Mallorca: A long way on the Dry Wall Trail

Olive groves, hidden gorges, panoramic views and the most beautiful mountain villages of the island: a charming long-distance hiking trail leads away from mass tourism across Mallorca's wild Tramuntana mountains. We want to hike the Tramuntana mountains complete - a hard way, dry and beautiful.

In Spring, before the sun really burns over Mallorca is the best time to discover the island, which is known for beaches, discos and alcohol abuse. The best way to do that is with hiking boots firmly laced. Follow me all the way to the other side of a well known and complete unknown isle. (Please reat chapter one here)

The view from the hills to the ocean

A long day lies ahead of us today. From Estellencs it should go via Banyalbufar and Esporles to Valldemossa, which is an insane 24 kilometers through the mountains, with 1,100 meters of altitude that we have to climb up and down. Never trust anyone who says, Mallorca is a hiking area for walks. Anything but. The island is sweaty, the island is challenging. The island is hard.

On an old path

At least, on the first stage, the old path to Banyalbufar, we can enjoy the view of the sea and hiking in the shade of olive groves. After two hours, we reach the village high above the cliff, a typical Malloquin settlement.

An olive tree, thousand years old

Surrounded by terraced slopes, where the popular Malvasia wine used to grow, but now mainly fruits and vegetables, it looks a bit like the area you would imagine to enjoy your retirement.

In the middle right: we

However, the Spaniards did not come up with this way of life themselves. It was the Moors - now Moroccans - who brought with them the terraced culture and the knowledge of artificial irrigation, and with it the methods that to this day make it possible to transform even steep, karstic slopes into fertile gardens. Banyalbufar means "built by the sea". The name comes from the Arab occupiers who so perpetuated themselves here.

The cats are all crazy about the hikers

Fields over fields

Part of the secret behind the terraced fields over the fields and behind the cliffs is the art of dry stone walling. Stacked without cement, the fieldstones hold the staircase shape of the mountains for endless miles.

Behind us the path we walked

"Nowhere has dry stone masonry been perfected like in Mallorca. Unesco even named it a World Heritage Site in 2018," our local guide tells us. She compares the craft to a composition: "Each stone is like the note of a symphony. It must have its appropriate place to create a harmonious wall."

The most of the way is along the ocean

Once you know this, you realize the work that goes into these little walls, most of which are barely higher than your waist. Endless years must have been spent here, endless centuries even.

Orange tree roads

And on the hiking trail we will be able to marvel at countless border walls, terraces, houses, defense towers and path sections built with this technique. That is why the GR 221 is also known as the Dry Wall Trail - Ruta de Pedra en Sec.

Dusty paths

Dry lungs

After Esporles, the path goes up to the ridge at an altitude of almost 600 meters. Dry are my lungs too, the sun is burning, the path is dusty. Soon the stage destination can be seen in the valley: Valldemossa, not for nothing the most visited village on the island. We have further to go the reach this place of beers, fine eating and a soft bed.

Someone has forgotten his car in the jungle

Apart from that, there is not much to tell, fortunately. The road is long and the day short. After looking around Banyalbufar, we walk uphill through holm oak forest towards Esporles. Nothing with sea view aymore while walking, the route leads inland. In the village there is a cafe, so we can stop and recharge our batteries before we start the last stage, where Malloca shows itself again from another side.

They call it Camina per Mallorca

The island, famous for its beaches and discotheques, disappears into dense, deep dark forest. Spooky cobwebs hang from the trees and the paths look as if no one has walked along them for hundreds of years.

Better not to do

Isn't it beauty?

The people here obviously know what better not to do: Namely, exactly what we are doing right now. Hiking to Valldemossa, in one day. This little mountain town is located about 420 m above sea level in a water-rich, fertile valley, has small cobbled streets and friendly, flower-adorned natural stone houses. Nice, but nothing where you will walk 24 kilometers by feet to normally.

A dry wall

According to tradition, the name of the town is derived from an Arab count named Musa, who once owned an estate here. It is certain that s already the kings of Mallorca appreciated the place because of the pleasant climate in summer.

We're a little bit closer to the next drink

However, the mountain village of Valldemossa became famous later because the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin spent the winter of 1838/39 there with the French writer George Sand. Chopin wrote large parts of his Préludes op. 28 here, including the famous "Raindrop Prélude". Sand later wrote a memoir about that winter with Chopin, "A Winter in Mallorca," in which she describes the landscape in detail.

Do you remember Don Quichote? This is his horse Rocinante

Big names attract

Big names that draw mightily: Today, more than a million tourists visit the village each year, not least to tour the premises where Chopin and Sand lived. The former monastery has been specially converted for visitors. The actor Michael Douglas loved the area here so much that he gave it the Costa Nord Cultural Center, a building that provides information about the nature of the Serra de Tramuntana, the mountain range in northwest Mallorca.