Walkingibiza's around the island walk 2014 - stivi's review

stivi

Well-Known Member
hi guys,

will put a review up about the island walk we finished thursday last week...first bits probably coming tonight still, with more to follow in the next days.
 
Intro

One of the very few disadvantages of my job as Spotlight's clubbing man is the fact that in summer, I simply don't get to see and enjoy the other side of Ibiza as much as I'd like. Of course I love my clubbing and it is obviously my main thing in summer, not least because of my job. But I never thought of Ibiza just as a clubbing paradise. Of course it is the clubbing capital, but there's more to Ibiza than just the clubs. So yeah, apart from the odd hour or two on the beach every now and then and maybe a quick escape for a scuba dive, I don't get to do a lot of daytime activities in summer and sometimes I do feel like missing out a bit on some fun stuff.

Luckily, things then heavily change once the clubs shut their doors after the season. Over the course of the past few winters I've done a lot of one day walks with Toby from Walkingibiza and when I then first heard about the full island walk, I was hooked. Ten years after I had first set foot on Ibiza I'm still as crazy about the island and the idea of walking around the whole coastline of Ibiza sounded amazing to me. I'd say I do know Ibiza really well already, but I did know there were still bits and pieces that I need to discover.

When after last year's island walk Toby announced the dates for the 2014 around the island walk, I think I was one of the first ones signing up and paying (just after new years I had paid it all). For a long time I was thinking it's too early after the closing parties, but I knew that Toby's never going to change the dates - the two weeks after the closings and before daylight saving time ends are simply the perfect two weeks to do it and so I simply had to get my head around it. And so I did. In the run up to the walk, I've actually decided I'm going to use the walk to disconnect completely. During the season, I am always totally glued to laptops, tablets and smartphones 24/7, so what better than to simply ditch all of this? I did have my phone with me - in flight mode so I could take pics with it. And once a day I quickly turned it on to make one call. Apart from that, no connection to the outside and virtual world. No internet, no facebook, no forums, no e-mails, no whatsapp, no nothing. nada de nada. And that was the best decision ever.

So...with the phone turned off and the closing party marathon as a good warm up for the walk done, my adventure began...

DAY 1 - Monday 13th Oct
Ibiza town - Cap d'es Falcó area


Erm OK, I should maybe start with Sunday, 12th October. Because that's when the gang of adventurers first met up. We all had come together at Toby's house, had a lovely day meeting everyone, chatting about the last packing and equipment details and of course everyone got to build their own tent for the first time. All ready and set.

On Monday morning, we met up again and set off in the port of Ibiza town, right at the sailor's statue in front of café Mar y Sol. The weather was gorgeous when we started with the obligatory 30min Ibiza delay. The walk started with a wonderful stroll through the port, then up the ramp and through the gate and further up to Dalt Vila. We walked to the cathedral at the very top and then headed to Figueretas via Los Molinos. All along Playa d'en Bossa after that. Our first snack stop was at Torre de la Sal Rossa (torre d'es carregador), then we hiked onwards through the first quiet bit along the coast between PdB and Es Cavallet. We had our lunch stop (lunchbag) at a small beach called Cala Recuita before Es Cavallet. After that, we continued onwards via Es Cavallet and Torre de ses Portes to Las Salinas. Already at Es Cavallet we noticed that the wind coming from the south had picked up and that it will be really windy at Salinas. So Salinas wasn't great for a swim stop today, but it did great as a pit stop (aaah caña fría) at Sa Trinxa, before we then headed off to the Cap d'es Falcó area where we set up our camps after the first hill at beach in the middle of nowhere (not gonna tell you the name of this one I'm afraid). Highlights of the day? The views from the cathedral in Ibiza town. Quiet Playa d'en Bossa and then very windy Salinas. The distance of today's walk was 18km. Superb and very varied walk (town, touristic beaches, quiet parts, still busy parts), some funny moments at Chiringay with a few members of our group who weren't familiar with this side of ibiza. We were all in bed early after sitting around the campfire for a while after dinner. It kept on being really windy in the night and the weather forecast didn't look great for day two so we all went to sleep in our tents (or at least trying to do so) hoping we'd wake up still dry the next day...
 
craig - these walk the wrong way! we did the walk clockwise ;)

more walking tales coming later today!
 
DAY 2 - Tuesday 14th Oct
Cap d'es Falcó area - Es Xarco


I hadn't slept too well in the first night but I hadn't expected that neither. The first night in a tent is always a bit special and our one man tents were really small (but on the other hand super handy to build and carry them). I also wasn't used to go to bed that early and so the almost 12 hour night from 9pm to short before 8am seemed eternal to me. I did sleep a few hours, but in patterns of about 2 hours each. Still, I got up feeling pretty fresh and with lots of energy to walk.

After breakfast and packing our bags it was time for the 4 remaining hills of the Cap d'es Falcó zone. The hills are also known as the '5 MFs' of Cap d'es Falcó and yeah, they are pretty hard for Ibiza walking standards. The weather forecast had been correct too, around half an hour into the walk the rain came. We all had raincoats and backpack rain covers, but when it started to rain really heavily, we searched for shelter under a big tree until the worst was over. A nice cup of tea was prepared while waiting - the British never disappoint and every problem in the world can get sorted with a cuppa it seems :) . We still got totally soaked as the tree was a useless pine and not a huge and properly protecting leaf tree. With the hiking paths now wet and therefore slippery as hell, the rest of the Cap d'es Falcó trail got even more challenging. We had still 2 MFs left and especially going down those tracks turned into a pretty tricky task. And while it still was raining a lot, we all succeeded without getting hurt, albeit some of us with a bit of a muddy bottom ;)

Arriving at Experimental Beach at the bottom of Cap d'es Falcó we were treated to a nice surprise as the wife of a member of our group was waiting for us with hot coffee, croissants and ensaimadas. Just the thing we needed as we all felt a bit cold and damp. After this unexpected caffeine & sugar hit we continued our trek along Es Codolar beach, the pebbly stretch right by the airport. By then, the rain luckily had stopped. At the same time it was very windy which was great as it helped drying our wet gear we were wearing.

We had another quick stop at the shop/bar in Es Codolar (they do amazing fruit smoothies there!) and then continued southwards. We walked to the old Phoenician ruins and down the military tunnels of Sa Caleta, before then passing by Sa Caleta beach itself (sadly no time for cafe caleta today!). Then further on to Cap Jondal, the mountain between Sa Caleta and Cala Jondal. We didn't competely climb up to the top at first, but rather hiked further south to the front of the slope, close to the big hole in the rock which you can see from both Cap d'es Falcó as well as from Es Cubells. We had lunch (lunchbox again) at a beautiful place which I won't explain, but where I'll be back for sure.

After lunch and with fresh energy we hiked up Cap Jondal and then down to (luckily closed and quiet) Blue Marlin. Yemanja was open though, but no rest for us yet. We continued further along another bit until we arrived at the next beach, Es Xarco. This is where we put up our tents somewhere in the area. So today, we only walked 14kms, but with all the hills it was clear we wouldn't get as much distance done. The weather had gotten much better mid-afternoon so we all had the chance for a wash - a nice swim in the sea :) Superb atmosphere in the area around sunset with Cap Jondal being illuminated with the setting sun.

We got our campfire going just before it got dark, so dinner was later to
han yesterday and I think I got into my presidential suite...erm one man tent at around 10:30pm. Another superb day, the fact we were out there with the elements made it an amazing experience. I'm not a fan of rain, but it was nice to get some to be honest! Went to sleep looking forward to continuing our journey around i
Ibiza. Today was one of those days when I was reminded of how privileged we are to call Ibiza 'home'.
 
DAY 3 - Wednesday 15th Oct
Es Xarco - Cap Llentrisca


As it had cleared up a few hours before we had gone to bed, the night was a lot chillier than the one before when it was overcast. But it was perfectly warm in my sleeping bag. Sleep also got better, only woke up once in the middle of the night and then was awake a little early. Now that we got to the end of daylight saving time, sunrise was really late (8am), so I listened and watched the day waking up. A lovely experience which I hadn't had in a while!

