Access to Na Blanca

[JohnE]

On Steve's excellent hiking blog (accessed via the thread started here last autumn) he describes walking from Formentor to Na Blanca and Cala Murta. It is several years since we went up Na Blanca, and I thought access had been blocked off. Can anyone explain the current position, as we are going to Port Pollensa in a few days, and would like to do the walk again if it is accessible.
Many thanks
JohnE

 

[Brisbane]

Hi JohnE

I'm not sure if access is officially permitted or not. I do remember, while following the route in the Charles Davis book, that I thought that it appeared that you had to walk up a private road on the forward route from Formentor (just before the off-road climb starts). It's a pity I wasn't putting too much detail in the blog at the start of my hiking otherwise I would have taken pictures of this.

I have come across rights of way with locked gates and private signs which can be ignored/climbed over, although in this case there are certainly no gates to climb. Private signs generally mean no vehicles permitted or private hunting.

Steve.

 

[roig cat]

Hi Steve, talking of private signs we had an experience last week whilst on the Fartaritx walk. I REALLY wish I'd reviewed your blog again before starting the walk.

We had difficulty finding the "prominent cairn", and ended up walking to L'Asserell farm, or nearly to there through lots of scrub. I don't think we stayed close enough to the cliff. Anyway, we drifted to the left and found a track and all but 100 M from the farm. Then a local on a scrambling bike followed by at least 8 people (all looking a bit scary) in a Mitsubishi open back truck made the assumption that we had climbed over a fence and wouldn't allow us to continue. They were very unkind, jeered at us and then made us walk back up to Fartaritx Gran, on the track, opening a locked gate (Which we had not seen as we were in the scrub!) and made us walk back to Pollensa the way we had come ie the March valley! Honesty, we were only 100metres from the top of the Colonya valley. I was furious but we all felt vulnerable especially when the Mitsubishi would drive by us slowly, the passengers waving at us as the Queen does! When I said it's taken 3 hours to get here and the kids are tired the leader said "that's not my problem". Had we not felt so worried we would have gone back across the scrub and picked up the correct path but I felt they may block our access at the farm so we complied.
I showed them the walking book and apologised and tried to explain that we had drifted in error but they were having none of it.(I almost said I was diabetic and needed my Insulin but I'm sure that wouldn't have made any difference) I'm not by the way!!
Anyway we ended up with a walk much longer than anticipated, we had parked the car by Roser Vell church! I also felt a little sour about the locals and their private land. I'm sure they did it for fun and to impress their friends!
Had we been 5 mins later they wouldn't have seen us but lesson learned, keep to the path and don't go on private land!

PS you back in Australia now?

 

[Brisbane]

Oh no Lynne! Sounds like a terrible ordeal, what a bunch of b*st*rds to torment and humiliate you like that

Why couldn't they just have allowed you to return to the point where you went wrong? I was very annoyed to read your post, I can't imagine how you felt at the time...

Do you reckon you went through that gap in the wall arrowed on the blog? I tried a few ways to avoid going so close to L'Asserell farm because it appeared to be private but it looks like I did the right thing, and there was a stile very close to the farm which I always assume means a right of way - I assume you were to the left of the stile/gate shown in the blog. I didn't see anyone however.

Pity you had parked at the Roser Vell church too. At least you did the best part of the route. The return from L'Asserell farm is just along a straight road.

Yes, I'm back in Oz. Journey back to Brisbane was a nightmare; via Zurich, Bangkok, Singapore and Perth

I never managed the Torrent de Pareis due to rain prior to leaving - pity.

Steve.

 

[roig cat]

Hi Steve,

I've just re read your blog and looked at Google Earth and realised what a huge mistake we made! We were heading for the wrong farm oops!
If you look at your photo with caption "here we have returned 400M" and then the "step out" photo, you can see two farms. We went too far down and headed to the farm on the left. I did wonder how you had managed to stick to the cliff, but we were following the book and believe it or not the instructions fitted (kind of). If you look on Google Earth you can see the track we eventually made our way to on the left, we even crossed a wall with a gap in it! We were way off course, but very nearly back on the road that would have led L'Asserell.
If only the local had told us where we had gone wrong we could have walked the correct way once he had frog marched us back up to Fartaritx! Grrrr!

Anyway, thanks for your blog, hope you get back into work and have recovered from that exhausting journey? The problem with Oz is that it's too far from Mallorca, no easyJet flights for £26.99!
Take care. RC

 

[whaleywanderer]

I never managed the Torrent de Pareis due to rain prior to leaving - pity.

Steve.

A good reason to return someday!

I really enjoyed reading your blog and looking at the fantastic photos. You enabled me to see views that would have been impossible due to my poor mobility.

Thanks Steve, it helped while away the cold short days of winter.

 

[Brisbane]

Hi Steve,

I've just re read your blog and looked at Google Earth and realised what a huge mistake we made! We were heading for the wrong farm oops!
If you look at your photo with caption "here we have returned 400M" and then the "step out" photo, you can see two farms. We went too far down and headed to the farm on the left. I did wonder how you had managed to stick to the cliff, but we were following the book and believe it or not the instructions fitted (kind of). If you look on Google Earth you can see the track we eventually made our way to on the left, we even crossed a wall with a gap in it! We were way off course, but very nearly back on the road that would have led L'Asserell.
If only the local had told us where we had gone wrong we could have walked the correct way once he had frog marched us back up to Fartaritx! Grrrr!

Anyway, thanks for your blog, hope you get back into work and have recovered from that exhausting journey? The problem with Oz is that it's too far from Mallorca, no easyJet flights for £26.99!
Take care. RC

I pondered for ages as to which of the two farms the book was referring to! I guess I was lucky and decided the one on the right must have been L'Asserell, so I specifically put a note in the blog to say that this was the correct one of the two. Perhaps I should have put all these little anomalies down on paper and sent them to Charles Davis for his next edition, or more appropriately Paddy Dillon for his effort in "Walking in Mallorca"!!

 

[overthehill]

Na Blanca access

Did the Na Blanca walk from Formentor as Charles Davis for the 2nd time early Dec. Yes, at the end of the road from Formentor there is a chain across & says no access. However, it is only 50m over the chain to the turn off before the green gate, so we thought we'd do it. Would include photo if I could work out how to do it! No probs, access to path climbs up the bank on the left just follow cairns from there onwards. However bank can be quite slippery due to erosion so walking poles were a good help here.

Lovely walk but it was so windy at the top we only stayed for a minute for fear of being blown off.
Happy walking folks!!