Day 1: Stages 1-4 Mahon to Arenal D'en Castell

Practical Information:

• Difficulty: Easy to medium. It begins straightforward on surfaced roads and through town but becomes a bit more challenging with hills and loose, uneven terrain.

• Distance: Approx. 32km

• Elevation: 78m - highest point

• Logistics: Easy drop off and collection point for a support vehicle. Accessible to amenities in Mahon, Port A'Ddaia and Arenal d'en Castell. Mobile phone signal was good

• Tips: Be prepared to wild wee in places! We got nice ice cream in Luemlo in Addaia. Beautiful nature reserve, great for bird watching, you will likely see tortoises! Take your shoes off and paddle in the sea along Es'Grau

Our personal experience

We wake at 5 a.m, we both walk out of our rooms into the corridor and look at each other in our PJ's with so much mischief and excitement in our faces. We grin massively at each other - this is it!! The dream has finally become a reality. There isn't a single feeling of trepidation here - we will not fail this, we never let each other down.

Over our breakfast of (very sensible) porridge, we excitedly compare the weight and contents of our backpacks. We burst out laughing when we realise Claire looks like a Fembot from Austin Powers, with her water bottles jutting out from either side of her CamelBak! We have a lot of water to carry as there aren't many places to refill on this section, at least the rucksacks will become lighter as the day goes on!

Fed, watered and ready to go, we get in the car and head off to our starting point, which is the steps of the beautiful Santa Maria Church in Mahon town. We didn't know it at the time but it was going to be the first and last time we felt so fresh!

It was the sort of morning where the city still sleeps knowing the day ahead will be hot. Shutters, like eyelids, across shops stay closed as if resting their eyes. A few early dog walkers have ventured out and we can hear a gentle whir of the street cleaners just ahead but apart from that the only real noise is us giggling with excitement as Dan takes a few photos.

Our starting point. 6am outside the Santa Maria Church, Mahon.

We initially leave the city of Mahon down a few steep steps towards the harbour. There’s been an art festival in recent days and a remanence  of ‘sea’ themed creatures are dotted about made of recycled materials.

We take a left and soon pass a busy Gin factory - Xoriguer Gin, the local very popular one on the island which we will sample at the end of the week! The clink of glass bottles as they pass along the old conveyor belt is mesmerising. It's early, they must run long shifts to meet the demand for the gin! We get beckoned in by a twinkly eyed man but we reluctantly wave our good mornings and walk on. We’ve got a lot to do!

We passed the Cami De Cavalls official starting point, the Power Station, and quickly joined a main road. (Read Really think about your starting point as to why we didn’t start there). There aren’t any footpaths in this section, you have to walk on the side of the road so be sure to face the oncoming traffic unless it's unsafe to do so.

Red Bottlebrush Tree (Callistemon)

We went by a Red Bottlebrush tree (Callistemon) in Sa Mesquida, a little fishing village. They look so Sci-Fi!

Sa Mesquida has a great kayak hire place, but hey, we're not here for that, at this point we have only done about 5km!

Claire gives a history lesson about a fort as we both admire a very skilled runner picking his way effortlessly zig zagging his way up and down the path. The history lesson is actually quite interesting, Menorca has fortresses in abundance and this particular one was called Torre de sa Mesquida, it was built by the British in 1799. The Brits built 11 watch towers all over the island during their rule. There are a few myths and legends, we're not sure what's true and what's not, we like to think there were pirates involved though !

We soon enter an area of rolling hills dressed in wild flowers. Ragged cliff edges, pebbly beaches and loose stone trails. We felt you could easily be mistaken for being in the Yorkshire Dales is some of this area!

There are definitely parts of these sections that are very runnable, we enjoyed them, but as soon as you get further westward, we would say unless you are a very experienced trail runner or a mountain goat, walk!

In Es Grau we went to S’Albufera Nature Reserve which is brilliant for bird watching and one of the most popular "day tripping" sections of the Cami. It’s definitely worth the short climb to the view point even though it’s slightly off the Cami route. Watch out for tortoises too!

Moving frequently from bright sunshine into shade can easily trick the eyes and that along with pesky tree roots and hidden rocks can be the perfect recipe for a good old trip up and fall over…can’t it Claire!?!

The latter part of this section is nearly all accessible by road. We got our gin in the end - in the form of an ice lolly! A pomada ice lolly, we probably shouldn't have done but it was only 4.5% alcohol and it was towards the end of the day! The was a little shop in A'Ddaia that sold them called Luelmo. As we were reaching our finish point Naomi's nieces, Lydia and Maisie face-timed us, they were surprised by how energised we were! (it was probably the gin).

We celebrated the completion of day one with a dance....little did we know that it would be the last dancing we did!!!

Some more photos and videos of our first day: