foreigneRS

Me and the original have recently been on holiday to Mallorca (or Majorca, however you want to spell it) where we rented bikes for 4 days. i have written a story of the trip that i was going to post in the motorcycle forum, but for some reason i am not allowed to create new posts in that room so i'm posting it here. if any mod/admin objects, please feel free to move it over there and sort out my access

due to this new board software only taking 20 images per post, i have had to split it up into several parts you might want to get a cup of coffee and go to the toilet before you start - it's rather long i hope you enjoy it, and please give me some feedback

Part 1/6

I ride my Firestorm all year round, but only if the weather is fine and the roads are dry and free from salt. That doesn’t give many opportunities in England in February, and being on a career break at the moment with plenty of free time, I decided to fly to warmer climes and rent a bike for a few days to see another part of the world. My brother (the original) has also recently got into biking, and it would be a good chance for the two of us to spend some time together having fun on bikes which is something that we haven’t yet managed as we live a couple of hours apart.

Being February, we would have to go somewhere Mediterranean to get reliable weather that is warm enough. Having seen articles in RIDE magazine, we narrowed the choice down to either Majorca or Malaga, and I’d been to Malaga and the surrounding area including the Sierra Nevada mountains before, albeit hot weather air conditioning testing in a car. So we decided upon Majorca, particularly after seeing a picture of 270º bend followed by a series of hairpins down a steep valley that looked simply awesome biking roads.

Planning the trip in January, we were checking for flights. We could fly with Ryanair from Stansted to Palma de Mallorca on Wednesday 13th and return on Monday 18th for just £22.50 return for the two of us! This was perfect as it gave us 4 whole days in which we could explore the best roads that the island had to offer, which turned out to be just right. Apart from finding out where a couple of bike rental places were, no more planning was done. I bought an AA guide book for the island, and we would just see what happened when we got there.

Checking the weather reports before we went, the temperature was predicted to be in the mid teens with sunshine most days except Friday when showers were forecast. That meant that we had to be a bit more flexible with the kit that we took, and meant that we took textile jackets instead of leather and some waterproof over trousers to go over my Hood jeans.

Wednesday 13th

Arriving at Stansted, we had checked in online a couple of days beforehand and only had a rucksack and a helmet to take on the plane. Slightly concerned about taking on the helmet as the security rules are so strict these days, we were ushered through security without anyone mentioning it, so it must be allowed. After security, it was a case of grab some sandwiches and head for the gate. Looking up at the screens, Stu sees Parma up there and starts to go to the gate indicated – not realising that he was heading to Parma, Italy (where the ham comes from)! Palma de Mallorca was the next flight on the list.

We arrived in Palma on Wednesday afternoon and the sun was shining in a perfect blue sky. Whilst perusing the airport, we found an accommodation help desk and a very helpful English lady pointed us towards a hotel directly on the seafront with a seafront room for €60 bed & breakfast for the pair of us in the area of Can Pastilla – just 15 minutes walk from the airport.

The lady told us that as the airport was served by a motorway, we could not walk there, but it would have been a bit uncomfortable anyway having to carry a rucksack with spare clothes as well as a helmet and a big jacket and wearing bike boots so we pondered getting a hire car for the rest of the day and returning it in the morning after we’d sorted the rental bikes out. Rental cars could be had for as little as an advertised price of €25 for a day for something small. The price was said to be inclusive of insurance etc, but I could not believe that nothing else would need to be paid, and not wanting the time and hassle of collecting and returning it, we decided to go for a taxi. The helpful lady also told us that we could take a bus from the airport into the centre of the city of Palma and then another one out to the hotel, but that seemed like a lot of hassle at the time and neither of us spoke any Spanish. If we had read the guidebook in advance, we would have seen that it would have been very easy, and much cheaper than the minimum taxi charge to get out of the airport of €15 for a 5 minute journey! Never mind, lesson learnt, and we would try and get the bus when we were returning and had more time to play with.

Arriving at our hotel, we checked in and checked out our seaview room – lovely.



http://www.bqhoteles.com/publico/ver/en/128-anfora

Dropping off our stuff and putting on the trainers that we’d packed, we went in search of bikes to rent. We couldn’t find the original bike hire place that we had in mind (Motos Reus in Can Pastilla), and ended up walking quite a way until we did find the second one that we had researched, Zoom Rent in s’Arenal. The guys running the shop couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly, and we arranged with them to have a Honda Transalp and a Yamaha XT660X (supermoto style) for the first day, and then come and change to something else at the end of the day. After breakfast at the hotel in the morning, we were to call them, and they would come and collect us from the hotel. Great service.

We began the long walk back along the seafront in the warm glow of the evening sun stopping to take a few snaps.









The beach area between Can Pastilla and s’Arenal (and probably beyond) was quiet at this time of year compared to peak season I expect, but still there were quite a few people about, mostly older Germans who spend the winter months on Majorca. Virtually all of the bars, cafés and restaurants were displaying signs and menus in German, selling German beer, ‘kaffee und kuechen’ (coffee and cake) and so on. Having spent 4 years living in Germany, it was a bit weird to be able to read and understand everything going on around us, even though we were meant to be in Spain.

Back close to the hotel and managed to find a small café that was not German run and patronised and went in for a bit of food and a beer – Cruzcampo, proper Spanish beer and very nice it was too. Then it was back to the hotel for a good night’s kip ready for action in the morning.

foreigneRS

Part 2/6

Thursday 14th

In the morning we were greeted with the same blue sky and sunshine as the day before, and things were looking promising for a good days riding. We’d spent the evening reading the guide book for things to do and places to see, and made a plan of where to go at first bearing in mind that we would need to be returning to the hire shop at around 7pm to change bikes. Studying the map, it was clear that the top left part of the island was the place to be riding. That part of the island is mountainous (Serra de Tramuntana)and spectacular, whereas the bottom right was a more or less flat plain with a few mountains dotted around it. The guide book said that there was a good circular route starting and ending at Andratx, so we based our day around that.





Before getting to Andratx, I wanted to see the BellverCastle in Palma, and the views from the city and out to sea from up on it. We took the coast road as best we could from the bike hire place in s’Arenal back past the hotel in Can Pastilla, and on into Palma itself. Traffic was light, even in the city, but a few road closures by the police made life a bit tricky, although they had plenty of people on the street to redirect traffic and keep it flowing well which was impressive. We easily found our way to the castle and took the winding road to the top of the hill to see it. It is a really smart circular building that is nearly 700 years old but in superb condition, but we didn’t want to go inside as it would take up valuable riding time, although you can for a small fee and even go up onto the roof. We took in the views and continued our ride.









http://www.mallorcawebsite.com/htmls/bellver.htm

We continued on the coast road as far as Palma Nova and stopped for a break by the beach there. We had a bit of trouble parking the bikes as the streets were lined with barriers as there had been, or would be, some sort of cycle race along there it seemed (although our lack of Spanish and Catalan/Mallorquin meant that we didn’t know for sure). I had the first freshly squeezed orange juice (zuma de naranja) of the trip as we watched a couple of windsurfers enjoying the breeze. A quick check of the map, and we were off again to Andratx.

After a bit of a detour past the Casino complex, we joined the main road to Andratx which soon turned into a dual carriageway. The XT660X was not best suited to that kind of road, but it was fun seeing how much could be squeezed out of it by sitting as far back as possible, tucking in and ‘tanking’ it. We arrived in Andratx and followed a sign for Tourist information, hoping that they might be able to advise of somewhere in the area that we could stay. We’d read that there are several places on the island where you can stay in a farm house and have a meal from the local produce, and we liked the sound of that. However, the signs for the information place disappeared and we didn’t see it, but as it was en route anyway we didn’t worry about it and carried on – we would later find out that they seem to put up signs for Tourist Information as a joke to send tourists all over the place as we never managed to follow them and find one in the whole 4 days! Up until this point, the roads had been relatively large and flat, but as we departed Andratx, they were about to take a change for the better.

I’d looked at the island briefly on Google maps before we’d booked up, and the Ma-10 out of Andratx and around the coast to Valdemossa had looked very interesting indeed, and when we eventually got on it we were not disappointed. Traffic free and flowing in a succession of bends that followed the contours of the coastal cliffs it was just what we’d come for. The XT660X was in it’s element here, although the mixed terrain tyres of the Transalp were giving Stu a nervous feeling from the back end. As Stu is new to biking, we swapped and I tried it out and sure enough the cold tyre slipped out from under me on the first bend that I tried to push through a bit. Taking it a bit more gently in the bends, and using the grunt of the v-twin engine on the small straights in between I was able to keep with Stu. We made swift progress along the route and were loving every twist and turn and rise and fall until suddenly we rounded a bend and came up behind 2 slow moving police bikes and a couple of ambulances. What was going on? Up ahead we could see a whole bunch of the cyclists that the signs in Palma Nova had talked about, and they were having a race on our road! As there was no way past the convoy, we stopped for a couple of pictures by the side of the road to let them get out of the way.







On the downhill sections, the cyclists were racing almost as fast as we were riding, so it was quite a while before we caught up with them again. We had hoped that they would take the turning to Esporles, but they continued on the Ma-10 towards Valdemossa – the same route that we had planned on taking. We rode slowly behind them for a little while as they went up the hill, following the police riders that were backing up the group. By this point in the day, several of the following team cars were stopping for ‘comfort breaks’, but as we rounded a turn we could see a couple of the racers had also had to stop. One was propped up on his bike waiting for his team-mate to finish his business, but as we approached the team-mate turned towards me and grinned as he had finished expelling his excess water and looked to be well on the way to taking expelling bodily fluids a little too far! The amount of tugging going on was far in excess of the usual ‘shaking the dew off the lily’ – perhaps the narrow seat and bumps on the road had stimulated his prostate! Anyway, it was not something that I particularly wanted to see, although I had to laugh inside my helmet. We stopped again and let them get ahead while we checked the map and our next destination.

Off the side of the main road was a small road that wound it’s way down the mountainside to a small harbour at sa Marina. We decided to take that and get a snack at the waters edge whilst the cyclists hopefully cleared from our proposed route. The road down to sa Marina was certainly good for honing your hairpin technique, but not much else. Barely more than a car width, it had to be taken carefully in case of oncoming traffic. Luckily we didn’t meet anything, but we did catch several cars, and getting past them was a challenge, but we managed it. Several places in the road were covered in gravel and it was not unusual to again have the back tyre lose grip from underneath you in the corners. Both of us had experienced it on both bikes and it was not pleasant, although we had not fallen off. On one short straight there had been some small rocks that had fallen into the road that required avoiding action – Stu warned me of there presence and I moved to the other side of the road to avoid them, but for some stupid reason I decided to try and clear the biggest one (about the size of a melon) from the road by sticking out my foot and kicking it as I went past. Needless to say that the rock did not budge and I ended up with a very painful foot – good job I was wearing sturdy Sidis! Down the bottom we arrived at the harbour to find nothing but lots of cats!



Several cars came down in the time that we were there chatting to a couple of German guys about different places to go and roads to ride, so a café would have had a bit of business but there wasn’t one to go in. Disappointed with the lack of refreshment, but armed with new knowledge we headed back on up the hill after swapping bikes back again. I had a bit much confidence in the grip from the Yamaha’s back tyre and tipped it a bit too quickly into one of the bends and once again had the back end slip out. My inner foot instinctively came off the peg and hit the road and I stayed upright but clattered my ankle on the foot peg – again, the Sidis did their job and I only had a slight scuff to show for it.



Back on the road again and we were headed for Valdemossa for a bite to eat, which I had heard was quite a nice little town. We got parked up and walked in to the centre and found a café and sampled the local delights of almond milkshake and chocolate cake.



After a bit of a walk around the town, which was very picturesque, we returned to the car park to get back on the bikes but found the road closed by the police and lined with people to watch the damn cyclists race past whilst a helicopter circled overhead and filmed it for TV. It was slightly annoying to find them blocking our progress throughout the day, but good to see anyway. As an occasional cyclist, I admired their efforts up the hills and the bravery that they showed on the fast downhill sections. When a break in the racers came, we crossed the street to get on the bikes again and find another way out of the town to take the road South and continue our loop.

The rest of the loop back to Andratx via the small villages of Esporles, Puigpunyent, Galilea and es Candella was through the heart of the mountain range on narrow roads that twisted and turned along the hillsides and through the valleys between the peaks, sometimes with a series of tight hairpins as it climbed over the peaks in between, but the roads were too small and the surfaces too unpredictable to be taken too enthusiastically. We arrived back in Andratx having not found anywhere to stay for the night along the way (although we were not looking all that hard).

We were scheduled to return to s’Arenal to Rent Zoom to change bikes at 7pm, so we still had some time left before we needed to head off when we got back into Andratx. I had read in the guidebook about a small island off the coast of Mallorca at Sant Elm, just to the West of Andratx, that is supposed to look like a sleeping dragon. The island is called ‘Sa Dragonera’ and is a National Park and I thought it would be interesting to see from the coast – there was no point in taking a ferry there for the one road that runs along it – so we headed across to Sant Elm. From where we ended up on the coast, disappointingly we could not see the ‘sleeping dragon’, just a smaller island, Es Pantaleu. Parking up at a café for another ‘café con leche’ I forgot what country we were in and spoke half Italian to the waitress.

After that, it was time to head back to the bike shop to swap bikes. I intended to swap my XT660X for a Suzuki V-Strom, so that we both had similar bikes, but after the insecure feeling that I’d had on the Transalp’s semi-knobbly tyres, we both decided to go for something more road orientated. When we got there, we saw that they had two Yamaha FZ6 Fazers and thought that they would really suit the roads that we had seen so far. Whilst our friend in the bike shop sorted out the bikes, we went in search of a hotel nearby after a couple of suggestions from him.

With all the German winter visitors, and the huge influx of cyclists and their support crews, the few hotels within walking distance were all fully booked. We weren’t too bothered, we knew that we would find something, somewhere as there is an enormous amount of accommodation available on the island as there has to be for peak season, but not all of it is open during the winter months as they get renovated. We could not stay at the Anfora where we had stayed the previous night either, as they were fully booked with trainee air stewardesses that we had seen at breakfast.

