Caves and Coves….

All ready for the day ahead!

We decided to visit the Caves of Campenet. Although locals had always known that there was something about where the caves are located. They knew that a current of fresh air came out from a small hole at the surface. It wasn’t until 1945 that the Caves were discovered when the landowner wanted to investigate if it was a stream.

What they instead found was a series of interlinking caves.

There are many caves in Mallorca due to the sandstone and limestone, an ideal combination for the formation of caves. There are over 200 cave systems in Mallorca, with many believing there are more to be found.

I do get a bit agitated when people blatantly disregard the rules that are in place, to ensure that the forms aren’t damaged. There were instructions in various languages, plus info graphics. But a couple were determined to get the perfect photo, the woman draping herself over a formation. I bit my tongue! But she was touching a stalagnate that looked very fragile, stalagnates are when a stalagmite and a stalactite meet.

I really enjoyed it, looking at the shapes that .oozed like petrified people. Also the added bonus was that there were only a few steps down to them.

On the way back we stopped at the small-town of Sa Pobla, translated as The Village in English.

Very pretty and typical for the region. We sat in the square and had an ice cream, people watching.

On the way back we stopped at Hiper Hao, a bazaar. There are many bazaars in Spain, which the Spaniards call ‘el china’, translated as the Chinese. When Chinese immigrants travelled to Spain, they saw a gap in the market, cheap tat! Cheap and filled to the rafters with everything you can think of and more, toys, school supplies, electronics etc etc.

I thought I had found small containers of play doh, so Bea could create more dinosaurs in Dino World.

I found a great orange one, prized it open just go check. Ended up with thick day glo orange hands, it seemed to go everywhere! We had a few things to buy, so I made Pete get them as I made a quick exit out of the shop.

After a siesta we decided to try out a ‘local beach’. Getting there was somewhat problematic, as there was a cycle race at the bottom of our street, just as we were loading the car, we saw a police car pull up and put tape across the road. We hadn’t noticed the signs along our street.

I noticed them after the event!

The woman in a car in front of us waited until the police had driven off, then she leapt into action, striding towards the tape and promptly pulled it off the wall, sauntered back and drove onwards.

We were not so strident. Pete drove backwards, and in his words the longest he had ever reversed for. We then tried another road, but it was the same. What with road closures and the lambryinth of one way roads, I a very surprised we reached the beach at all.

It was definitely a local beach, in some way it reminded me Dinas Dinlle, with the mountains on either side.

As we reached the beach we could see all these lumps that looked like manure, but lighter colour. These I found out are called, sea balls, sea rissoles or sea potatoes.

Manure…..

The water was quite seaweedy, and it was this abundance of seaweed that creates the sea balls. The seaweed is ribbon like (oceanic posidonia), the movement of the waves breaks the older brown leaves off, creating these balls. So thankfully nothing ominous at all.

We all went in the sea, the waves at times quite high. I tried snorkeling but didn’t see anything but seaweed. Pete went further out and saw a stingray, I was quite jealous.

Heading back home we were faced with the same road closures, and had to do everything in reverse from what we had done earlier. At least it seemed easier second time round, utterly I couldn’t be.ieve they were still cycling.