Fife AC on Tour

In March 2002 three intrepid Fifers went to Majorca for a running and hill walking holiday. Both Adrian Davis and Laurie Anderson are veterans of many foreign adventure running holidays and I joined them as the least intrepid one for my first running adventure abroad.
As we flew over the island to Palma airport the view from the window of the plane gave us a good idea of what terrain we were to expect over the coming week. I was initially surprised when Adrian suggested Majorca as a spring training venue as I had a slightly biased idea of what holidays in the Balearics were about. It always seemed to be the sort of place the other half go on holiday for pubs clubs and beaches, but how wrong I was.
My first view of the north of the island was of small farm holdings with little irrigation systems powered by windmills, woodlands, large mountains and pinnacle ridges. Our villa was in the inland town of Pollenca located in the north of the island and it had a balcony and garden complete with orange trees and donkeys, as well as views of the hilltop monastery overlooking the town.
On the way to the villa we were joined by two German girls who were on holiday and who were looking for a place to stay. We had plenty of room in the villa as Lynn, Maggie and Russell (Carnethy Hill Runners) were not joining us for another four days so they stayed for two nights and turned out to be great company.
On Sunday morning we decided to have a look around the town before we did any training and as Sunday turned out to be market day we spent some time wandering around and stocking up on fresh fruit, veg and olives for the week.
Shopping done, we set off on the first training run of the holiday. The first four miles took us along the road to the tourist resort of Puerto Pollenca on the coast. By now the weather was glorious and as we ran along we enjoyed the lovely sea front pathways. Form Puerto Pollenca the road climbed and twisted steadily for about three miles until reaching a popular viewpoint on the cliff tops.
From here the road then descended to the beach at Formentor and we then climbed the hill behind the hotel at Formentor, Na Blanca, (336m) before finally stopping for a break and to pick wild herbs to cook with dinner that night. The descent from the hill took us along a wooded trail back to the beach and from here we retraced our steps back down the road to Puerto Pollenca. After this steep descent on the roads my legs were very sore and so Puerto Pollenca seemed like the ideal place to stop for an ice cream. Not typical mid run refuelling but I was on holiday after all! We reached the villa by late afternoon having covered about 25 miles.
Dinner that night was an adventure in itself. Having had Laurie's amazing disintegrating pasta the night before we were looking forward to eating the fish that we had bought at the market in the morning. This fish, however, was salted rather than frozen to preserve it because of the hot climate. None of us had any idea how to cook it properly and so we had a very salty tasting meal that night, even the freshly picked herbs couldn't improve the taste. Still I suppose it replaced the salt we had lost during the run!
The next day we awoke to grey skies and rain. After the previous days exertions we decided that a short walk to the monastery was a good idea to let our legs recover. It also gave Adrian and Laurie an opportunity to terrify the locals with their Benny Hill impressions. The monastery of Santa Maria des Puig overlooks the town of Pollenca from its hill top location. It is possible to book a room here for the night to stay in its fairly spartan accommodation. Its peaceful atmosphere and beautiful old buildings certainly made this a tempting thought and the two German girls booked themselves in for the following night, probably having had enough of our dodgy cooking and Adrian's "see you Jimmy" hats. As a goodbye meal that night Adrian treated them to the culinary delight of baked banana and chocolate melt.
The next day was to be another reasonably long day out and fortunately with better weather. The maps we had of the area were not too accurate and so the first part of the walk was spent hacking our way through thick undergrowth and being scratched by spiky plants. Eventually we climbed up on to a long ridge that we followed for a while and during our lunch stop on this ridge we were treated to the sight of three eagles soaring on the wind currents above us.
At the end of the ridge we walked through some farmland and then scrambled up the hill to the west, Cuculla de Fartarix (yes, really!) at 710m. From here we had magnificent views of the island back to Pollenca, Puerto Pollenca, Formentor and to the higher mountains further in land.
Our route back to Pollenca took us through more farmland taking care to avoid the bulls. These were real Spanish "torros" complete with big horns. After following more tracks and paths through olive groves and little farm buildings we were back in Pollenca by late afternoon.
Having had enough of creative cookery we decided to eat out in Puerto Pollenca that night!
Myself and Laurie's last full day in Majorca was spent walking firstly northwards to the little resort of Cala de San Vincente on the north coast of the island. From there we followed a trail down to Puerto Pollenca over the Siller Pass through an area of the island that is known for its black vulture population. Although we saw a lot of bird life that Adrian was able to identify we were not lucky enough to see a black vulture. From Puerto Pollenca we got a bus back to Pollenca to wait for the arrival of Lynn, Maggie and Russell.
Both Lynn and Maggie had come to Majorca for cycling training as it is a very popular place for cyclists doing their spring training. Russell was in the middle of training for the Marathon des Sables, a 144 mile stage race through the Sahara desert and so he was looking for some warm weather training. Before dinner that night we all went for a run along some of the farm tracks that Laurie, Adrian and I had jogged along two days previously to give the new arrivals an introduction to the island. Dinner that night was traditional paella and wine in a local restaurant although Lynn did suggest a "taxi to Magalauf" for the nightlife!
Laurie and I spent the next day in Palma wandering around the cathedral and the city and watching a classic car rally before we caught our flight home. Adrian was lucky enough to be staying on for another weeks training with Lynn, Maggie and Russell on this superb island.

Louise Provan