We returned and picked up the Fazers and headed off along the one way street, and as luck would have it soon came across another 3 star hotel. This one had a room for the night, or 2 if we wanted but we planned on staying in the monastery at Lluc for the next night. We took the room at half board for €75, and went and changed out of our bike gear to go for the buffet dinner. As it was self service, the cyclists staying there that had just finished the race were absolutely stuffing themselves – some going back for 4 desserts!

The short ride between the bike hire shop and the hotel had got Stu excited about the Fazer. The vague feeling from the Transalp, and the uncomfortable single cylinder XT were not his cup of tea, and the four cylinder naked bike felt more like a proper bike to him. It was still early after dinner, so we got kitted up again to ride into Palma during the night for a bit of cool night air riding on the near empty streets. The cathedral sits high up in the old streets above the town, so we headed there for a couple of pictures. It was a bit of nightmare to find the way there along the very narrow and cobbled one way streets but we wound our way through the maze and somehow popped out right by the side of the cathedral that overlooks a pond with a fountain and got our pictures. Then it was back to the hotel to make a rough plan for the next day and get a good night’s kip after a good day of riding.











This map shows the route that we took during Thursday, and the link below takes you to Google maps for an interactive version where you can look at the road map or an aerial view of the landscape and zoom in or out as you like.



http://tinyurl.com/35r6tl

foreigneRS

Part 3/6

Friday 15th

The plan for the day was to take the motorway and A-road back to Valdemossa to pick up the coast road where we had left off and take that as far as Soller. At that point we would turn inland to ride up the Coll de Soller mountain pass. The new road takes a tunnel through the mountain, but the old road is still open and should be great fun to ride as it twists and turns up the 500m peak. Then we would head down the other side to Bunyola, where you can take the scenic railway back over the mountain to Soller. Scenic rail journeys are always nice things to do, but we planned only to do it if we got fed up of riding or the weather made a turn for the worse. From there we would head across to the large town of Inca and then up to Lluc to find the monastery that the guide book had recommended and see if they had a room for the night. We would then get back on the coast road to Soller and back to complete that stretch of coastline.

This is a map of the route planned for the Friday.



http://tinyurl.com/yu32k3

After getting the bikes warmed up, we headed out on to the motorway past the airport. Traffic was light, so we thought we’d open up the taps on the Fazers and see what they’d do. We were a bit disappointed to be honest. Dropping down to 2nd to get the revs up they would pull to the limiter, but then seemed to struggle a bit at the top end of 3rd and above. I don’t know if they were throttled somehow (the rental place said they should have 78 bhp), but they didn’t feel all that quick to us. Maybe that was because they are basically naked bikes and having 15 stone beefcakes on with luggage strapped on the back was making them struggle against aerodynamic forces, or maybe it’s just because we are used to something bigger. We both ride bikes at 1000cc or over (me a Honda Firestorm, and Stu a Honda Blackbird), so a 600cc is never going to be as quick. They struggled up to 200kph which was fast enough I suppose when you have a rucksack strapped around the back seat that could fall off into the rear wheel at any time!
Getting off the motorway, we headed across the countryside towards Valdemossa. Coming up from the plain and into the hills, you get a superb view of the old town up on the hill.





This time, the streets were clear from cyclists and we could ride straight through the town to join up with the coast road where we had left it the day before when we had headed inland to complete the loop back to Andratx. Once again, the coast road made for superb riding as it twisted and turned and dipped and rose to follow the cliffs. The surface of this road is generally good, but as the guy in the bike shop warned us, it can suddenly change from grippy black tarmac to quite slippery grey stuff. Particularly if it’s in a shaded area where it’s still cold and a little damp from overnight condensation. The feeling from the road tyres on the Fazers was much better than the bikes from the previous day though, and they seemed to suit the roads and our style of riding much better. We were glad that we had swapped, and to both be on the same type of bike was good as our pace was more evenly matched. All was not entirely well however, and Stu was still complaining about a lack of grip from the rear of his bike, but not enough to hamper our enjoyment.

There are a couple of pretty little villages on the way that need slowing down for, as the streets are pretty narrow – I was just glad that we were there out of season and that we were not coming across coaches all the time. In fact the roads were very quiet and we rarely met anything which was great as having been to mainland Spain before and islands like Corsica, I had half expected to have maniac drivers coming towards us and cutting the corners dangerously.

After a while we came to the outskirts of the town of Soller. At this point we knew that we wanted to head back inland on the main road towards Palma but then branch off to take the pass, rather than the tunnel. Just before the tunnel, the old road goes off sharply to the left and climbs the mountain in a series of hairpins. You get a left hairpin followed by a very short straight, and then a right hairpin followed by a very short straight and just repeat that until 500m in height later. We hadn’t come across a road like this before so far on the island as the coast road was more gentle turns rather than hairpins and it was a bit of a challenge to get right. Hairpins require a particular technique involving really cranking your head around to look up the road that you hope to ride up, but if there is occasionally gravel on the bend it really unsettles you and you tend to want to look down more often that you should and be a bit wobbly. Never mind, we weren’t in a race, we were there to practice and learn and roads like this were a definite challenge. Before starting the ride up the Coll, I set the video camera to record. I have an Archos 604 that has a 30GB hard drive to record to, and a small camera that plugs into it that I had placed on the side of the flyscreen and you can see the ascent here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDrMui-5u8

At the top, i.e. the Coll part of the Coll de Soller, we had a stop for a drink of freshly squeezed orange juice and a meat pie. God knows what they were called, or what meat was in them either, possibly goat, but they were delicious. Having a look round, from the top you couldn’t really see where we had come from, but you could see where we were going and it looked great.







There were several cyclists at the top, and I had to admire there efforts in getting there. As we got ready to get back on the bikes, I overheard a couple of the ladies talking to each other, one of whom was American. The English lady said something about the switchback bends to which the American said “They were more than switchbacks; they turned right back on themselves”. You can take the girl out of America, but you can’t take the American out of the girl! Chuckling in my helmet, I got back on Stu’s bike to try it out as he was still getting an uneasy feeling from the rear tyre, whereas mine was feeling alright. We headed off down the hill to Bunyola to find the railway station to check on the train times for the scenic rail journey. As the weather was still excellent, we had decided that we would keep riding and only do the train journey if the weather turned wet later in the holiday as had been forecasted. Forgetting why I was on Stu’s bike, the first left hander that I got to I tipped it in a bit too fast (although not really fast) and felt the back tyre slide a bit which put the wind up me a bit! As Stu was following me on the bike equipped with the camera, you can see it on the video of the ride down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44WT6JPfKuk

I went a bit more gingerly from then on for a while, but then I must have got some heat in to them or something as I didn’t get any more problems on the road down and we got into the little village of Bunyola, found the train station and made a note of train times for later reference. Then we headed across country aiming for the town of Inca through the villages of Orient, Solleric, Alaro and Llosetta where all of the almond orchards were in blossom.








In Llosetta, there was a road closure and diversion and somehow we managed to lose the diversion route and ended up riding on a cycle path all the way to Inca. Not a problem, we emerged in the outskirts of Inca and found a café to stop for lunch. Unfortunately they didn’t have any tables outside as it was a lovely day, although wherever we stopped outside the locals looked at us as if we were mad as to them it was cold. The guidebook had said that one of the top 20 things to do should be to sample a Mallorcan speciality like pa amb oli (crusty bread rubbed with garlic and tomato). This was on the menu in the café, so we both ordered it con Queso (with cheese) with a café con leche and agua con gas. What turned up a few minutes later was a bit of a surprise as on each plate were 2 huge long slices of bread covered in slices of cheese with a load of salad on the side and a couple of very hot pickled chilis. For the small price, it was amazing and neither of us could finish it. I needed the loo, so left Stu to get the bill (la Quenta) and he was well embarrassed when I didn’t return for several minutes having dropped some friends off in the pool. We got back on the bikes and on our way to try and find the monastery at Lluc and see if they had a room for the night.



The road left Inca where it was flat, and climbed up into the Serra de Tramuntana. As it did so, there were a good mixture of hairpins and more open corners, although again there were patches that either had gravel on them or very low grip from the surface. When there is only a 1 or 2 foot wall between the edge of the road and a very high drop, those kind of moments are not something that you want to be happening.






The monastery had been well signed up along the route, and as we turned off the main road, the road to it dropped down the hill into a bit of a bowl. Arriving at the monastery we parked the bikes up quietly and went to find the accommodation office. The monastery no longer has monks staying there which was a bit of a disappointment as we wanted to teach them some bad habits! The accommodation office were very helpful and could offer us a room for just €35 for the pair of us for the night. Breakfast was not included, but still it seemed like a good price. We took the key and went up to the room to drop off our rucksacks so that we could continue the ride without the hassle of them on the back of the bikes. I had bought a Kriega R35 especially for the trip, but the day before when I had been wearing it all day I had not found it particularly comfortable. The problem was that I had not used it before and had not read the instructions properly so had not had it pulled tight on the correct straps. Even so, by the end of the day of riding with it on my lower back was beginning to give me a bit of gip. So today we had worked out a way to strap it around the pillion seat of the Fazer, but I wasn’t entirely convinced of its security on there although it had stayed properly in place so far during the day.










Getting into the room, we found out part of the reason why the room seemed so cheap – it was freezing cold and we had to make our own beds. Not a big deal, I cracked open the radiator valve and set to putting on my sheets and blankets. We had another look at the map to see what else we were going to do with the rest of the day, and the following days, and decided that Lluc would be a good base to start from for Sunday morning as well as Saturday. Thankfully the monastery still had availability of our room, so we paid up for another night. Expecting it to be €35 again, I was pleasantly surprised when they only wanted €32 this time! Well, we had already made our bed. That done, we got back on the bikes to continue our riding for the day.

foreigneRS

Part 4/6

From Lluc, we were heading back along the coast road to Soller where we had branched off earlier, although between Soller and Lluc the road runs inland quite a bit to avoid some of the highest peaks on the island (Puig Major at 1447m). This stretch of road again turned out to be superb. It just seemed that every bit of road that we rode was better than the last (or at least had a different character so was just as interesting). Stopping at a junction just after an aqueduct to check the map, the road that branched off looked like it could be interesting as it headed down the hills to the coast at sa Calobra. We would ride that on the way back to the monastery, as for now we were going to head towards Soller and up the Puig Major if we could.

The scenery was fantastic as the road went past a couple of reservoirs and through various little tunnels to cross from one side of the mountains to the other. Going from bright sunshine into the darkness of the tunnels, your eyes just had time to adjust to the dark before you emerged from the straight tunnel into the bright sunshine again with enough speed to make the impending 90 degree bend a slight problem! Going past the turning on the right for the road up to Puig Major, it looked to be closed off with a large fence. We would have another look at it on the way back, but it looked quite definitely closed. Not a problem, the road down towards Soller was excellent as it gently went downhill around one sweeping bend after another. After a while, we reached another useful point to stop and get a drink. There is an area on a sweeping corner with a car park and a small café. Unfortunately the café was not open, but there were machines where we could get a Coke and some water and go up on to the terrace that overlooks Port de Soller and the coastline. This place is known for the seabirds that fly around, and as we arrived we could see hundreds of them in the distance, although they had gone by the time we had got our drinks and sat down.





After the drink and a rest it was time to crack on as the day was getting on. We could see that the road down to Soller would just be a continuation of what we had just ridden, and although interesting we would be riding it later on in the holiday anyway as we planned to come back that way to ride the entire coast road on Sunday. I would far rather take the turning down to the coast at sa Calobra that we had seen earlier before getting back to the monastery before the light went completely. We had the route back past the lakes to look forward to as well, and if possible I wanted to turn off the main road and head up Puig Major. As this stretch of road had been fun, I switched on the video camera again to capture the experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4e0ruao1Yc

As it turned out, we could not climb the Puig Major as it was gated off and locked. However, we were able to open a gate and ride along the lake to the dam across the end of it. Motorcycles were not allowed, but we took a chance on it and rode carefully so as not to disturb the animals to much. There were several donkeys around that didn’t seem to care too much, but the sheep and young lambs were very jumpy. The dam was not as high as I’d expected, but nevertheless it was a nice photo opportunity.





Closing the gate behind us, we joined the main road again heading back towards the monastery. This time, we took the left turn at the aqueduct to take the road down to the coast at sa Calobra. The road first climbed upwards to the Coll dels Reis at 682m which in itself was a nice ride. But as we came through a cutting at the top and started to drop down the other side, a spectacular sight met our eyes – a sight that I had seen before in the magazine that had inspired us to come here:





The road does a 270° turn as it winds down the hill and then you see the amazing ribbon of tarmac as it drops further towards the coast.











Wanting to take more pictures, but conscious of the falling sun, we got back on the bikes and headed off down the stretch of motorcycling nirvana that we could see from above. Again, there were very few other vehicles on the road which meant that we could really enjoy it unlike in peak season I would imagine. I can’t really remember much about the ride down, just that it was taken probably too fast as we came down to each hairpin with a skid of the back tyre as we concentrated on staying the right way up and not going over the edges. Reaching the bottom at the coastal village of sa Calobra there was not much to see. In season, there are a couple of restaurants, and boat trips between here and Port de Soller, but we were just interested in the road and were keen to get back up in evening sun before darkness descended and took away our enjoyment. Having ridden down and experienced a good surface and no nasty surprises, we knew that the ride up would also be good so once again I switched on the video camera to record it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5wT9DEzJhs

Riding up a mountain road always seems easier than down, particularly on hairpins where on downward ones you have to keep your speed down with the back brake, so the ride up was even more enjoyable than the ride down. I can honestly say that this bit of road was not only the best that we had seen on the island, but the best that I have seen anywhere (and that includes the many Alpine passes that I saw last summer – although I have yet to see the best that the Alpine passes has to offer, the Stelvio). Reaching the Coll dels Reis again, we just had to stop and get some more pictures, and to ride the 270° corner again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n9u3pjx7-o

After getting the pictures and video, we saddled up and headed for home (for the night) at the monastery. We parked the bikes up underneath our room, but figured that they would be pretty safe in a monastery anyway. We had dinner on site in the restaurant which was delicious (I had a beautiful bit of steak), but a little expensive. The café was closed in the evening, but there was another at the entrance to the monastery that stays open into the night that does better value simple food. But we’d earned a good dinner and a few beers, and they would help us sleep through the night.

Saturday 16th

Saturday morning soon comes, and once again we wake up to lovely spring weather. We don’t know what the weather is doing back home, but we’re fairly sure that it’s not as good as this (although amazingly it turns out that it probably was, but is definitely not something that you can guarantee in England in mid February). We go down to the café to get the customary ‘café con leche’ to start the day and also get some breakfast of croissants. They have some lovely bread and cakes for breakfast in Spain and on Mallorca. Taking the opportunity to have a constitutional, we walk around the grounds of the monastery and up the hill to the cross that overlooks the whole site and the valley below.







After the coffee and constitutional had taken effect, we got our gear on and headed for the bikes. It was great to know that we were coming back to the same place again that night, so didn’t have to pack everything back into the rucksacks and take with us. Stu was particularly excited about the route for today, as we planned to go to the far North tip of the island where there is a lighthouse on the Cap de Formentor. One of the German guys that we had met on the first day of riding had told us that road is superb, and the guidebook had said that “Nervous drivers should not even think about tackling the 20km journey from Port de Pollença to Cap de Formentor, where the Serra de Tramuntana finally drop into the sea. Those that do, however, will be rewarded with some of Mallorca’s most dramatic scenery. The lighthouse’s café has views from the terrace to Menorca.”

Along with the Cap de Formentor, we also planned to take in a little more of the island by riding along the top coast road. Although flat, this would take us to see another side of the island quite different from the mountain terrain of the previous 2 days. There are some caves over on the East coast that I would like to visit depending on the timing and the weather. The route map for Saturday is shown below, with a link to an interactive version from Google maps that you can zoom in to show the roads or aerial photographs.



http://tinyurl.com/yqfbdp

Preparing the bikes, I stuck a bit of Velcro on the rear to have the video camera rearward facing for a bit of interest and to be able to get some shots of the rider behind that could be used later to edit up a more interesting video. I set the camera rolling and we headed off for what promised to be another superb day of riding. The roads were still damp in places, but that would soon dry up as we headed out from under the trees and out into the sunshine.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=035mOUxufpw

The Ma-10 out of Lluc was much like most of the Ma-10 had been all along the North coast, but it then descended towards the town of Pollença and turned into a flat, straight dual carriageway that skirts around the coastal towns of Port de Pollença and Can Singala. Leaving the towns behind, the road changes to the Ma-2210 heading for the Cap de Formentor. Expecting the road to be superb, we pull over and I switch on the video camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk9oOOrUTn8

We were not disappointed, and the road was great up to the point where it reached the top of the first hill where I stopped the recording. After that, it was not very interesting for a while around the village of Piedra where the road splits to go down to a couple of the beaches. As it got interesting again, I set the video camera to record, and captured the rest of the dramatic journey to the lighthouse at the end of the Cap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4k2lzwvnN8

Reaching the end of the road, we pulled up at the lighthouse and went up on the terrace to look back on the road that we had just ridden that was as good as the guide book had promised (although I still don’t think that it was as good as the road down to sa Calobra from the Coll dels Reis that we had rode the evening before). The scenery was definitely more spectacular though as you were right on the cliffs edge.





Getting a cup of coffee and a bit of cake (very expensive, but what do you expect when it’s the only place to buy from and is a major tourist spot?), we sat out on the terrace in the blazing sunshine. Stripping down to a tee shirt, it was a chance to top up the tan from Thailand at Christmas. Unfortunately we couldn’t see Menorca as the bright sunshine made it hazy in the distance. What we did see was pretty funny though – a cyclist had parked her bike up and left her packed lunch on the wall by it whilst she went over to have a look over the cliff. Meanwhile, a circling seagull had spotted her rolls and swooped down to make off with them in the plastic bag. Luckily for her, it picked the bag up by the bottom and immediately tipped the rolls out onto the grass bank below and she saw it happen and quickly ran over to get them before it came down again.

After sitting in the sun and enjoying the view for a while, we got dressed again and got back on the bikes as we had quite a bit more road to cover in the plan. Riding so close to the cliff edge had affected Stu’s confidence – his fear of heights had made him lose his riding mojo – and I can understand why. I have only had my licence for 4 and half years and I still sometimes get a fear of the edge of the road, and concentrate my view on it instead of looking around the corner to the vanishing point. So for someone to come and ride such roads after having only a couple of month’s experience was quite brave in the first place, particularly on an unknown bike with the constantly changing surfaces.

Going back along the Cap de Formentor peninsular, we arrived at a junction where I had seen cyclists climbing higher when we had passed it earlier. Taking that very small winding road to the top of that peak we found several derelict buildings that looked like something left from the 2nd World War. From these buildings, there was a superb view over the bay of Pollença where you could see down to the (once private and famous) Formentor beach at Piedra and across the bay to Cap des Pinar. Again, due to the haziness we could not see as far as Menorca which was a little disappointing (for some weird reason – I think it has to do with Britain’s coming from an island, although we often don’t think of it like that).

foreigneRS

Part 5/6

Cracking on with the route, we dropped down out of the hills to join the coastal road at Port de Pollença. Going through the tight streets, I must have turned the bars more than I had done whilst riding and pulled the video camera out of it’s holder. I didn’t notice for a while, and when I did it had bounced along the tarmac a few times and become broken. Damn, no more videos. Riding along the seafront you could imagine that this area would also be busy in the summer as there were lovely beaches and plenty of boat trips departing from here (including a glass bottomed catamaran). Cruising along in the warm sunshine taking it all in, I suddenly realised that a few cars were getting bunched up behind us as we were taking it so easy. As it was so much warmer down by the coast than it had been in the mountain roads, Stu was riding along with his jacket unzipped and blowing about in the wind like Batman’s cape. I wondered if all of his pockets were done up properly, and if not, what would fall out? We then arrived in the town of Alcudia which had some magnificent old stone walls around the old part of town. Skirting around it, we were on the lookout for an internet café where we could check in for Monday’s flight and print our boarding passes. Finding one, we stopped for a drink and to do our business but sadly they didn’t have printing facilities. By this time, I had lost our map as I’d tucked it in between the fly screen and the clocks and it must have slipped out the bottom. Not a problem – I cracked out the Nokia N95 and opened up the maps application. As we were indoors, I could not get a GPS signal, but located us easily on the map as we were across the road from the hospital. I worked out a route to get us out of the centre of town and back onto the main coast road, but wasn’t sure that I could follow it, so put the navigation details in just to make sure.

Refreshed, we got on the bikes again and headed out of town. I struggled a bit with holding the phone in one hand and riding whilst trying to follow the directions, but we got directly on the way. I had already prepared a pair of earplugs with headphone speakers incorporated in them so that I could use them for following the satnav whilst riding, but had left them with the rest of luggage in the monastery. Some sort of see through pouch to attach the phone to my wrist may be a useful addition for the future, in the event that I don’t have a magnetic tank pouch.

The German guy that we had met on Thursday had told us that the roads here were not particularly exciting to ride, and he was right. The coast line is very flat in this area, and there is a national park devoted to wildlife just inland of it. It was traffic free though, and it was nice to just cruise along in the sunshine and go straight for a while after the thousands of twists and turns that we had ridden almost constantly so far – a change is as good as a rest as they say. Riding through an urban area, we stopped by a souvenir shop that was open (rare in the off season) and picked up another map. Further down the coast road along the seafront, we parked up for some more pictures.







A quick check of the map, and we could see that the road headed inland a bit and away from the coast as it headed for the old town of Arta. Our German friend had recommended that we ride from there to S’Ermita de Betlem as it was a good route for biking. We struggled a bit to find the road there, and circled the town a couple of times before we picked up signs for it. But at least we got the chance to top up the tanks that were running low by this point. The road to Betlem was good – narrower than we had experienced so far, and with a good surface it looked more like an English road (but we had to make sure to ride on the right!) Two lanes were marked by a dotted line, but there was no way 2 cars were going to pass. Cracking out the digital camera I managed to get a few pictures whilst riding along without dropping it.









There was absolutely nothing to see when we got there, and to top it all Stu had lost his bottle of chocolate milkshake that he had got from the garage and stuck down by the front fairing. But the road there was quite good, and if we had ridden only that one we would have been pleased with it, but we had ridden better ones that had actually taken you to somewhere. On the way down the hill we came up behind a car and it was not possible to pass. Just as we had caught sight of him, he had stopped on the entry to one of the hairpins to let a car coming the other way go through, so I was keeping my distance. Stu was keen to get past him so was following quite closely, so close in fact that when the car stopped at another hairpin he almost went into the back of him. I couldn’t help having a good laugh at him as he struggled to keep the bike upright as he grabbed a handful of front brake and unsettled the balance of the bike. Getting back to Arta, we had decided to ride on to Cala Ratjada on the East coast and find somewhere to have an early dinner rather than eating in the monastery again. We parked up and the place seemed dead. We couldn’t see anything open, but there were quite a few people walking about so there must be something around. Getting out onto the seafront we found a couple of restaurants open and sat down for a decent meal in the late evening sun. It had been a hard day for Stu and he had a little kip.







All fed and watered, we got back on the bikes to head back to the monastery for the night. As the coast road had not been particularly interesting to ride, we picked out another route across country, turning off the main road at Es Ravelar and going to Inca via Santa Margalida (remembered by thinking of Santa having a margarita) and Llubli (lovely jubbly). This cross country route was actually pretty nice – there were plenty of straights and a variety of corners to get stuck into. We were thinking that it was amazing that we had not seen anymore bikes, and then as we came out of Llubi a couple of cars coming the other way flashed us and we kept the speed down. Good job that we did as there had been an accident on a bridge involving a bike, and there must have been about 20 others parked up with the police. As we got into Inca, the light was really starting to fade, so we carried on to Lluc to hopefully get there before the tricky route up the hill got completely shrouded in darkness. As we were headed north out of Inca into the hills, there were a lot of bikers that seemed to be returning to town after a days riding in the hills. By going over to the North Eastern corner we had pretty much avoided all other bikes, which I was happy about as I wouldn’t want to be riding in the hills constantly getting overtaken by locals on sportsbikes.

Close to the monastery is a garage that I wanted to stop at to get a bottle of water for the night. Unfortunately it was closed by the time that we got there, but next door was a café that was still open, and outside were a good selection of sportsbikes including a tidy Firestorm. We went in the café and found a group of bikers considerably older than us, some of whom were just wearing jeans – I wouldn’t fancy that with the potential for sliding off on the gravel on some of the bends. They had some good looking cakes in the display cabinet, and we both chose the coffee looking one. Moments later the owner placed a huge slice of the cake on the table and they had decorated the plate with chocolate sauce - a bit fancy, but lovely. We ate up in time to get out and watch the bikers head off into the darkness, the Firestorm roaring off with a loud bark from it’s Remus high level tailpipes. Back at the monastery, we had to leave the bikes outside a bit as no parking inside was allowed at weekends. Again, we figured they’d be safe at a monastery (unless there were any Scousers staying there) but locked them together under a streetlight anyway. Looking at the picture that I’d taken of them, a ghostly foot had appeared in it – spooky.



We got back up to the room and Stu looked for the key, but couldn’t find it. Had it fallen out of his pocket when he was doing his Batman impression? Everything came out of all the pockets, but it was not there so it seemed that my suspicions of an undone pocket could have been correct.



Sunday 17th

Sunday morning quickly arrives after a good night’s sleep, and once again we are blessed with good weather. It’s cold in the mountains in the morning, but the day will warm up as the sun takes effect. This is the last day of having the bikes, as we will fly back to England on Monday and decided not to bother for just the morning. That in mind, we know that we have to be back in s’Arenal for 7pm, but want to get as much riding in of the goad roads that we had seen in the previous 3 days as possible. It was very easy to plan our route, as basically we would stick with the Ma-10 the whole length of the coast all the way back to Andratx, with a few diversions off the side (especially for the road over the Coll dels Reis once more as it was simply the best bit of road that I have ever seen – far more interesting than even the Nürburgring Nordschleife, but then perhaps I’m jaded having been around it so many times).



http://tinyurl.com/ywjabz

Whilst planning the route and getting our stuff together, we heard what sounded like an unsilenced sportsbike absolutely tearing up the road outside the monastery, going up through the gears so quickly it was unbelievable. Knowing how tight and twisty the roads were, we couldn’t believe how fast he was going. After breakfast from the bakery on site at the monastery, we got all our kit packed and the rucksacks strapped onto the backs of the bikes. Having bought a bungee at the garage in Arta the day before, I was much happier with the fixing of my Kriega on the back of my bike, and Stu’s Knox rucksack fitted well to the back of his (his £40 spent at the London Motorcycle Show looked a better deal than my £95 Kriega R35). Getting ready to go and just over at the café at the top of the hill, we hear the roar from the bike engine that we had heard earlier as it fired up. We looked over to see what was basically a bike engined kart that some nutter had been driving. No wonder it was going through the gears so quickly as he had 4 wheels to slide around and the low gearing from the small wheels gave him phenomenal acceleration. Before we had a chance to get the camera out and get a picture he slammed it into gear and caned off up the road.

We got on our way, and headed away from Bob’s place (monkhouse – get it?) and out onto the main road. Before long we reached the aqueduct and took the right turn towards the Coll dels Reis. The easy roads on the way back across country from the East coast the evening before had got Stu back into it, and he had his mojo back. Good, because he was going to need it today with the roads that we were going to ride, and I wanted to pick up the pace a little now that we knew a little more about the route and the road conditions that we could expect (although you never know if there has been a rockslide overnight around the next corner).

We headed up the hill at a good pace, both of us looking far into the distance at the vanishing point of the road and as far around the corner as we could – certainly not at the edges which would have been disastrous. Coming over the top of the hill through the cutting and the awesome sight of the 270° corner greeted us again. Downhill it’s tricky to judge the speed and not run on too fast and wide, but we both got safely around and continued onwards towards the coast, plummeting downhill as we rounded each hairpin in a blur of 1st and 2nd gear acceleration between each tight turn. I don’t think we saw another vehicle, which really surprised me as I would have expected this magical ribbon of tarmac to be covered by swarms of bikes at the weekend. Perhaps it was because it was relatively early on Sunday morning, and all the locals were in church (or nursing hangovers from a late night before), or maybe it was just too cold for them.

