Day 3 - Stages 8-11.5! Algairens to Cala Blanca

Practical Information:

• Difficulty: Medium, prepare to walk on the moon! Mentally tiring

• Distance: Approx. 38km

• Elevation: 106m highest point

• Logistics: Easy drop off and collection point for a support vehicle. Accessible to amenities in Cala Morell and Cuitadella. Mobile phone signal was patchy on the north coast but fine as we came round to the west

• Tips: There is a very large portion of this section that is barren and like walking on the moon, be prepared for the lack of change and mental stimulation! You'll be very glad when you get to Ciutadella

Our personal experience

About last night:

After being “rescued” from our post-Sahara-desert-style adventure state, Claire gradually recovered once she’d had plenty of water. Naomi, however, began to deteriorate as soon as we got into the car. The blast of cold air conditioning left her clammy, shivering, and fighting the urge to vomit.

Back at our accommodation, Naomi went straight to bed, while Claire pulled out the maps to check the distances we’d already covered. She wanted to see if taking day three as a rest day would still allow us to finish the challenge on time. We quickly realised just how much we had underestimated the sheer scale of Els Alocs.

In truth, we’d been so wrapped up in the mountaineering itself that we completely overlooked the relentless sun, and by the time we noticed, Naomi was already battling a full case of sunstroke.

The next morning Naomi was ill, but up for it, Claire's feet were covered in blisters, but at this point they hadn't burst so she was also up for it. We were both up for it! (sings to R. Kelly "My bodys telling me nooooo!!! but my mind, my mind is telling me yes!")

We arrive at the starting point feeling rough as hell but sooo much better than the night before when we had been collected here. We do our daily Facebook/Instagram live and you can tell were delirious. Here are some stills from the video of us explaining how Claire nearly got bitten by a donkey..you can watch the whole video here!

Off we head, grateful for the lack of mountains and the shaded woodlands on this section, off in search of some particular caves Cala Morell...

The found the caves, it took about an hour as for some reason no one we spoke to seemed to know about them, unless it was just our poor description! It was important that we found them, there was something we really wanted to do when we go there - Claire’s friend Gary, a professional opera singer, had sung in these caves the previous year. Knowing we sung and sounded just like him ;-) we could not miss this opportunity to do the same. Please see short clip video!

Pleased with ourselves for having entertained the tourists in the caves, we set off for the rest of the day, very late and behind schedule, blissfully unaware that what we faced yesterday had been child’s play compared to what awaited us today.

The landscape soon transformed into what we could only describe as “fields of dry rock pools,” stretching endlessly in every direction. The sea shimmered to our right, but reaching it meant navigating countless stepping stones, lots and lots of stepping stones. The ground, pale and lunar in appearance, reflected the harsh midday sun straight back at us, the glare playing tricks on our eyes. No matter how far we walked, the Far de Punta Nati lighthouse seemed to drift further and further away, mocking our progress.

Despite the barren openness, where shade was a luxury offered only by the occasional stone wall, beauty still revealed itself. We were astonished by the most vibrant butterflies we had ever seen: one in particular shimmered with mint-green and violet wings and bright orange legs.

The trek stretched on for hours, silence often replacing conversation as the terrain tested us. Later, we read that others had found this section just as punishing; one hiker even collapsed in joy, making "snow angels" in the dusty ground to celebrate finishing it! For us, the exhaustion was compounded by Naomi’s battle with sunstroke in the relentless heat and Claire’s blistered feet navigating this lunar wasteland.

As we turned the corner and headed south Ciutadella was in our sights, and ice cream was in our minds!

As we entered the city, a final surprise awaited us: the trees were alive with the chaos of nesting parrots. Twigs had been woven into precarious nests, each one bursting with the squawks of hungry chicks calling for food. It was a raucous, joyous fanfare.

We didn’t hang about as our aim was to find an ice cream toot sweet! We did just that and enjoyed them on the cathedral steps marvelling at the coldness of the stone. Sa Gelateria on Carrer de Roser is where you MUST buy icecream, it was recommended to us by Naomi's friends and we are passing it on! Hey we'll even give you the what3words it was so delicious! - waffle.impinging.reframed

Ciutadella has every amenity you could wish for. We bought water and Naomi a hat (which actually managed to change the look of her gender! 😆).

We finished our day in Cala Blanca on a beach, a few km short of our target collection point which should have been Cap d'Artrutx. Claire's first blister burst and she began to limp, too much limping and rubbing would have a detrimental impact on the rest of the week, we need to be sensible, stop here and start again tomorrow properly bandaged up. We called Dan and limped to the beach. It was quite busy, large straw umbrellas were being put out ready for the summer season to begin. Whilst enjoying cooling off up to our knees in the water two young Spanish girls approached us and spoke friendly in Spanish. Claire misunderstood them and thought one was them has introduced themself as "Medusa" Always always polite Claire replied and said “Hola Medusa!” and went on to introduce us by name. The girls went off giggling - a google search on our phones made us realised that Medusa is in fact Spanish for Jellyfish! Yes - she'd called a girl a jellyfish. We think that they were either asking us if we'd seen any jelly fish (on our hike?) or most likely they were warning us of jellyfish, either way it was a reminder that if we were to enter the water again we must be vigilant!

Some more photos and videos of our first day: