Hiking on the peninsula of Alcúdia

Mallorca is known for great hiking and cycling areas. Though I brought my bike helmet, I did not rent a bike there. One day we went to go hiking in the natural park east of Alcúdia. I had found this route online and we wanted to try it.

Before that hiking trip I assumed that it would be boring as you only cover around 12 km in the trip and would not get to see much of the landscape. I preferred cycling as a means to see the landscape. Boy was I wrong!

The trip started with a car ride to a parking lot near the hiking trail. The little car engine was squealing with the steep roads but there was no way around that. Driving little cars at their limits is much fun and way cheaper than having a powerful car and trying to get close to is limits.

At the parking lots they had restrooms but no soap, so I considered carrying a bit of hand sanitizer on the next such trip.

The trail was a solid mix of stones and sand. I only had my sport shoes with very flexible sole so I could feel every stone with my feet. The paths became worse over time and looking back I would have liked to have the hiking boots that I bought half a year later on that trip as well. Still having the "wrong" shoes was not a big problem after all.

Quickly we gained enough height to have a magnificent view over the bay:

As we went higher the view just got more amazing:

A little later we got to a part with a very steep cliff, which looked very dangerous. In retrospect I am very glad that nobody got hurt. Also I judge it as reckless that I did not carry a first aid kit on the trip. The little incident on the bike trip to Köln and now being an official first aid person at the institute has changed my view of this.

The view at the top was magnificent, though:

This was the moment where I started to like hiking! We ascended the mountain further until we eventually reached the top. There were a bunch of other tourists, a weather station and goats.

From there we descended on the other side of the mountain. Going down usually is harder than going up, especially with street shoes. The part we descended through was really steep and had a winding path. At one of the switchbacks there was a very steep drop.

I cannot understand how others have been standing there and calmly enjoying the view; presumably I am just scared of heights.

After we have descended from the top, we were in a somewhat sense forest with a picnic place for hikers and visitors. A path to the sea that one could see in the above picture also passes though there.

From there on the route lead us through mostly even terrain. There were markers with the route on every intersection, sometimes just a red arrow with spray paint somewhere. The vegetation became denser as we lost height, I found it amazing that vegetation can grow on this dry rock at all.