Getting to the junction in the road where we had stuck to the right on Friday evening, we had decided that the left turn looked more interesting as it climbed another peak before heading down to the sea again. We were not disappointed, and more hairpins followed until we reached a beautiful little cove. We parked up for some photos and a rest and to admire the view and bask in the warm sunshine.















Feeling really pleased with ourselves for taking the decision to come out to Mallorca and see these things and ride these roads, we got ready for the ride up. As I said before, the ride up always seems easier then down as you have gravity on your side, rather than against you in terms of control on the tight hairpins. I shared a little tip with Stu to shift his arse across the seat a couple of inches towards the inside of the bend and it worked a treat. The effect of it is to naturally turn your head around the corner to look where you want to go, and also to weight the inside peg and bar end for conscious countersteering. Both using this technique, we caned up the hill - Stu really did have his mojo back. Riding rental bikes, we were able to really rev them out through the lower gears and not worry that we were doing any damage by thrashing them – not that it does any damage, but it doesn’t seem right to be at 12000 rpm all the time on your own bike (particularly as my v-twin doesn’t rev that high).

We got to the top of the Coll dels Reis again totally on a high, the kind of high that only a good ride can give you. Stopping for a couple more pics and another look over the edge at the road below it was something to be remembered for a long time (partly why I wanted to write this story, so that we had a record to remember it all by). I fully intend to go back to Mallorca on my own bike, travelling by ferry to Spain and riding across the bottom of the Pyrenees to Barcelona and then getting the ferry across to Mallorca, but you never know what might happen in the future so it’s important to have your memories and photographs.

We had a lot left to ride, and Stu was looking forward to the stretch of the Ma-10 from Soller to Andratx as he had been enthralled by it during the first day’s riding. Before that though, there was plenty of ground to cover and we had to stop somewhere for lunch as Stu still hadn’t had a paella that he had been crazing for. We picked up the Ma-10 again at the aqueduct and headed higher into the hills. Through a short tunnel (you just have to hit maximum revs in a tunnel don’t you?) and we burst out into the sunshine to be immediately confronted by a tight right hander again as the road turned to follow the shore of the damned reservoir that we had stopped at on Friday evening. A couple more tunnels and a bit more of a climb later, and we passed the base of Puig Major again and I was once again annoyed by the fact that the road was closed off, although we had possibly seen why when we were over on the dam on Friday as we could see what looked like an observatory and perhaps some military equipment on the top of the mountain.

foreigneRS

Part 6/6

The next phase of the ride was just awesome – the best ride that I have ever had by a long way. The run down the hill from the base of Puig Major to the seabird café at Fornalutx was taken at a very good pace, and we were both using all of the road available to us to take smooth, fast lines. It was a fantastic feeling to follow in the same line as my older brother and be doing the pace that I wanted to do, and I felt very proud of how he had improved during the time on the island. Living in Norfolk, he doesn’t come across many roads like the ones on Mallorca, and I honestly believe that the 4 days riding there all day was the equivalent experience of several months back home. I also felt that my riding had improved as I was constantly putting into practice things that I had been taught on various advanced riding courses, whereas back home when you are only out for an hour or 2 and constantly battling traffic in the South East of the country you don’t get that chance. The bikes were very easy to ride, although the tyres did not help with confidence at the beginning. I think that when we were pressing on a bit we had enough heat in the for them to be grippy enough, but you can understand a rental place putting long lasting tyres on to make maximum profit. I know that I will not be swapping my Michelin Pilot 2CT’s for Metzeler Roadtecs anytime soon though!

Stopping at the café, it was time for a well earned drink of freshly squeezed orange juice. Going up on the terrace we sat next to a group of bikers that were parked up below. Again, so far in this day we had not come across many at all. From the terrace we had a superb view of Port de Soller and the lighthouse across the harbour on Cap Gros.





We hadn’t been down the Ma-10 further than the café before as far as Soller as we’d approached it from the South and turned inland to go over the mountain pass on Thursday, and turned around to head back to the monastery on Friday. The town of Soller didn’t particularly appeal, but we decided to head to Port de Soller for lunch as we had been told that it was worth a visit. Setting off from the café at the same time as the other group of bikers, we noticed that there were a few of them about now, but heading in the opposite direction to us. We joined the main road just after a group of cyclists had bombed past, and had to sit behind them all the way down the hill as they were only very marginally slower than we wanted to ride! Overtaking was impossible as there wasn’t a straight as such between the bends and it was a large group taking up the whole side of the road. Eventually the road levelled out and straightened up and we were able to blast past them and on towards Port de Soller. Turning off just before we got there, we took a small road up again to the lighthouse at Cap Gros for a good view of the harbour and port and some pictures. We learnt that the Spanish word for navy is armada from the writing on the sea wall in both English and Spanish, but then we already knew that really. I wonder if Spanish schoolchildren learn about Drake and the English Navy or the Armada Inglesa? We also learnt that lighthouses make great comedy hats in pictures.







Back down the hill and we rode into Port de Soller. We parked the bikes up and found somewhere for lunch that did Paella for Stu. That was probably like finding a place at the English seaside that does fish and chips, but he was crazing for it. Unfortunately, the bikes were no longer parked in view, and I didn’t want to leave them unsighted with all of our luggage attached to them so I went to collect them while Stu chilled out in the sun by the harbour and waited for his dream dish. The ‘paella mista’ (meat and seafood) came and it was pretty impressive actually. I could not have any as I am allergic to shellfish so even the sight of prawns and things makes my stomach turn, but Stu enjoyed it. While we sat there, the tram that runs from Soller to Port de Soller came past. The German tourist had recommended taking it, and if we had taken the scenic railway from Bunyola to Soller at some point we may have done, but it didn’t look as interesting as the riding that we had done instead. Just by the side of the restaurant tables were some pieces of public art, including one of 3 bulls heads – the horns of which looked like chopper handlebars. It just had to be done; the question was which one of us was going to do it.











After chilling out in the sun for a bit with a drink, it was time to go. We got back on the Fazers and headed out of town back to the Ma-10 at Soller and on to Deia and Valdemossa. We carried on towards Banyalbufar, stopping only for petrol where we came across a little bike-engined car rusting away by the side and a nice Mustang.







Arriving back in Andratx we had done the length of the Ma-10 coast road. Although it was brilliant riding with no traffic, it had not seemed as exciting as the very first day when we first rode it. The phenomenal roads of the Cap de Formentor and Coll dels Reis and Coll de Soller had overshadowed it. If I had a road like the Ma-10 within riding distance of my house I would be out there nearly everyday, so it was very good riding. And not being as tight and twisty as the mountain roads it was challenging but not so challenging that you couldn’t get your head down and crack on. It was definitely worth going for.

Having a bit of time left before we needed to be back at the bike shop, we road across country and took the back roads via es Capdell and Calvia to Palma Nova, and then took a look at Magaluf in the off season. It actually didn’t look too bad without all the chavs puking, fighting and shagging everywhere, but I bet that it’s a nightmare in the high season. But it was no worse than the other side of Palma where ze German chavs go. Instead of the Schnitzels of s’Arenal, you had the burgers and chips of Magaluf. But there was no sign of any of that at this time of year anywhere on the island and it was all very clean, tidy and quiet. At Magaluf beach instead of topless English birds with their pink wobbly bits getting sunburnt you had a group of kite surfers that was brilliant to watch for a bit. But we had to get off as ideally we’d like to find a hotel for the night while we still had transport.

