A walk uphill
Climbing Puig de Maria had always been an ambition. Maybe ‘ambition’ is a tad too purposeful; a vague intent, more like. This year was the year, however: it was finally time to walk up Pollença’s closest Puig, a Mallorquin word meaning hill or mountain. It’s pronounced like a cross between puch and pooch – a short, subtle vowel sound that takes practice; and make sure you put a ‘ch’ on the end. Mallorquin is more of a challenge than standard Spanish.
Which reminds me, to digress for a minute… I used to work with a lovely young Irish woman who was Joy by name and a joy by nature. One day I commented on the way she pronounced ‘pound’. She taught me how to say it like she did: we had some fun. I hope I still say it correctly, but I have to think carefully before opening my mouth, and concentrate on producing a vowel sound I couldn’t possibly describe.
The first couple of weeks in Pollença were unseasonally cool, but we waited until it got hot and sticky, and ‘Mallorca syndrome’ had taken hold. This is a phenomenon whereby, no matter how well you’ve been sleeping; reading a book in warm sunshine, hopefully, with an occasional dip in the pool; idling the mornings away over a coffee or two down town, you feel completely knackered.
You can’t move far from our house in Pollença without inadvertently exercising, however. There are steep hills or hundreds of steps to get into town and back. This is great if you don’t want to think much about keeping fit while on holiday; or you have time to climb slowly and steadily, frequently pausing to look back across mountains.
The town’s famous Calvari steps number 365 and are lined with sentinel cypresses. For the most part the steps have shallow risers (the vertical bits) yet deep treads (the horizontal surfaces), and may occasionally require two strides – unless you’re running! At the top is a small chapel (El Calvari) with the most wonderful view over town and port, bay and mountain: and almost certainly at least a couple of cats.
But back to our walk, 2.2 kilometres each way, mainly on an easily manageable track as far as some cobbled steps which are almost at the top, just at the point you need them least and want to be there already. The top of the ascent is 104 metres above sea level.
Setting out
The trees are mainly Mediterranean or Holm Oak, Aleppo Pine, Common Cypress and Olive. The vegetation looks lush but it supports surprisingly few animals. We glimpsed a couple of lizards but heard remarkably few birds, perhaps because raptors circled silently overhead. There was often a lovely smell of wild rosemary.
Pollença town
That style of gate again
The 14th-century monastery on the top was built in homage to the Virgin Mary who the town’s inhabitants hoped would protect them from the Black Death and other undesirables, hence a fortified tower. There’s a small cafe serving most-welcome coffee and cake. An unexpected bonus was dozing in the warm rays and responsive to human attention without much precautionary sniffing. How had he come to take up residence atop the Puig, I wondered.
Looking to Formentor…