After breakfast our walk began in direction of Porroig, then over Vista Alegre and further onwards to Es Cubells. The terrain was again a lot of up and down on this stretch. Somewhere in between we got to a pretty secret cove via a very special way. Can't tell all details I'm afraid, but wow :) By lunchtime we were in Es Cubells and we were treated to the first hot meal since Sunday night. We had a lovely lunch at restaurante Es Cubells (right by the church) and it was a great new experience on this trip to eat being sat at a table, with proper cutlery etc. I had a delicious steak with home made chips and salad, just what I needed. After this (and of course the compulsory chupito de hierbas) we were ready for more. So we headed off down towards Cala Llentrisca, where we arrived about an hour later - just in time for a swim yay! Then it was all uphill again to the area above, Cap Llentrisca. And somewhere there, I won't specify, we made our camp for the night. What followed was first one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen (with Es Vedra in the picture) and then another lunchbox dinner around the campfire, with Es Vedra in front of us.

Today's total distance was 20k and towards the end of today's section we all realised that slowly, but steadily we're actually getting somewhere. Further away from Ibiza town and at the same time closer to ourselves. I'll keep the rest of thoughts for the end of the review, but that much I can already tell - I felt super 'alive' on this day and was extremely happy I had signed up for the walk. In my own little cocoon (sleeping bag) at around 10pm.
 
DAY 4 - Thursday 16th Oct
Cap Llentrisca - Cala Vadella


The night had been very windy which resulted in a lot of dust being blowed in our tents...urgh. It took me a good few hours until I could sleep. Damn summer rhythm (never going to sleep before 4am at the earliest) was still a bit in me. But when I finally fell asleep, I had an almost nonstop sleep until 8am.

After disassembling our tents, packing our bags and having breakfast (lunchbag of course) we headed into our so far hardest day. The weather was again glorious and the sunrise had been wonderful. From the Cap Llentrisca area we hiked up to the highest point at the southern coast, Puig Llentrisca (apart from Sa Talaia which is further inland) to check out the view on Es Vedra. Then further on downhill to the beautiful stone spiral (the descent to that was a tricky one!) and then uphill again to Torre d'es Savinar (torre del pirata), where we had lunch.

In the afternoon we walked down to Cala d'Hort, crossed it completely over to Es Boldado, and continued through Cala Carbó. The last hard bit was the caminito along the coast over to Cala Vadella via Puig Pelat. Eventually we did make it though and arrived in Cala Vadella at around 5pm.

After three nights in tents and no proper shower, today we got pampered to our first night in a real bed as we slept in apartments in Cala Vadella. After topping up on water and food for the next day, everyone of us heavily enjoyed a hot water shower and actually feeling clean after that. I love being outdoors, but the comfort of a shower is something you really only get to appreciate once you haven't got it for a while!

We spent the evening in Cala Vadella and had a proper dinner (at Can Jaume - always lovely) sat down which was a nice change. Of course I enjoyed hopping in my proper bed, but I have to admit that all evening I thought something was missing and only after dinner when walking to the apartment I realised what it was - our campfire obviously!

19.2km total today, with a lot of ups and downs in terrain and some rather challenging paths. Bring on more tomorrow!
 
DAY 5 - Friday 17th Oct
Cala Vadella - Punta Galera area


The monster distance day.

I had fallen asleep within seconds in my (real and proper) bed and only woke up when my alarm clock rang. Yeah today we had to set alarms; firstly because the sunlight didn't wake us up as per normal (as we were in apartments and not tents) and second, today was going to be a big day so we had to get kicking early.

We left Cala Vadella at 8am and made our way to Cala Moli first, then to Cala Tarida and further on to Cala Corral. On this first bit the terrain was still a lot of up and down. Then came the long flat walk: onwards to Cala Codolar first and then to the Cala Conta area. On all this way I saw stuff I already knew as well as new and surprising things. From the Cala Conta area we then continued to Cala Bassa, where we did our lunch break and of course we also went for a refreshing swim as the weather was glorious again and in fact pretty hot today.

In the afternoon we continued our way along the coast and came into the bay of San Antonio. Port d'es Torrent first, then Cala de bou, then into the main bit of the promenade and into the port. We had a quick pitstop at Rita's Cantina and then cracked on, leaving the still open Café del Mar and MINT behind us on the sunset strip.

We passed by Calo d'es Moro, followed to the aquarium and over to Cala Gracio and Gracioneta. Onwards to hostal la torre (closed) and then, after a long but mostly flat 30k walk (!!!), we finally stopped in the Punta Galera area and set up camp there around sunset - what a day.

Reward came in form of a great BBQ around the campfire - bliss!!
 
Amazing stuff! Out of interest (if you dont mind telling us) was the cost?

no secrets there - it's not a cheap experience at 1400€, but only during the walk you realise how much you actually get for it. I'll be more specific about this in my final thoughts.
 
DAY 6 - Saturday 18th Oct
Punta Galera area - Cala d'Albarca area


After the beach BBQ I had fallen asleep immediately and all night I only woke up once which is great when sleeping in a tent!

In the morning I got up at 8am and the first thing I did was a nice early morning swim to completely wake up. Bit by bit everyone got up (some with a bit of a hangover of last night's festivities) and today we took it rather easy, breakfast and tea/coffee took its time as well as disassembling our tents. In the end we only left camp at around 10:30am which is rather late.

Today's route led us first to Cala Salada - as everyone knows one of the most beautiful beaches of the island, especially if there is almost nobody! :) What then followed was a long and steady climb to the plateau of Santa Agnes. It was again really hot today as there was no wind at all, so we were all glad that a lot of this route was through the forest and thus in the shade. Today was also the day we spent most time inland of the whole trip. This was simply because in the area we walked through there aren't any paths along the coastline for a good while.

We stopped for a proper sat lunch (such a luxury!) at Can Cosmi in Santa Agnes and enjoyed the fantastic tortilla they do (and the almond tart with a bit of moscatel wine too). Then we continued towards San Mateo, but veered off to the left midway and headed towards the coast again. the final destination for today's section was the Cala d'Albarca area where we set up camp at the most amazing place I've ever camped. We had done pretty well in time which meant we got to check out the sunset from there, then lit up the campfire, had dinner (lunchbox) and enjoyed stories of all the group members.

Ever the nightowl, and also because today's 20k walk to me hadn't felt tiring, I suddenly ended up sitting alone at the fire some time past 10pm as everyone else already had gone sleeping. But with an amazingly warm October night and a bit of wood left to burn on the fire, I decided to stay a little longer. It was almost new moon (the moon would only come out late in the night anyway) and as we were in Ibiza's most remote corner with almost no light sources around us, the sky full of stars above me was a fantastic thing to stare at for a good while. God am I lucky to be able to experience this!!
 
DAY 7 - Sunday 19th Oct
Cala d'Albarca area - Puerto de San Miguel


I had slept pretty well and woke up at 7am. Around this time of the year it's still pitch black outside then so I waited for a bit and then went outside. Ten minutes before sunrise most of our group were out of their tents to see the sunrise. It was certainly a highlight of this day and, due to the place we were, also one of the trip in general.

The weather looked gorgeous again so we were in for another great day of walking. We left our camp and in the morning we crossed the whole bay of Cala d'Albarca. Further on to the north we descended into Es Portitxol where we finally got a swimstop again - and a very lovely one at that!

From there it was all uphill again to the urbanisation of Isla Blanca and then onwards to Na Xamena. We enjoyed our lunch (lunchbox again) from a point with great views on the Hacienda Na Xamena.

Lunchtime was pretty late and a few people in the group were tired today so the energy went downhill towards late afternoon. But we did make it down into Puerto de San Miguel where we stayed for the night. The distance we covered were 17k, but with a few hefty ups and downs. Today it was again time for a real bed and a real shower so we checked in at Balansat Torremar apartamentos.

In the evening we walked over to Utopia on Caló des Moltons beach for dinner. As there were no other guests it turned into a private dinner just for us which was brilliant and the food was delicious!

As we now had been walking together for almost a week already, we obviously got to know each others pretty well during all the conversations we had while walking. On the other hand you also always had enough time for yourself if you wanted. Apparently the native indians used the same one word for both walking and thinking. It is also proven that your brain works much better while and after walking and I can confirm that you get to think about a lot of stuff while walking, which is great. Today I had realised that the walk is definitely not just about walking, but much rather also about reflecting, friendships and extremely interesting conversations. That I would get to see the best bits of Ibiza was clear to me, but I hadn't expected the whole 'think tank' dimension.
 
DAY 8 - Monday 20th Oct
Puerto de San Miguel - somewhere between Portinatx and Cala San Vicente


I had slept like a baby in the bed of the apartment we had been booked in. And as a first on this trip after being on tour for a week now, we had a proper sat breakfast instead the normal lunchbag brekkie.

Sadly, one of the participants of the walk bailed out today in the morning. He had been struggling with bad blisters for a while already and decided he won't take it any further. This was really sad as he was a super nice and highly interesting person. It made me sad, but at the same time I realised how lucky I was not having any issues at all with my feet or legs so far.

Today was another long and beautiful day which started with a warm up climb over the hill from Puerto de San Miguel over to Benirràs. Up, down, and then right up again in eastern direction after Benirràs.

We walked through the big forest fire area between Benirràs and Portinatx and as sad as the incident was, it's great to see that life is starting to come back. It'll still take 15 years until the trees will be back, but at least flowers and bushes are already back. We walked past moon beach (correct name is Es Caló de S'Illa), but later on stopped at Es Canaret beach (the one where dictator franco apparently had his house) for a swim- and snack stop. When we continued it was blistering hot. Total bluebird day, very high temperatures, no shade to hide a bit and not the slightest gust of a breeze - I think I hadn't sweated that much all summer!

Leaving Cala Xaracca and the other small beaches pre Portintatx (S'illot des Rencli and Cala Xuclar) behind us, we made it to Portinatx in the early afternoon. We stopped at the very last beach in the village. Time for lunch out of the box.

As I said, today was a long one, we continued after the lunchbreak and walked to Cala d'en Serra via the big Portinatx lighthouse. We did another snack stop there and then continued hiking into the no man's land between Portinatx and Cala San Vicente.

We arrived at our camping site just before it got dark. Total distance today were 25k. After putting up our tents we gathered together as always, had dinner and a nice conversation.

Tonight was also hallie's comet's night so we had made no fire for better stargazing. As usual by now I was the last one still out after 10:30pm and I did indeed see some falling stars - what a great gig in the sky.
 
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DAY 9 - Tuesday 21st Oct, Somewhere between Portinatx and Cala San Vicente - Pou d'es Lleo

Sleeping in a tent is really something you get used to. I knew this from past experience, but it was great to see it reconfirmed. I had slept very well and almost nonstop all night. Woke up naturally at 7am and again waited for the day to start. The sunrise was again a 10/10 and set the tone for the day for me. It was another perfectly sunny and very warm October day with temperatures up to 27 degrees celsius.

Today's route started with a short descend down into the valley, but shortly after we were back going uphill and ended up at tanit's cave (Es Cuieram) after a good morning hike. The cave was closed (only opens again in May), but we had a great second breakfast stop there. From Es Cuieram we made our way out to the coast again and got to the northeastern point of the island. We also passed some amazing coves I'll definitely have to hike back to (including Aigües Dolçes for example).

We had our lunch (lunchbox of course) somewhere in the forest before we came back into civilisation at alla dins just north of Cala San Vicente. Then we walked down into Cala San Vicente and had a quick pitstop (juices/coffees/icecream). From there, we had to continue on the main road southwards for a while as there is no path directly at the coast. But pretty soon it was time for us again to get down to the waterline. it was the northernmost of the Aguas Blancas beaches, called Ses Taules. We continued further down to the 'main' aguas blancas beach where we had our swimstop for the day - wonderful!

Once our feet were dry again we powered on, first to Es Figueral and then to our final destination for today (after 25k), Pou d'es Lleo (via s'Illot de s'Or and Punta d'es Llaüt). We got again pampered to a hotel night and we stayed at Fonda Pou d'es Lleo. We enjoyed a proper hot dinner, eating with fork and knife, sat at a table. And looking at the paper tablecloth with the Ibiza map on it, I realised we now already had done a huge chunk of the coast of Ibiza...or in other words I got aware there wasn't a whole lot left to do. This obviously provoked mixed feelings, but it didn't put me down. All the memories I had accumulated on the walk until that point had a far too much positive effect on me.

In bed (proper bed yay!) by midnight...
 
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DAY 10 - Wednesday 22nd Oct
Pou d'es Lleo - Sol d'en Serra


I had woken up at around 4am to the sound of heavy winds. The storm that had been announced and which was (at least partly) responsible for us sleeping in a proper bed instead of the tent had arrived. I managed to sleep more though and got up at circa 7:30am. After breakfast (lunchbag) we headed off with a cloudy sky above us and strong winds which was quite a difference to the seven previous days which all had been bluebirds.

Today's walk was another 25km job and consisted of two pretty different parts: the one in the morning was flat and fast, the afternoon was up and down and therefore quite slow and hard.

The morning part led us from Pou d'es Lleo slowly back into more civilised area via Cala Boix first, then to Cala Mastella and further on to Cala Llenya and Cala Nova (first quick coffeestop there). Through Es Canar after that, then to Punta Arabi, Cala Martina (coffeestop II), Cala Pada, Es Niu Blau and S'Argamassa. The last stop in the morning (chupito de hierbas instead of coffees or juices) was at Babylon Beach just before Santa Eulalia. Then we did our lunchbreak at the southern end of Santa Eularia. By that time we already had walked 16kms - the flat terrain was like taking the TGV!

But as mentioned beforehand, the afternoon was a completely different story. after Santa Eularia the houses got scarce again, but instead the hills got big. First one was the one where Siesta and Valverde are built on. And somewhere there, between Santa Eularia and Cala Llonga also lies a cool surprise that I had seen before once, but won't specify... anyway, we eventually did make it to Cala Llonga, where we had our last pitstop. Then followed the last (but pretty nasty) hill of today which took us over to Sol d'en Serra. Most people will know the name Amante Beach Club and the hill we ascended to get into the area is actually a double peak affair - a right little fcuker at the end of the day! Then we descended into the Sol d'en Serra area and set up camp.

It was our last night and the campfire was ready quickly. Today felt like autumn with wind and clouds so I was wondering if I'd still get a few beach days after the walk and before winter arrives. At the same time I realised how lucky we had been weather wise while on the walk generally. And tonight we also were lucky dinner wise as one of the group member's partners had prepared an amazing dinner consisting of various courses...we got completely spoilt!

in my tent by 11:30pm
 
DAY 11 - Thursday 23rd Oct
Sol'den Serra - Ibiza town


My last night in the tent hadn't been the best. It had been too hot and I only managed to fall asleep at around 2am. Then I was awake again at 7am so I didn't get too much sleep.

It was the last day of our walk and the sun was back in all its glory. Overall, we only had one rainy morning (day two) and one generally overcast day (day ten), else we had been caressed (and sometimes a bit burnt!) by the sun every day. Amazing!

Today's route first took us over the hill from Sol d'en Serra to Roca Llisa. As this was another forest fire zone, we were walking through a few left blackened trees and a lot of new young bushes. The path through this area had mostly vanished so it was a hard piece of work to get to Cala Olivera. From there we hiked up into Roca Llisa. One team member lives in the area so we made a detour via their house...coffee, tea, croissants and bacon sandwiches at the ready. Result!!

With new energy we continued via Cala Espart beach to S'Estanyol, where we had our very last pitstop of the trip. Then followed the deadly stairs (who's done them knows what I'm talking about) up the next hill and then down again to the Cala Roja area.

Continuing along the coast we arrived at Cap Martinet and on the cliffs in front of Destino resort, we saw Ibiza town again for the first time. The place we had set off 11 days ago. With high spirits we descended to Sa Punta (with the fish shack gone for the winter) and then walked all along Talamanca bay. I very much enjoyed the last 30 minutes of our walk as it's all somehow my neighbourhood. At the end of Talamanca (bar flotante) we walked over to Marina Botafoch and then it was just one last stroll until we arrived back at the sailor's statue in the port of Eivissa. I think we arrived at about 3:30pm, but that mattered little. We did it! A nice welcoming commitee of friends and family expected us at the finish line and of course there was both cava as well as hierbas poured to celebrate...

What an adventure!

More opinions and thoughts soon. Happy Halloween now, should be a good 24 hours starting from now :)
 
Best review I've read on spotlight...great job. I am sure lots of people will be inspired to do this amazing trip.
 
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