Mallorca 2014 - Day 8 - The long haul home

The next day dawned bright and sunny just like our temperaments after the night before. Eventually getting all our stuff packed into the cars, we set off for our last adventure of the week, a showcave called “The Caves of Drach”. Unfortunately, we arrived to find that we had missed the last tour of the morning, and that if we waited for the afternoon tours we would miss our plane, so perhaps it was karma that the only cave of the week that we couldn’t get into was the show cave!!
A fabulous week, amazing caves, lots of fun with friends and gazillions of photos to remember it by.

Back seat driver - photo by Mark

Caving by shark - photo by Mark

Early morning in Puerto Pollenca - Photo by Brendan

Early morning in Puerto Pollenca - Photo by Brendan

End of a long week - Photo by Mark

End of a long week - Photo by Mark

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney, Phil Lester and Brendan Marris
Report: Jess Burkey

Mallorca 2014 - Day 7 - Avenc De S'Embut - Magaluf

Friday was to be party night, so we headed off down country to Palma, golden sandy beaches on the south if the island, leaving Phil in bed to wrestle with the green snot monster. An hours drive brought us to Genova a little town on the outskirts of Palma that overlooked the beautiful harbour. Following the instructions in our trusty guidebook we hit a blank as the road to the mountain was now pedestrianised and covered in steps. A circuit of the town following the narrow twisting roads and hairpin bends eventually led us to the road and we started our ascent up the switchbacks on the side of the steep hill. We parked up below a tall monument where the party spilt into two. Those going for the day on the beach in Palma and those going off to cave. The four cavers kitted up, Mark, Chloe, Loz and Brendan headed up the hill towards the cave.

The gentle walk up the hill towards the cave - Photo by Brendan

The walk was one of the easier of the week, mostly along a rough track and with only 140m of ascent over the 2km walk in. Near the summit of the mountain, we took a 100m detour off the path to arrive at the entrance shakehole. Mark started rigging with the 80m rope, dropped down the entrance hole rigging the first free hanging pitch in a cave of the week, this dropped after 17m to the steeply sloping floor of the entrance chamber.

The head of the first pitch lies at the bottom of this shakehole - Photo by Brendan

Mark continued rigging the now typical Mallorcan sloping descent as Chloe now descended the entrance pitch. After a couple of minutes the standard “Rope Free” call came up from Chloe followed by the not so standard “Mind the SNAKE as you come down!!” This unsettled Loz a little who first requested an identification of the type of snake to which Chloe replied “You think I’am going to touch it? “ then a second request “well can you kill it then?” Chloe declined. Loz and Brendan both descended, the snake not to be seen again. The route down from the chamber was 60m of very loose spiralling descent which needed lots of space between each caver as any rocks dislodged bounced all the way to the bottom, and there were thousands to dislodge. We all met up at the bottom with Mark already taking photos. After a brief explore we made our way back up the cave taking photos including the 13m tall column that stood in the centre of the main chamber. The roof was spectacularly decorated, but the floor descended so steeply that it made it quite difficult to get good shots of the chamber. When the photo taking was completed we made our way to the surface looking out for the snake as we went.

Formations in the steeply sloping chamber at the bottom of the cave - Photo by Mark

The magnificent 13m tall column in the middle of the chamber - Photo by Mark

The magnificent 13m tall column in the middle of the chamber - Photo by Mark

Formations in the steeply sloping chamber at the bottom of the cave - Photo by Mark

Formations in the steeply sloping chamber at the bottom of the cave - Photo by Brendan

Formations in the steeply sloping chamber at the bottom of the cave - Photo by Brendan

Once back down the mountain to the carpark we then showered with bottled water, put on our glad rags and made ourselves ready for the big night out in Magaluf.

A free Parrot with every jug of Sangria - Photo by Mark

Caver's squeeze challenges in Magaluf bars! - Photo by Mark

Our last full caving day on Mallorca and I decided the best cave to visit would be the one with sand, sea and sun. Mark, Brendan, Chloe and Loz set off for a cave called S’Embut while Wal, Helen and I found the nearest beach and settled down for a hard day of sunbathing and swimming. Poor Phil stayed back at the villa as he had picked up a nasty bug, probably from the seawater the day before. In fact there was also a nasty strain of man-flu making its way through the group – Loz, Chloe and Mark had already succumbed and Helen was now feeling the effects too.
We all met up once the caving group resurfaced, with tales of snakes in the cave and an impossible floor (!) and after a quick wash and brush up we all descended on Magaluf, where I had promised the girls that A GOOD TIME WAS TO BE HAD. As we wandered round, Chloe pointed out that everyone we passed was at least octogenarian, and if that was my idea of a GOOD TIME then she wasn’t impressed. We picked a restaurant and whilst arguing with the waiter over the jug of Sangria he brought (half full of ice!) I enquired as to where the GOOD TIME was likely to be happening. It turned out that we were about half a mile away from the part of Magaluf I remembered (just) from girlie holidays in the past.
The rest of the evening passed in a bit of a blur as we only managed to get to three bars. They are generous to a fault with drinks in Magaluf! Proving that we are true cavers, we climbed and wriggled our way through every bit of the furniture and fittings in each bar that we could, finding this far more hilarious than the bartenders did… The rest of the night is best left to the imagination and thanks go to Brendan and Steve for staying sober and getting us back to the villa eventually.

Present Caving: Mark Burkey, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney and Brendan Marris
Present Magaluf: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney and Brendan Marris
Reports: Caving: Brendan | Magaluf: Jess Burkey

Mallorca 2014 - Day 6 - Cova Des Coloms

After the excitement and tears of the day before, we had quite some trepidation about today’s cave as we were to attempt something rather different. Cova Des Coloms is a sea cave which can only be accessed by 35m abseil from above or a 200m swim from the nearest beach. To make it even more challenging, to get into the cave itself there is a short tunnel to go through which sumps with each wave! We discussed at length whether to even attempt it, and finally decided to go for it, but to give ourselves every opportunity of success. With this in mind we stopped at a shop and bought a shark, a pink aeroplane and 2 baby seats – all inflatable of course!

The team assembled ready for the cave - Photo by a random tourist

A wonderful natural rock arch on the walk - Photo by Mark

Parking up in the designated spot we kitted up in bikinis and wet suits (the boys looked great) and carrying our kit bags and inflatables we set off to find the coast path. Trekking across a small beach we found we were well overdressed as it was obviously the local nudist beach, but undeterred we made our way around the coast and eventually found the spits above the cave mouth.

The abseil from the cliff into the cave mouth - Photo by Mark

Phil and Helen had decided to swim in from the nearest beach so they set off while Mark rigged the rope for the abseil in, with Chloe wanting to be first into the sea. We had decided to minimise kit, as we would be swimming back to the beach afterwards, so only had harnesses and a krab each apart from Brendan who wanted to prussic back out. It was quite daunting abseiling 35m on an Italian Hitch! Apart from the obvious DON’T LET GO OF THE ROPE! we found that from half way down we were spinning round madly to the point I felt quite sick, and it was a relief to get into the water.
As Loz was descending there was a shout from the water of SHARK! SHARK! as round the corner swam Helen with her inflatable, accompanied by Phil.

Shark attack!! - Photo by Mark

Soon we were all at the mouth of the cave, looking with trepidation at the short sump. However, for anyone who has been in Stoke Lane Slocker (Mendips) in high water, this sump was a piece of cake and we were soon all through and ditching our harnesses inside the cave.
Considering how close we came to not attempting this cave, we were all absolutely blown away by what we found inside. Not a huge cave, but with several crystal clear lakes to swim through to access each chamber, and the amazing formations we had now come to expect. Helen and I snorkelled around exploring the Atlantis-type underwater world while Loz performed aquabatics (see what I did there?) for the cameras.

Cova Des Coloms - Photo by Mark

Cova Des Coloms - Photo by Mark

Cova Des Coloms - Photo by Mark

Finally it was time to go, and most of us started the long swim back to the beach while Brendan prussicked back up. Five minutes later, a boat pulled up at the mouth of the cave with a party of paying tourists in it – apparently it costs £50 to do it that way! Looks like we got out just in time.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney, Phil Lester and Brendan Marris
Report: Jess Burkey

Mallorca 2014 - Day 5 - Cova De Cornavaques

Today’s cave was going to be quite a tough one – over an hour’s steep ascent with a fair bit of kit to carry, and a decent amount of caving to be done once we got there. It was also described as ‘a small entrance hidden by bushes, extremely difficult to find’.
On a daily basis I had been translating the Mallorcan Caves book from Spanish into English so that we could follow the directions to each cave and the descriptions once inside. This particular set of directions was particularly hard to translate with lots of words I’d never seen before, so I had to guess the meanings – hopefully I’d get it right?
Step 1 - We found the suggested place to leave the cars, but were immediately confronted by the local farmer who was pissed off with cavers leaving their cars there. He agreed to let us stay there if we promised to pass on the message to others to park elsewhere.
Step 2 – a house had been built across the path we needed to follow! We decided to skirt around the fencing to see if we could pick up the path. My translation read “look for the dry water channel” and indeed, there was a gully running behind the house that obviously would run with water in the rainy season.
Step 3 – my translation read “go up the (gully) until you pass two “…”, go under them.” This also made sense when we came across two kind of strainer gates across the gully, which were hinged so we could climb underneath.
At the end of the gully we came to the mountain proper, and set off to struggle uphill. All went well for the next half hour as we followed the book’s directions, which coincided with the GPS signal. As we made our way higher, however, we girls kept following the directions in the book (according to my dodgy translation), whereas Mark and Brendan set off over the top of the hill with their GPS and Wal decided to follow his nose.

About halfway up the ascent of to Cornavaques - Photo by Mark

About halfway up the ascent of to Cornavaques - Photo by Mark

Looking back down from near the entrance to Cova De Cornavaques - Photo by Brendan

Our group ended up going too low into the gully and needed to climb back up to pass a vertical wall. Setting off up a climb which was easy going at the bottom, I found that the holds got sparser and the wall got more vertical as I got higher, turning into something that I would hesitate to do on a rope, let alone soloing with a big kitbag! Hoping that Chloe was following OK, but unable to stop, I finally reached a ledge where I could rest. I looked down to find that Chloe was nowhere in sight.
For the next 45 minutes I was completely alone in the mountains. Calling the girls and panicking that someone may have got hurt I climbed up and down and around until rounding a corner I came upon some cairns which I figured must be on the route. Even better, the girls finally answered my shouts, but from what seemed miles away in the bottom of the valley. Telling them to keep coming upwards, I set off to find the guys, and success! I could see Wal on the edge of the next cliff. Unfortunately the girls were now out of earshot again, so Wal called Mark to come and help, and eventually we were all reunited, if rather shell shocked from our near-death experiences. Mark told us that even with the GPS coordinates he had spent at least half an hour locating the cave mouth as it was so well hidden.

The Main Chamber - Cova De Cornavaques - Photo by Mark

The Main Chamber - Cova De Cornavaques - Photo by Brendan

The Main Chamber - Cova De Cornavaques - Photo by Brendan

The Main Chamber - Cova De Cornavaques - Photo by Mark

The Main Chamber - Cova De Cornavaques - Photo by Brendan

I had been really looking forward to this cave, Cova de Cornavaques, and I wasn’t disappointed. Really unusual formations and shapes and colours in the walls and the roof, and incredibly long thin roots which were hanging into the cave and had calcified made this cave one of the best yet!
After a fabulous time in the cave it was time to set off back to the cars. Helen obviously hadn’t had enough excitement on the way up and slid over an edge – we just saw her backpack disappearing! Luckily she wasn’t hurt and we made our way safely back down just as the light went completely. A bit of an epic day, but surely no caving week would be complete without one?

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney, Phil Lester and Brendan Marris
Report: Jess Burkey

Mallorca 2014 - