Day 5 - Lluc to Orient

Gelati: 0, Wine: 4 glasses, Tapas: 5
Distance walked: 16 miles, Time taken: 9 hours (including lunch stop)

Today we woke up to a wet and grey day.  It was the one day were we needed to good weather to get over the pass from the north side of the Tramuntana range to the south and so, of course, it was the first day in many that it rained.  However, it looked as if it was clearing by about 9am so we set off to attempt the high pass anyway.  I tried taking a photo out my bedroom window to show how grey and gloomy it was but my camera was too clever and adjusted the exposure settings to make it look much brighter than it was.

We were only 9 walkers + Steven today.  The American couple (who are in their late 70s!) can manage a long walk provided there aren't too many climbs and descents and the ground is reasonably firm underfoot.  Today's walk failed on all counts.  Seventy-eight year old Denis, of the dodgy knee from yesterday also gave it a miss.  It turns out he would normally have been fit enough - he took up marathon running in his 60s and has done half a dozen.  However, he went to a family reunion a week or so back.  He was a professional rugby player in his youth and was persuaded to play rugby with his grandchildren.  He tore a ligament in his knee so has bone rubbing on bone.

The 9 of us fit enough (and foolish enough) set off wrapped in every warm and waterproof item we had.  Luckily it really was clearing and by 9:30am the rain had stopped.  We still stayed rugged up as we were climbing quite high (about 1200m).  We climbed steadily for 3 hours!  When we got to the pass the clouds had descended so we were in them and the wind was fierce.  We briefly admired the ice house at the top, the pockets of snow in the corners and then hurried down the other side of the pass.   (There was a more impressive ice house just off the path but by mutual agreement we ignored it.  Ice houses are crevasses that have been roofed over.   Snow is shovelled in the top where it compresses and ice is chopped out from a door at the bottom.)

The other side wasn't a huge improvement as the rain had made the going very muddy and slippery underfoot.  I don't regret (yet) not bringing my heavy rain gear but I do regret not bringing my gloves.  Eventually we got down to a valley (but still fairly high above sea level) before following along an aqueduct along a ridge to an artificial lake where we were met by Sarah and the others with our picnic lunch.  We were a little slow and didn't get there until 2:30pm - still a good time for lunch by Spanish standards.

It was bitterly cold even down near the lake.  You could see your breath so it must have been about 10C at most, so lunch was a quick meal.  We had 3 sorts of bread, 3 salads, 1 lot of olives but only 1 salami today.  To make up for it we had the Majorcan equivalent of pizza and pork pies.  For dessert we had apple cake with honey yoghurt.  Again, we had the choice of red, rose or white wine as well as water.

After lunch the couple from Guernsey dropped out so we were down to 7 + Steven for afternoon hike.  This was around the shore of the lake, up over yet another pass and then down into the plains on the southern side of the mountain range.  Once we were over the pass, the wind dropped entirely and with the sun out it was actually pleasant.  However, it was a long slog, particularly after the morning and I was very pleased when we finally arrived.  According to the trip notes it was supposed to be only 13 miles but according to the various GPS devices carried by my fellow holiday makers it was closer to 16 miles.  My feet agree with the GPS.

The hotel here is gorgeous.  I have a large room with a large four poster bed.  My bathroom is about the same size as my room at the monastery yesterday.  This place officially has WiFi but the connection is so slow you can't actually do anything as it always times out.  It is free at least.

Dinner was in the hotel as we are some distance from any town.  We started with a glass of cava (which I could do without) and then moved onto white wine with our starter which was a selection of tapas - potatoes brava, tortilla, calamari, chicken and porcini croquettes and jamon on a crouton.  I ate all of mine but I noticed a lot of people just nibbled.  Can't imagine why as it was very good and I was starving after all the walking.  Main was fish fillets drizzled in flour and pan fried.  After much discussion we agreed the best translation of the fish variety was John Dory but no-one knows for sure.  Accompanying this was a timbale of rice with vegetables and squid.   Very tasty if a little fishy.  I was a philistine and drank red wine with this.  Dessert was pannacotta with fresh berries - mainly blackberries and blueberries.  There were mangoes on the table as part of the decoration and we were tempted to eat them but were promised we could have them for breakfast so we behaved ourselves.