Menorca ~ Islands Walks for Birds, Flowers & Prehistoric Taulas

Menorca ~ Island Walks for Birds, Flowers & Prehistoric Taulas

‘Poc a poc’, slowly, slowly, say Menorquins describing the way of life on the quietest of the Balearic islands. The wonderfully green landscape is a patchwork of dry stone-wall enclosed fields, open heaths, stands of umbrella pines, deep limestone gorges and deserted sandy coves, and the lack of development has led to UNESCO declaring the whole island a Biosphere Reserve. As a result, flowers (including many orchids and endemics) are everywhere in spring, migrant birds pass through in large numbers, and the resident birds include blue rock thrush, red kites, Egyptian vultures and Booted eagles.

We stay for a week in a delightful hotel, a Manor house dating back to the 14C, set in a private 100 hectare estate, with a swimming pool and an outstanding restaurant. Daily walks take us to a variety of coastal and inland habitats; we visit forts, cathedrals and museums in the architecturally pleasing towns of Ciutadella and Mahon; taste wines on a local estate and sample the famous Menorca gin; and encounter the island's remarkable heritage of prehistoric stone monuments, ‘taulas’ and ‘talayots’.

TRIP ITINERARY

DAY 1

D included

After meeting at Mahon airport in the afternoon we have a half hour transfer by road to the south east coast. We walk a restored stretch of the Cami de Cavalls, an old mule trail which encircles the island, passing an 18C Spanish watchtower en route to our hotel. Following paths through the pines and Mediterranean garrigue on the estate, we see our first Sardinian warblers, hoopoes, wild gladioli and pyramidal orchids and listen to the nightingales singing. A glass of pomada (menorcan gin, ice and lemon juice) precedes a candle-lit dinner in the vaulted stables of the Manor.

DAY 2

B, L, D included

In nearby Maó (Mahon in Catalan) we walk past the Georgian mansions built by the British to visit the excellent Museum of Menorca, housed in a former monastery, and have time to see the fine Baroque church of St. Francesc. We have lunch in a fishing village by the sea and search for rare Audouin's gulls before an afternoon’s walk round the lake at S’Albufera es Grau, Menorca's main nature reserve. Paths through cistus, spiny broom, lentisc and juniper lead up to vantage points from where we watch for ospreys, marsh harriers, ducks and Booted eagles, and in the pinewoods we look for migrant warblers and golden orioles.

DAY 3

B, L, D included

We head northwest after breakfast and soon stop to see one of the island’s most famous prehistoric monuments, the Naveta des Tudons, a cyclopean burial mound like an upturned stone ship. We follow an old track between stone walls, looking out for larks and pipits in the fields on either side, then a sandy track through umbrella pines brings us to an area frequented by bee-eaters and tawny pipits and down to a lovely turquoise cove where we can swim. After a picnic we walk through some spectacular geological formations to view a series of disused saltpans in a private reserve. Black-winged stilts, Kentish and ringed plovers, little stints and sandpiper species are evident, and ospreys fish the open water areas.

DAY 4

B, L, D included

The water meadows and marshes of Tirant are our destination this morning, hoping for cattle egrets, purple gallinule, Great reed and Fan-tailed warblers, purple herons and red-rumped swallows. We walk through the sand dunes behind the beach at Cal Tirant, looking out for tortoises and Kentish plovers, before driving west through a beautiful stretch of unspoilt countryside to visit a small archaeological museum and see a British 18th century Martello tower on our way to the Cap de Cavalleria, the most northerly point of the island. En route back to our hotel we pause at the Xoriguer gin distillery - gin was introduced by the British navy in the 18C when Maó’s deepwater harbour was the key to the control of the Mediterranean.

DAY 5

B, L, D included

We investigate the ruins of a 5C Christian basilica before a morning’s walk by the sea. Sandwiched between the beach and dunes, the reedbeds of Son Bou on the south coast have breeding Moustached and Cetti’s warblers, purple and squacco herons, northern wheatears and whinchats - and Audouin’s gulls loafing on the beach. After lunch we explore one of the dry limestone gorges (barrancs) which run down to the sea, encountering many asphodels, gladioli and orchids, then walk round the extensive Talayotic settlement of Torre d’en Galmés. We visit a local winery for a tasting of Menorcan wines before dinner in an excellent restaurant in a nearby village.

DAY 6

B, L, D included

We drive to the furthest west of the island, first seeing the atmospheric prehistoric site of Torre Lafauda, then visiting the delightful town of Ciutadella, the island capital under the Romans, the Moors and the Catalans. We see the 17C Castell de Sant Nicolau which guards the harbour entrance, visit the 14C Cathedral, then walk through the fish and vegetable market on our way to lunch on the harbour. We visit a fascinating series of gardens - mediaeval, botanical, indigenous plants and an old orchard - within a former sandstone quarry before proceeding to the headland at Punta Nati to seek blue rock thrush, thekla lark and stone curlews and watch for Cory’s and Balearic shearwaters offshore.

DAY 7

B, L, D included

This morning we walk into the wooded Gorge d’Algendar, looking for Booted eagles, Egyptian vultures and red kites soaring on thermals above the imposing limestone cliffs, and hearing nightingales singing in the thickets along the stream. After a picnic we follow a coastal path westwards to the pretty cove at Cala Macarella, looking for orchids (mirror, pyramidal and tongue), rock-roses and spurges. The typical Mediterranean scrub (myrtle, tree heath and arbutus) is favoured by woodchat shrikes, Dartford warblers and hoopoes, and Alpine and Pallid swifts nest on the cliffs.

DAY 8

B, L included

Our visit to Menorca concludes with a leisurely walk, surrounded by wildflowers, leading to a small fishing village on the coast. Following a light lunch we return to the island’s small airport for afternoon flights home.

Price includes:

All accommodation for Days 1 through 8 on a double shared basis

All meals with wine at lunches and dinners, other than those excepted in the daily notation

All land transportation in a private vehicle as described except during free periods

All entrance and sightseeing fees except during free periods

Wine tasting as described

Gratuities for hotel and restaurant staff

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