Riding back via the harbour of Palma where all the expensive yachts were bobbing up and down in the gentle swell of the Mediterranean, we got back to Can Pastilla and the Anfora hotel that we had stayed in for the first night. By this time, they had another seafront room available for the night which was brilliant as the location was nice.

Up in the room we unloaded all the bike gear and got into normal clothes and trainers as there was a good walk back along the seafront from the bike shop at s’Arenal. Just as we set off for the bike shop it started to spit with rain. We were lucky that we had had lovely dry weather all 4 days of riding, so didn’t mind that we might now get wet without jackets on for 5 minutes. It only drizzled a few spots, but there must have been more rain earlier as the road was quite wet. The surface was kind of tiled as the road along the main strip was only one way and not meant for much traffic as in the summer it would be full of people milling about. The rain had made me cautious, ‘wet after dry, risk is high’ and all that, so I dragged my trainer along the ground and it felt like an ice rink. I don’t know if it really was that slippery or it was the trainer bottoms, but I didn’t want to have to make any sudden movements and find out. As we had cars in front and behind, I was taking it quite cautiously as I have dropped a bike on ice before and it has made me wary of slippery surfaces. Stu was not being quite as prudent, and his incident the day before when he nearly went into the back of something didn’t seem to have taught him anything. The car in front came up to a cross roads and dithered a bit as if they did not know where to go, so I hung back and covered the back brake. Just as Stu had had enough of the dithering and went to go around them, they decided that they wanted to turn left and turned sharply into his path. Again he grabbed a handful of front brake (and everything else) and came to a stop just about upright with feet skidding along the road and engine revving as the clutch was pulled in. Again I had to laugh and hoped that this time he had learnt something – incidents like that do happen when you first ride or drive, and as long as you can experience them and learn from them without getting hurt, then it’s all good.

We got back to the bike shop and gave the bikes back and sorted the paperwork. Our bikes for 4 days worked out at just over £50 per day each, which is not bad considering the entertainment that we got out of them. As we hadn’t yet managed to check in for our flight the next day, I asked the guy in the shop if we could use his computer and printer to check in and print our boarding passes and he generously let us. They were really nice and helpful, and I would recommend them to anyone thinking of renting bikes out there. He would have given us a lift back to our hotel, but we fancied walking having spent all day on the bikes as we thought it would loosen us up and we might stop for a drink and a bite to eat. In the end, we got back to the hotel and took a couple of outside shots and chilled out in the room for a bit.





Getting hungry, we headed out for dinner. We had seen a Thai place just down the road, and fancied giving that a try. When we got there, there was one couple in there already, but they soon left and we were the only people in there. The waitress wheeled a gas heater over to beside our table as it was basically an outdoor restaurant with a grass roof not really built for February. But he food and Singha beers went down a treat. I was warned by the German waitress (possibly the owner?) that my dish would be spicy, but I had my doubts as the area caters for German tourists that can’t handle really spicy food. I was right, but it was good all the same, and cheap enough. That left us with just enough cash left for a coffee and cake back at the hotel and a chat with a couple from Berlin who had never been to Mallorca before either and were just starting a week’s holiday. Shattered, but satisfied with the day’s, and the whole holiday’s, riding we retired to bed. It had been superb biking, and no serious incidents had occurred which is always a bonus.

Monday 18th

Our flight was not until 4pm, so we had a bit of time to kill. Getting up a bit later than the previous days when we had wanted to crack on, we soon realised that we would not be doing much walking – our legs were destroyed from the shifting about on the bikes. We had breakfast and got our stuff together to head into Palma and have a look around. The guy on reception told us how to get the bus, and it was very easy. Just a short walk away was the bus stop for the number 15 or 25 bus into Palma that would cost just €1.10 each. A big difference to the €15 that we had paid for the taxi on Wednesday. We stayed on the bus as it went through the city to get a look about and a feel of it and got off at the end of the route. We walked through the city and found where the bus would depart from to the airport and as it was such a nice day we just sat out in the park and I finished my book that I had taken for the holiday, Under Asian Skies, by Sam Manicom about his travels on a bike though Australia, Asia and back to Europe through Turkey. Soon it was time to get the bus to the airport and head home.

Passage through Palma airport was smooth and we got on the plane almost first to get the coveted emergency exit row seats in the middle for luxury spec legroom. Back at Stansted was a saga though. Passport control was not too bad, but then we joined a huge queue outside for the bus back to the long term car park. It was an hour until we got back to the car - that’s nearly as long as the flight from Spain! To cap it all, the weather was freezing cold and foggy and you really wonder why you didn’t stay out there.

All in all, it was a superb trip, and something that I would highly recommend to any biker. To get out in the warm sunshine whilst it’s freezing back home is great, and the brilliant roads compared to back home made it superb riding (I suppose that depends on where in the UK you live, as there are some excellent roads, but maybe not in February). Although the flight out there was exceptionally cheap, the whole thing doesn’t come out that cheap in the end when you add up all the food, drink, petrol, bike hire etc. I think that it cost nearly £500 each in the end including everything, but for that much good riding I think it was well worth it.

That's it folks! Hope you enjoyed the read.

Porkie

iTrader: (1)

Awesome write up! stunning photos! and luckily I know a little lady who would be all over doing that with me!

foreigneRS

go for it and if i can help with any tips, i'd be pleased to

Nick D

Very good write up, although I havent got any work done at all today due to reading everything and watching all the video's lol!

Definately something I would like to look into.

DaveZS

Nice write up, ill have a proper read through later. Going there the end of the month for a few days, hope its as sunny as it was then.

the original

marvellous write-up

Paddy

Awesome write-up again Nick

Absolute pleasure to read and fucking awesome photos mate!

You should be writing for one of the magazines! [especially when you see some of the gompers that write for car mags and post on here ]

Maria.

Bloody awesome write up and some gorgeous pictures!!!

Fair play chaps!

RichardB

Truly awesome, great write-up.

Simon-biker

Nick,

I had to register to congratulate you on the great write up, photos and videos.

I live on the island so know the places you have been like the back of my hand, but it is good to know other people enjoy it as well.

Next time you are in La Calobra turn right, walk along the sea front through a small tunnel and you will see this, well worth it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ea6abn/...7600225944564/

Get in touch next time you are over.

Cheers,

Simon

foreigneRS

thanks a lot Simon

there will be a next time, i just don't know when. but when i do, i'll get in touch and you can show me the sights

that little cove looks fabulous - and the pictures are beautiful. are they yours?

Simon-biker

You´ve seen most of them, but will do my best !.

No, I just Googled "La Calobra" or "Torent de Pareis" which is at La Calobra.

Simon

the original

I just went out and bought an r6 to learn on after the fun I had with Nick on the little fazers.
Definately will be a next time for me too

Jhamie

If 'Isla bonita' is so famous, it's not just because the Germans like it and there's happy hour. It is an authentic Balearic paradise, one of the most incredible islands of our country, and has landscapes and beaches that fall in love with everyone who visits. That's why I want to tell you about the most beautiful beaches and Summer activities in Mallorca, so that you don't have to worry about anything on your trip. Cycling is one of the best options to get to know Mallorca within all the generosity it gives us.