We had a wonderful day wandering the sites of Palma, treating ourselves in the chandlers and earrings shops. The restaurants were surprising good value and whilst there were some seriously upmarket eating places, good value Menu del Dia were easy to find. That said its a very wealthy town, half the shops seem to be expensive shoe or handbag emporiums. There was noticeably a lot of German money invested in the place too, far more than any other place we've been to in the Balearics, where in general the balance of foreign investment seems fairly even.
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| Sailing into Palma harbour |
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| Lovely parks |
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| My new bonnet! |
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| Many individual shops |
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| The calas near to Palma get packed at the weekend |
The Cathedral was magnificent, the Arab baths serene, the tapas good value but above all its a really nice place to spend some time; beautiful architecture, some good street life,(especially the musicians), lots of life. The only time it felt crowded was when 3 huge cruise ships off loaded their captives, sorry clients, into the town at the same time. For a brief period they were everywhere.
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| Arab baths - interesting and serene |
Our berth proved to be in a top location, just a few minutes walk from the old part of the town, but far enough out of the way not to be bothered by crowds - a very lucky find.
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| Great location - View of the Cathedral from our mooring |
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| The big boys were out practicing for a regatta |
About mid day on Wednesday we set off again, reluctant to leave but looking forward to a couple of nights in the secluded natural harbour on Isla Cabrera. One of a string of islands about 30 miles from Palma, off the SE corner of Mallorca. The archipelago is a nature reserve and you can only sail in and stay if you pre book a mooring buoy in the harbour. After some trials with the internet we’d managed to get a two day stay on a buoy at Cabrera.
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| We had a lovely sail over to Cabrerra |
The pictures probably speak for themselves - we absolutely loved it. During the day there are a couple of trip boats bringing people in to walk with Rangers around the island but after 5pm the peace descends and its simply fabulous. After a couple of days here we’re feeling so laid back we’re horizontal. Carole’s hammock on the foredeck helped a little as well.
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| A castle stands at the entrance to Cabrerra Cala |
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| A pretty perfect place |
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| on our buoy |
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| Our boat issue the other side of the bay |
The island was a military base for years and some of the military buildings are now used by the rangers and the army canteen is a now a very rustic bar whetting the whistles of the thirsty sailors who’ve managed to get there.
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| Looking from our mooring towards the castle |
The water clarity was simply stunning - no anchoring at all is allowed and so the water is little disturbed and crystal clear. The seagrass meadows beneath our boat looked like you could reach down and touch them.
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| La cantina is the only bar; in fact the only anything on the island |
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| Leaving the pub car (tender) park |
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| evening |
There is also a few way marked paths that you can use - almost all of the island is out of bounds - too many rare species of plants, lizards, birds etc. The black lizards - found only in the world on this island were cheeky enough however to take a run around the bar area.
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| Steps inside the castle |
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| pub 'car'park |
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| A shallow mooring |
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| I'm in there somewhere! |
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| Island walk |
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| The black lizard is only found in the world on Cabrerra Island |
We don't want to leave! Sadly the bouys are all booked for the coming weekend so we’ve got to move on, back to the “mainland” of Mallorca.
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| The greatly named Pinus Noblis - very rare |
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| Fishy companion |
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