Majorca, part three, Cala Boquer

PART THREE

CALA BOQUER.

We woke to more glorious sunshine, in fact, the perfect morning. Earlier in the holiday, I'd bought a snorkel and goggles. I'd been amazed at the fish close to shore on Pollenca beach, and was keen to do more in different places. I didn't realise when we set off, but this place we were going to was very, VERY good for snorkeling. It was going to blow our minds!

The start of the path was only a couple of minutes from the hotel. As you can see, it's well-walked and good underfoot.

We had to cross a sort of col between two ridges, and as we gained height, of course, the views got better and better.

The prickly pear cacti was fairly ubiquitous on this island. I STILL haven't had the guts to try and pick one!

I did stop to smell the wild thyme though.

A vast panorama over Alcudia bay and Puerto Pollenca.

The happy couple! This was what looked like an old farmhouse. It was big, very big, and looked like it was in the throes of being renovated. We were told later that someone was living there at weekends and doing the work very slowly.

 

The brush got thicker as we got higher, but the path was easy to follow and easy underfoot.

Obviously volcanic, you could see 'bubbles' in the rock face at various points.

Getting wilder now.

This wall marked what we thought was the edge of the farm, or boundary. It was really substantial, as you can see, and climbed the face of the ridge behind.

Mountains and clouds (sighhhhhhh)

The goats, according to the instructions on the map, were very inquisitive (especially if you had a picnic).

We were quite excited to see the cove revealing as we walked on.  It looked FABULOUS!!

Keen-eyes Sue spotted a party precariously making their way towards the ridge. It looked very slow going. As I've said, the terrain underfoot off the beaten track is pretty hard going. Click on the picture to expand it.

At last, the full beauty was coming into view, and WHAT a view.

Turquoise heaven - we couldn't wait to get down there and investigate.

Like a sheet of glass.

Come on Sue - HURRY UP!

Someone had built a makeshift 'shelter' out of driftwood, but I can't see it stopping either wind or rain (or sun, for that matter).
Looked nice, though. Quite 'arty'.

The view out to sea was just jaw-dropping.

And that water looked SOOOOOOO inviting - only one thing for it.......

You know what, it was quite warm too. No shuddering as I got in at all.

I know, I know - hardly James Bond, but I was a very happy bunny. The fish life here was fantastic. I'd seen at least ten species, and we saw even more each time we went in. One notable one was a small shoal of barracuda.

Sue was eager to get in. We really need two of the snorkels next time!

What have you found, Sue?

She decided to go out further. It was really safe here too. No currents at all, and no tide to speak of. We could hear birds of prey screaming above us, and spent quite a while watching through the binoculars at what looked like a pair of black vultures being seen off by a peregrine falcon. It was probably nesting in the cliffs above somewhere.

COME BACK - IT'S MY TURN........

After a super day of swimming, sunning and reading, we had a lovely picnic. So did some locals, but we were really disappointed to see them leave lots of 'rubbish' by way of banana skins etc. That was until the official 'picnic clean-up squad' arrived! The locals obviously know about these goats, and the goats didn't miss a tit-bit as they scraped the rocks back to find any morsels that had fallen between them.

Banana skin? That'll do nicely, thanks.

We also saw this rock building. It looks like some sort of look-out, but I couldn't find any further information on it.

Another sign of volcanic features - a hole in the rock above us.

We finally packed up and wended our way back to the hotel for dinner. This is a view of the  farmhouse that is being renovated.

Ominous clouds gathering. We were to see some spectacular results of this lot later on in the wee, small hours!

At around 2am, I was woken by what I thought, in my semi-conscious state, was Sue turning the light on and off in the bedroom. It was actually lightning. I got up (Sue was oblivious and fast asleep) and went on to the balcony. The rain was HAMMERING down, and I mean hard! The thunder rumbled loudly, and I took this picture as lightning struck to the right of the hotel.

Then, BANG! It struck right in front of me. I didn't get the fork on the picture, but I did get this shot of the sky lit up. I really would love to have been on the beach, but the rain was just too hard. I had to content myself with the show from the balcony.

I went back to bed, lulled back to sleep as the storm abated and the thunder grew softer and more distant. Later today, we intended to pick up a car - but, unbeknown to us, trouble was in store.
The morning was cooler, but lovely. We caught a bus into Alcudia to pick up our car. Alcudia is like Blackpool (if you don't know what this means - Google it. It's all 'kiss me quick', and burgers - a horrible place to the likes of us). The car was a fiasco, but less said the better. We walked along Alcudia beach to have a look. Much more 'organised' and commercialised than Puerto Pollenca.

You couldn't spoil those views, though.

Like big, straw mushrooms growing on the beach.

Am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Thanks to a good friend, we were now able to pick the car up tomorrow, so the exploration of the island could begin.