Talaia D'Alcudia

[roig cat]

Woke up to a grey and windy start one day last week and decided to do a walk. The family wanted to do Boquer Valley but I suggested a new (to us) walk from the Charles Davis Walk Mallorca North and Mountains guide. Whilst I love the Boquer valley I prefer it out of season as I dont particularly like sharing it with everyone else!

Anyway, I sugggested walk 44 (for those with the book) as it was circular, only 8KM, 2 1/4 hours and didnt take long to drive to. What I didnt register was the grading, being a 5!! (1 easy---5 strenuous) This walk was to the Talaia, we didnt have a clue what that was. ha ha

We set off from the S'illot restaurant past the youth hostel and followed the pleasant Nordic walking paths as per the guide. However at a sign post for 3 directions, Mr Davis instructed us to leave the path and follow the scrub marked by cairns and occasional red dots (very occasional) up an ascent which became steeper and steeper (crawling job) We could see the summit of the Talaia but didnt realise that's where we were heading, up the west spine, not quite a ridge but it was pretty windy that morning and on a few occasions I was a bit scared for my family. My daughter age 13 became light headed, vertigo possibly?
Any way, we came to near the summit, but to ascend to the top we had to climb a 10 foot vertical rock face! not mentioned in the book at all. Plenty of hand holes so not hard, duaghters loved that bit. When at the top we were surprised to see so many other people, we hadnt realise you could walk up to the same point from the Ermita de Victoria. Anyway we felt pretty chuffed with ourselves. The walk down the other more popular side was a welcome relief. The sun came out and we spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool looking at the west approach to the peak and wondering if we could see anyother people doing it!