I stayed at Ses Fontanelles on the evening when daylight savings time kicked in. Breakfast was served at 8am – “so that we wouldn’t start walking in the dark”. After a long day of hiking, nobody’s brain was sharp enough to realise that it would be lighter earlier the next day, not darker.
After a simple self-serve breakfast with wild Mallorcan goats roaming outside the door, I was itching to go. The sun had already been up for well over an hour by the time I left. After topping up my water, I set off up on the forest path back to the main route. The 3 guys I’d seen setting up camp here yesterday had already packed up and gone. Ah, to be free and wild camping.
Ses Fontanelles to Estellencs
At the point where the refuge joins the path was a rather misleading sign. Refugi Coma d’en Vidal is closed (indefinitely?) and Refugi Galatzó is not on the eastbound GR221 but rather on an offshoot headed south.
This is where the morning took a stressful turn. Or rather, a wrong turn. Shortly after this sign is another signpost pointing left, and a path heading forwards with a sign indicating that this is not the path. I didn’t take a photo, but dutifully followed the trail.
Let’s blame the early morning rather than my attention to detail, but here everything looked like a path. And crucially, up ahead I could see 2 others walking what looked like a switchback about 30m higher than my point.
With no immediate signpost and without checking my GPS (mistake!), I followed one of the “paths” in the general direction of the 2 strangers in the distance.
What followed was possibly the slowest 4km I’ve ever hiked. I was utterly convinced by the strangers in the distance. But the closer I got to where I’d seen them, there was no switchback to be found. I realised that they must have also been scrambling their way up rocks and through thick, prickly bushes.
How stubborn one can be. I even spent a good 15 minutes with the mindset: sometimes the GPS is wrong, sometimes the path is not where it says.
The GPS was right. There must’ve been a sharp ascent up the rock face seen.
Still, I scrambled slowly, spotting and following the occasional cairn, which I hoped had been built to guide me and other fools back to the path.
At some point on my “detour”, I turned around and spotted others in the distance who looked on the brink of making a similar mistake. No wonder it looked like so many people had trampled up the wrong way.
My newly acquired bouldering skills were handy for clambering up the last few rocks to where the GPS convincingly told me a path would be. The map also showed a fence which I used as a navigational point.
From the fence onwards, I had to combine the navigational skills of spotting a cairn in the distance with the GPS. There was a thin fog and light drizzle. Rather than take the potential shortcut shown on the map, I followed the trail as closely as possible. Not making that mistake again. I ascended up to around 800m and hiked around the Mola de s’Esclop peak (928m). There’s a trig point at the top, normally tempting, but the fog on this day convinced me to skip it.
From there onwards, the fog disappeared within moments. The Mediterranean blue and peaks of the Serra de Tramuntana greeted me from the path ahead.
With the difficulty following the trail so far today, it had taken me 2 hours 15 to cover a measly 4km. A time pressure to arrive before sundown was already kicking in. It’s not even lunchtime yet.
Luckily, as the descent began everything became a little easier. Not long after, the stony trail morphed into a wider dirt farm road, eventually morphing into a steep, stony switchback. At the bottom, my exhausted knees convinced me to sit by the side of the road for a small break. It’s funny how we power through the most beautiful scenery and only notice our body’s need a break when it’s over.
At the main road, I crossed over and took a forest trail heading north east in the direction of Estellencs.
It was nearly 1pm when I arrived at Estellencs for my long-awaited lunch. I ate at Cafeteria Vall Hermos, along with what seemed like every other hiker on the trail that day. Cheapest lunch in town. I tried the Pa Amb Oli – a regional dish of Mallorca. It’s pretty much pan con tomate with a few toppings. Hit the spot after a long mornings hike but didn’t meet my hyped-up expectations.
Estellencs to Esporles
I finished lunch a little after 1pm, but there was still 14km remaining to get to Esporles. I wished sorely that I had tried to be less ambitious with the daily hiking distances and stopped for the day in the next village, Banyalbufar. Different hike, same mistake!
The rest of the day was pleasant but largely unremarkable in comparison to the morning. The trail was either a flat forest path or the cobbled stone paths that I will now forever associated with the “dry stone route”. I had short rest breaks along the way to give my joints a moment to relax, but skipped the way into Banyalbufar and took the alternative GR221 route directly to Esporles.
Lucky thing I did – it started to get dark more than 30 minutes before I arrived and the final few kilometres had no light. I didn’t bring a headtorch on this trip and was for once grateful for mild light pollution.
Although there were moments were I had wished for a shorter day, arriving after 26km always feels like a rush and I never regret it. What would I do if I’d arrived at 3pm? Ramble around looking at cute houses and quaint streets for 5 hours?
In Esporles, I stayed (like most) at the Sa Vita Backpackers hostel. Though they messaged me on Booking that over 30s would need a Youth Hostel International card to stay there, nobody asked for this at check-in. I accepted this as a reflection on my youthful visage, though it was more likely pity from the haggard exhaustion eminating from me.
Komoot Ses Fontanelles to Esporles
I always use Komoot to navigate whilst hiking (with a premium account for offline maps). You can check out my actual route here: