Island at your feet After a day exploring Menorca's glorious costline, the turquoise waters of 'the perfect beach' prove irresistable for David Montgomery...

Published: 01/04/2007 Spain Magazine

---

There are walking holidays and there are walking holidays. Twenty-five-year-old Jordi Sureda from Barcelona is on the low-budget variety, spending a fortnight trekking around Menorca.

Carrying just a light backpack and a camping mat, his plan is to sleep under the stars or, as on the evening I run into him, bed down in one of the Martello towers scattered along the Balearic island's 220km of coastline.

I arrived a few hours earlier, exactly 30 years since my last visit to Menorca when I had come as a child for a family beach holiday. It had left me with hazy but happy memories of swimming in the warm sea, pedaloes and go-karts — and, bizarrely, giant lemons stuffed with mouth-tingling sorbet. Just the sort of experiences Menorca seems to evoke in people's minds, including a fellow passenger on my flight who told me: 'I've always thought of it as a family island — a good place to come with kids.'

But I have returned to Menorca hoping to discover another side to the place, well away from beach resorts and bright lights. For this reason, I have left my children at home and I am walking the coastal trail — the Cami de Cavalls — that rings the island. This ancient network of paths was used by soldiers to ride between defensive watchtowers built to protect islanders from naval attacks and marauding pirates.

Now the mostly deserted tracks meander along clifftops and down to tree-fringed calas or through fields and gorges, all untainted by the developer's bulldozer. ' My variety of walking holiday is much less haphazard than Jordi's, as I am under the expert guidance of a travel company that arranges flights, car hire and places to stay and has provided me with a good map and detailed route notes for six walks around the island.

After a day's hiking I will be returning to the comfort of Morvedra Nou, a beautifully converted finca in gentle countryside just outside the island's former capital, Ciutadella.

But if Jordi's accommodation for the night is on the basic side, what it lacks in creature comforts — if not creatures — it makes up for in views.

Built in the late 18th century, towards the end of Britain's occupation of the island, Torre d'en Penyat was constructed to help protect Ma harbour from attack. The city had become Menorca's capital in 1722, partly to undermine the influence of the local noble families, most of whose palaces were in Ciutadella at the western end of the island, but largely because its wonderful natural harbour was ideal for the British fleet.

Now, standing on the roof of the deserted tower looking across the bay to the cliffs of La Mola, Jordi tells me that, as this is the most easterly point in Spain, it is where the sun rises first.

'Dali used to say he was lucky because from his house at Port Lligat he was the first on the Iberian peninsula to see the sunrise,' he says. 'Well, I feel like the luckiest man in Spain, because tomorrow morning I will be the first to see the sunrise.'

I am a little further down the batting order the next morning as the sun is well above the horizon before I wander up to the terrace at Morvedra Nou for breakfast.

With the mountains of Mallorca just visible to the west, the scent of flowers all around me and a table spread with local cheeses and sausages, pastries, fruit and freshly baked bread, I am in no rush.

I have detailed — in some instances virtually step-by-step — route directions for the six walks, ranging in length from 6km to 12kin and taking an average of four hours to complete.

My first foray is described as 'classic bay-hopping' and proves to be just that. From Santa Galdana on the south coast, I head west along a path that cuts through pine trees and past one of the countless dry-stone walls that dissect Menorca into a patchwork of fields and enclosures. It isn't long before I am clambering down some wooden steps on to the beach at Cala Macarella, a lovely sheltered bay of clear blue water. Ignoring the urge to kick off my walking boots and plunge straight in, I carry on across the beach and back on to a track that will take me to Cala Macarelletta.

With the sea below, the path climbs around out of one bay before dropping down with a steep final scramble on to what the guide describes as a 'perfect beach'. It is certainly heavenly, fringed by pines and soft, golden sand, and this time there is no resisting the turquoise waters.

Refreshed and invigorated by a swim, I headed off through the trees, up a long, shaded gully. Less than an hour later I step on to another glorious beach in Cala Turquesa, although the arrival of a boat packed with elderly tourists who swarm over the previously quiet sands slightly reduces its appeal.

But, as I am quickly discovering, there is no shortage of choice on Menorca when it comes to beaches. In fact, the island has more of them than Mallorca and Ibiza put together (around 120) and, since many require a little effort to reach, they are rarely crowded. This is particularly so in the autumn and spring, when temperatures are ideal for walking but still warm enough to sit on the beach and enjoy a picnic lunch. Over the next few days I go all over the island, mixing a half-day's walking with visits to Ciutadella and Mao, where the bulk of Menorca's 80,000 residents live.

At just 50km long by 25km wide, it doesn't take long to travel from one end of Menorca to the other along the main road linking Mao and Ciutadella. Off this, smaller roads run to the north and south, passing through a rural landscape that has probably remained unchanged for hundreds of years.

Inland, there are herds of cows — from which comes the milk for the island's distinctive cheeses — and fields with striking black Menorcan horses picking at the grass.

On my way back from one walk in the north of the island I drive up Monte Toro, Menorca's highest point at just 357m, and from where on a clear day you can see nearly the whole island. I am able to retrace the route of my day's walking along the north coast from Cap de Cavalleria to Cala Pregonda, another unspoilt crescent of sand protected from the sea by several rocky islets.

The southern coast is riddled with caves, many of which were once occupied by some of the island's earliest settlers, who have left a trail of prehistoric ruins and monuments. Experts are still baffled as to exactly what these impressive [alayo[s (rock mounds) and taulas (T-shaped monuments usually found standing nearby) were used for.

By the time it comes for me to leave, I have walked stretches of the Cami de Cavalls at points around the island and passed through idyllic countryside and coastal scenery, meeting just the occasional fellow walker. The routes have been a good length without being overly strenuous and the island's starkly different geology — effectively a north-south divide, with reddish sandstone meeting golden limestone — means the landscape has plenty of variety.

If I had wanted restaurants and nightlife, I could have headed for the harbour-sides of Fornells, Mao or Ciutadella with their excellent seafood eateries. Instead, I opted for the peace and quiet of Morvedra Nou, where the nearest I got to bright lights was watching the sunset behind Mallorca.

Find out more about this holiday

---