Day 50: Port d'Alcudia Day 1

April 8, 2025

It's not easy to be calm when you've found something going on!

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Who would think that in assigning a "Jammer" rating to breakfast, "acreage" would be a factor. But at the Alua they had not only acres of seating, but also acres of food to match. We took a seat in a far corner overlooking the pool and the lake that are behind the hotel, and it was quite a hike to reach something remote, like the cookies.

The cookie and sweets area is not even visible in this photo. It would take a telephoto.

There were two chef stations, but only one active, as we came early. If you look closely you see that the man is using a spatula to pick up his fried eggs. I did the same, but made the error of putting the spatula down in the dish. The chef rapidly snatched it up and returned it to its proper place in the white dish in the foreground. Sorrrry!

Hard to gain weight - hiking for your food.

They had a number of foods and presentations that we have not seen before.

Within minutes of us setting off from the hotel, Dodie had already counted 125 road cyclists, then it was 200, then 350. Cycling in this town is very very big!

We reached a square that had a lot of cyclist standing about. I was wondering things like who was organizing them and where did they stay. At our giant hotel, most of the clients seemed to be decrepit old timers like us, but minus any bikes. Ours were the only ones in the storage, for example.

I hopped up onto the square and found someone who spoke English (as opposed to, it turns out, German). I found that everyone in that particular square was a client of a Swiss company called Huerzler.

The numbers, a few of which can be seen in the above photo, are for groups that will gather by their number and ultimately be guided on some road experience.

I didn't get the answer to where are they all staying, but I did hear further to the Fondo coming at the end of month that there is a waiting list, despite the 8 1/2 thousand starting places.

Our own plan for the day was to follow the main road back about 5 km to the huge wetland park called Parc Naturel de s'Albufera, which was supposed to be a birding hot spot. As we continued along the road, we passed one after another of bike rental, repair, or tour organizing establishments. For people who can usually never find a bike shop, it was remarkable.

The slogan of one place was "We've got your bike" no doubt!

Lots of bikes we saw on the road were by Cube, a well known good brand. It could be that one of the large organizer companies is affiliated with Cube.

When we arrived at the Albufera, the first thing was the sign below. It seemed jarring, since sports are so widely supported in the public psyche and especially in this town. We could not figure the logic behind the sign, since bicycles are allowed on most of the park trails, so it's not about scaring birds or even running down doddery walkers.

On entering the park, we had however moved from the world of the young cycle racers to the world of the older and more stationary bird watchers, like these:

What are they looking at? I pushed them aside (not really) and collected this shot:

And this one, that Merlin identifies as a Spoonbill, though the bill is not particularly spooned:

We cycled on in a further 1 km, to a visitor centre, which had maps, a gift shop, and washrooms. Terrific.

We were a little concerned by all the teenagers. Kids of any type are known for noise, and we have been at birding sites where they chased away anything that might have been out.

In the relief model below, the Tramuntana mountains can be seen, as well as the flat Alcudia bay area. The big flat green area is the wetlands.

The wetlands had four major trail systems, or varying length. Since we had seen nary a bird since our big score on the Night Heron, I thought that going deep in would be a good plan. So we took the red route.

But first, the gift shop! Mixing up the super Mallorca activities of birding and cycling, we first noticed a cycle map of the Island:

It looked really good, but we ultimately decided that computer mapping remained good enough.

There were many other great looking guides and info pamphlets:

On one wall inside the visitor centre were hung many very nice bird and wildlife photos depicting the park. Usually I would just be in awe of such photos, but for a few of them I thought "Hey, I have shot something like that!"

There were also a number of charts showing the local birds, and also lists of the many species that are found here. I photo'd the charts and picked up the lists, since it's all helpful in deciding if a spotted bird is what you think it is.

We crossed some picturesque bridges and started off on the chosen "red" route.

The red route, below, turned out to be a very bad idea. The trail was surrounded on both sides by tall reeds, and we couldn't see a darn thing. In addition, it was really long, sat in the open sun, and had no benches. The only relief was the two viewing platforms we reached, that allowed us to finally see over the reeds.A

From a platform, a flock of distant flamingos.

Looking down at the red route - quite a slog.

At a gap in the reeds we did see this Red Eared Slider!

This were shot from a platform, at a very great distance.

Another big thrill, shot through the reeds, to the other side of the canal, was wild Camargue horses. These are the ones we know we will see many of in France, and readers should expect lots of shots of these very noble creatures.

When Joni was very young, she entered her first swim meet. It was at the large central pool in Victoria. In the race, Joni set off, but faltered half way down the lane. She turned and swam back, still completing one length but ending up back at the start. Her explanation for her sudden loss of heart was that she had never been that far from shore before.

We did something like that, turning back on the red route almost (but since we are old and wise, not quite) half way along. Because of the reeds, we had not really seen much. One thing we had done was to get out Merlin and to have it listen to the bird song. It identified eight or more species, some of which were new to us. In eBird, it is legitimate to claim these IDs as sightings! One of the birds that Merlin turned up was the new to us Eurasian Blackcap. We were later delighted when a black capped bird, singing the Blackcap song turned up on a branch in front of us!

Here he is, singing:

When we had trudged all the way back, we checked out some of the shorter routes, ones with several hides along them. We found one completely stuffed with students - maybe the ones we had seen and worried about at the visitor center. But instead of jumping around shouting, they were all calmly contemplating the scene beyond the hide. "What do you see, kids?" I asked. "Fish!" was the first response. And indeed they called my attention to this:

Next one kid after another volunteered their seat to me, and I did take them up on it, getting some good shots of birds out there.

The other hides, quite near the visitor centre, also gave the chance to shoot some interesting birds. In the end we identified 26 species, which is really a lot for us in one day. And of these nine were new for 2025, bringing the 2025 number to 185. To boot, six were "lifers", bring the life total to 384. So what had started as a hot and unproductive slog ended as a great birding day.

Some of our favourite shots:

Red Knobbed Coot - almost went extinct but was brought back.

And this Stilt, with the entirely white head. It could be a White Headed Stilt or it could be a Pied Stilt - immature, or it could be a "standard" Black Winged Stilt.

Tomorrow we will search out some further birding spots, and also go looking for our ferry terminal for the journey to France, and maybe look at the actual town of Alcudia!

p.s. About the subtitle of today's post. The words are obviously taken from Cat Stevens but the idea is that Mallorca has been a revelation - with its stone lined lanes, meadows of flowers, great food, and birding and biking cultures - we have stumbled on something that millions already knew - this is a place to come back to!

Today's ride: 19 km (12 miles)
Total: 1,411 km (876 miles)

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Scott ReynoldsSteve,
I wanted to thank you for the link to the wonderful information you provided on the Danube and Salzburg routes. Much appreciated! Mallorca is also on our list and this journal brings it up the list!
Buen viaje!
Scott
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1 week ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Scott ReynoldsWe are more than happy to have "helped you out" and will eagerly await the blog detailing your adventures. Mallorca is definitely on our come back here and cycle for more days, or even weeks. Between the beautiful scenery, gorgeous views and beaches, cycling infrastructure and infinite possibilities for glorious routing how could we just come here once.
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1 week ago