel and museum to await the kayak tour.

The kayak tour did a lap around the harbor and our guide was brilliant! She knew about the geology, the ecology, the history, and so much more!

The island has interesting history for one that had relatively low population density of the years. We saw remnants of old limestone ovens used by the early occupants for manufacturing garum, a popular fish sauce that was also associated with Pompeii prior to its traumatic downfall. They also salted fish on the island.

We learned about the French soldiers who were imprisoned here; captured from the Napoleonic military in the early nineteenth century, they were held captive on the otherwise island with severely limited resources. It is considered to some to be the first concentration camp; numbers differ by source, but they agree that thousands perished on the island during the term of imprisonment.

The island had originally been forested, but exploitation for firewood turned it into scrub-like landscape that it is now.

Let's move on from the somber history lesson. While recognizing the sad past, this island is now a place to make happy memories. We enjoyed the crystal clear water and may as well have been on a glass-bottom boat ride.

We paddled into this small, rocky cove to do a bit of snorkeling with the kayak group and guide and found a cormorant sentry.

Laura: I was impressed when the guide explained to the group about epiphytes while we were kayaking above the seagrass beds. Epiphytes are the small algae, animals, and protists that live attached to blades and leaves of seagrass and create shells made of calcium carbonate. When the seagrass blades die, these tiny shells fall off and make carbonate sand. This white carbonate sand is the main reason that the waters around Mallorca look so beautifully turquoise, as the water reflects off of it. After the guide's explanation of seagrass critters creating sand, I helped the other guests find some of these tiny critters while we were snorkelling and mentioned that single-celled foraminifera (forams) were among my favorites. The guide said, "Oh I have some forams for you!" I never get this kind of nerd treatment, as no one ever knows what I am babbling about, so I was pumped! Turns out, there are some rocks on the Isla de Cabrera that are older than the ones we had explored on the main island on Mallorca, including rocks that contain some of the best forams that ever lived (some as big as my thumb)! Here they are in all their glory:

John again: After kayaking, we loaded up dinner, water, and camera gear and took off on the hike that I had been dreaming about for months. In the early planning stages, I wanted to go photograph the Milky Way from the other side of Isla de Cabrera, but the moon killed that plan. Then, I hoped to hike out to photograph the moon over the lighthouse, but the hike was only permitted with a guide, and the guide wasn't going out that late at night. I contacted the National Park to request a special permit, but they rightfully denied that request. I understand that one permit of that nature might start a bad trend. We were pleasantly surprised that most of the hike was permitted without a guide and it was just the last bit that had extra regulations. The trail terminated at a view of the lighthouse, and it turns out I actually wouldn't have wanted to go much further because it was a terrific view anyway.

Looking back towards our origin below the castile.

We got to the lookout point and ate dinner while taking so many long exposures. We never saw a soul, which made sense since there were only a few dozen people staying on the island overnight including the hostel and a few more on boats in the harbor.