Bay Watch Bears

By now we were mid way through our holiday, and we were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided we wanted to put something back into Menorca, by way of a thank you.

We therefore volunteered for a spot of lifeguard duty at our pool.


Happily our spell on duty coincided with a rise in air temperatures and the disappearance of the clouds. It was therefore a pleasure to be lounging round the pool ... attentively of course.

We felt duty bound to check out the large reptile which had sidled up to the end of the pool, as we weren't sure whether he was friend or foe.


As you can see by our relaxed pose on his shoulder, he turned out to be friend, and he told us had just popped over for a drink, as this was the clearest water on the island.

With water that clear, we couldn't resist jumping in ourselves for a refreshing swim.

It was simply heavenly.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Ciutadella Suits

Even though Menorca is only a small island, it was still a reasonable drive from Cala Morell back to our apartment. We had a look at our map to see where we would be passing close to on our way home, and decided to stop off at Menorca's second city, and former capital, Ciutadella.

We were glad we did as, even though we are much more country than town bears, we found Ciutadella a charming city, with lots to please.


In our first picture you see us relaxing in the late afternoon sun in the main square. There was a definite mediterranean feel and the town is steeped in history.

Away from the main square was a maze of narrow streets, which made exploring great fun. There was no traffic and lots of cafe culture, so you probably won't be surprised to hear we stopped off for a beer and tapas. Thanks to our Spanish lessons we were able to avoid the dish containing fried lung and other offally bits!

We returned back to the other end of the main square, which looked like this ...


Our walk back to the bearmobile took us via the harbour, which was a very narrow inlet that hardly looked big enough for the huge ferry that had just docked.

We didn't get to visit the main city, Mahon, so we've nothing to compare Ciutadella with, but we can't imagine it would be much better. Ciutadella is definitely worth a visit so put it on your itinery, if you are lucky enough to visit Menorca.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Sophisticated Living Quarters

Well it seems that we bears have more imagination than our readers, as we haven't had any suggestions for our animal shape. We don't mind telling you though that we thought the natural sculpture looked very elephant-like, and it pleased us no end, as we do like elephants.

This lovely walk had saved a special surprise for us til last. Our route back to the hire bearmobile, took us past the famous Cala Morell cave dwellings, which later became a Necropolis after everyone had moved out. Here we are sitting on the entrance sign ...


... we were fairly relaxed about going in, as we knew that any old bones we found were more likely to be human ones than bear ones.

There was lots to see, as there were no less than 14 caves excavated from the cliff face. Considering that they are prehistoric and were in use more than 1,000 years B.C., they are more sophisticated than you might expect. They have a central pillar to support the roof, and windows, doorways, chimneys and sleeping benches. Our next picture demonstrates the substantial central pillar - it looked as if it would be good for a few more thousand years yet.


We were really intrigued by the sophisticated system for catching rain water. A long groove was carved into the cliff face to channel the water down into a collection trough. You can see this ancient engineering very clearly in our next picture ...


The water in the trough looked as if it was more recent than 3,000 years old, but we still thought a beer would be preferable to quench our thirst.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Cherry or Mushroom Beach?

As we picked ourselves up from our very comfortable flower bed and rounded the corner, we were rewarded with a lovely view of the beach at Cala Morell which was precisely where we were heading ...


... don't you just wish you were there - we do?

A set of steps took us down to the path close to the water's edge, and before we knew it we were on the beach and running into the sea to test the water. It was beautifully clear and very refreshing.

Once we'd cooled down we had a good look around. We loved this characterful and unobtrusive storage shed ...


... but sadly it was padlocked so we couldn't have a peak inside. It might have smelt a bit fishy, so perhaps this was no bad thing.

As we looked out to the rocky headland we saw an interesting rock formation that reminded us of one of our favourite (bears aside) animals. Here's what we were looking at ...


Does it say anything to you?

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Cami Pioneers

Our walk book wanted to limit us to just a peek at the sea. We were supposed to take a few steps along the coast and then head back inland. We weren't too impressed with that, as we are beach loving bears and like to keep the sea in our sights.

However, we spotted a bit of cleared path continuing along the coast and so we decided to explore. We quickly realised that we were on one of the new parts of the Cami de Cavalls, which we introduced a few posts ago.


It looked as if it had been very recently cleared and we were thrilled to be some of the first bears to set paw along this path. We realised that the creators of this stretch were very bear friendly, as they had left miniature palms which were perfect for providing small bears with shade and a place to rest - they were no good for our minders though.

We enjoyed the Cami while it lasted, but sadly it stopped short of our return point of Cala Morell. We were able to return to the walk detailed in our guide though, by spotting the large gravel pit mentioned in the instructions, and making for it.

Moments after rejoining the official walk, we were heading for a headland with high cliffs and a development of luxury houses.


It was quite rocky underfoot, but we found these plants which appreciated the rocky growing conditions, and really brightened up the area with this fantastic splash of colour.

They made a nice soft bed too!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

On the Trail of Bee Eaters

One of our favourite Menorcan walks was the one we did in the north west corner of the island. We set off from the small coastal town of Cala Morell, which is famous for reasons other than walking, as you'll find out soon, but first things first and our account of the walk.

We had a bit of an unpromising start when it seemed as if the guide book instructions were for a completely different walk, to the one we were doing. However, once we what we were seeing on the ground and reading in the book came together, it all began to get rather lovely.


This was the track through the wood we found ourselves walking along and it was rather delightful. We were both keeping an eager eye out for the colourful bee eaters which are supposed to breed in this area. We thought that with their bright colours they would be hard to miss, but either we missed them or they were not at home.

In our next picture you see me (George) not only spotting the sea, but also looking out for the next form of wildlife that the walk writer reckoned can be seen in these woods ...


... I was looking out for wild tortoises. We'd have loved to have seen one, but again, we were disappointed.

At least the scenery didn't disappoint, nor the lovely coastal views when we got there. Here's what we found ...


Don't worry, it wasn't a sheer drop behind us.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Burro Talk

One thing we like about walking in the countryside, is that you have good opportunities to chat with the locals. This is especially important when, like us, you're studying Spanish at an evening class, and need lots of practice. We're learning Spanish in preparation for the big trip later this year, which we've hinted at previously, but not yet unveiled. Don't worry, all will be revealed ... but not just yet.


This fine burro that we came across was very talkative and spoke not a word of English. He was therefore a great candidate for Yorkie and myself to practice on. While Yorkie was still rifling in the rucksack for a dictionary, I got stuck in, with my 'ola senor burro, que tal?'.

We had mixed success. We could chat away happily to the burro and he would answer us back, but in truth we only caught about one word in three of what he said. We therefore had to make a lot of assumptions and as a result the conversation didn't exactly flow, and he must have thought us a bit mad. In the end we found that mime was equally productive, and ended up having a great game of charades.

We tried again later when we met this fine snake basking in the sun ...


... but it turned out that we knew more Spanish than he did. He had a few words of Menorcan (which was different from our Castillian Spanish) and apart from that he spoke parseltongue, which we knew all about from our Harry Potter readings, but sadly can't speak. We therefore didn't get as far as deciding whether he was poisonous or not, but we thought it most unlikely, as he seemed a pleasant chap.

There was still plenty of holiday ahead of us to keep practising our Spanish, so we weren't worried.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Table Talk

The next day we were well into our stride and set out on a much longer walk. We had to keep covering the ground to get round, so spent less time looking round and taking photos.

Our walk took in another great pre-historic village, this time that of Torre Trencada. It was even bigger than yesterday's, not only in terms of area, but also in terms of the size of the monuments. Have you ever seen a bigger picnic table than this one ...?


... or was it a fosillised giant mushroom?

Yorkie was shimmying up by the north east face to layout our high-rise picnic, while I took the picture. I was a bit surprised, therefore, when he came back down, complete with food parcel. I asked him what was wrong, and he told me his imagination had gone into overdrive while he was up on top the table, and he had had the awful thought that in pre-historic times this table (taula is the proper archaeological term) might have been used for sky burials.

I could see what Yorkie was getting at. With that rather gruesome possibility - however far-fetched - at the front of our minds, we simply had to go elsewhere to eat our picnic.

There was a delay while we recovered our appetites, and we used the time to read up about taulas in our guide book. It didn't really help to read that nobody knows what they were for, although the most popular suggestion is that they are idols, rather like totem poles. Secretly I thought Yorkie's idea of use for sky burials, was more plausible.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx