Day 2: Stages 4-8 Arenal D'en Castel to Algairens
- Claire & Naomi xx
- May 28
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 2
Practical Information:
Difficulty: Medium to hard. The latter part of this section is the hardest part of the whole Cami de Cavalls
Distance: Approx 39km
Elevation: 118m highest point
Logistics: Mobile signal wasn't good which caused us issues getting picked up!
Tips: Phone signal is patchy - download offline maps before you set out. Or bring a goat that knows the way. Water, water, water - however much you think you need, take more. Then sneak in another bottle for good measure. Set off early.
Our personal experience
Another 5am start, and we wake feeling good, if a little stiff, we haven't had much sleep, but where sleep lacks excitement and anticipation substitutes. The priority this morning is to address our water. Yesterday we managed to make it taste like a cocktail of chlorine and Fairy Liquid, thanks to a catastrophic failure in Camelback hygiene. This morning we actually rinse them properly. We believe there aren't many facilities on this section so we pack the exact same gourmet survival kit as yesterday: peanut butter sandwiches, Snickers, nuts, dates, energy bars and a banana - at this point bananas are acceptable to us - it's wasn't to last.
"Bananas don’t last, they rot far too fast,
Then haunt the whole rucksack, with a smell that won’t pass"
Today was warm and sunny, there was no shelter from the clouds like yesterday, to us this was actually nice though, we weren't just here to raise money for a good cause, we were here for the tan! We were dropped off at Arenal D'en Castel, right where we danced the evening before to celebrate completing day one, and we're off! Within 2 minutes of starting we were met with some gorgeous goats along the cliff side. Who wouldn’t want to start their day walking by black goats skipping along the cliff tops as the sun rises, we were both gleeful - today was going to be a good day.
The soil is much redder this side of the island and starts to get more remote in places. We were still on the carboniferous part of the island, Menorca's geology is fascinating and is essentially a tale of two halves, we were on the lookout for dinosaurs as we crossed into the Jurassic region! The map below shows this quite well if you're interested.
The beaches go from being pebbly the previous day to being more sandy and picturesque, quite vast in places and seem to always have a mountain just ahead inviting you ‘up.’ Parts are quite wooded offering you slices of shade. We did have to venture onto a main road for a bit and even saw an unlucky squashed snake which was HUGE. Snakes aside, do be careful on this section, there is a petition to have this part of the cami moved as it involves walking for some distance along a very busy main road with no sidewalk. For reference - It's on the Me-15 heading towards Ses Salines. As for the snake, well, it succumbed to the Me-15 much to our relief the poor thing! Dead as it was, it made us realise that they do exist and are out there - wild weeing wasn't the same again after that!
As the day went on spirits we as high as they always are, we walked along the empty beaches of Platges de Fornells and Playa Tirant, (another benefit of going out of season!) we walked down country lanes past beautiful cottages and meadows of wild flowers, we learned that there are salt marshes on this part of the island too.
We were having a lovely time, and got chatting to a few people along the route who stopped us to ask about our cause which were advertising on our t-shirts. We met a father and son that had come in the opposite direction, the son was sat down under a bush, sheltering from the heat which was getting quite intense at this point. The son was quite young and looked pretty exhausted, they didn't speak much English but enough for us to understand them say that when they had just done was hard. A little further along we met a group of 4 english ladies who were walking the north section of the cami having down the south section the previous year (sensible people splitting it in two!) We told them about the man and his son and they confirmed that the bit we were about to encounter was pretty tough and the hardest section of the whole cami...
Now, rewind about 3 months - Claire had been doing some route planning using a map. But the thing about maps is they are 2D, so as far as Claire is concerned 40km in one part of the island is pretty much the same as 40km on another part of the island, not once did she account for terrain, not once! Thats typical Claire - blind optimism with the view that anything can be achieved when her and Naomi are together!
As it turned out we had rather a shock in the afternoon. We didn’t expect the terrain to be so mountainous. In parts we had to scramble up using Sedge shrubbery to hold on to and in a few places we ventured down on our bottoms. There were times where we felt a harness and climbing ropes were needed! We mustn’t put you off here. It’s all quite fun. The views are to die for but that was our worry! Those we met earlier with experience of this part of the Camí were right - this section is the hardest part. But hey what an opportunity! However we couldn’t help but think if this path was in the UK it would have been sectioned off in places and prohibited for human use. Thank goodness we had that beer before tackling it!
We ended the day somewhere around Algaiarens having come across some rather aggressive donkeys! The road was blocked where we were due to be collected, and the signal was so bad that we had to tell Dan to stay put where he had signal and could park and we would find him - it meant going a few km further with no water and zero energy. When we finally saw him in the distance with a cold bottle of water in his hand it was like a mirage! We were exhausted, our feet were so sore and our mouths so dry. (we may be over dramatising it here but thats how we remember it!) Little did we know at the time though that following day would be when we really suffered!....
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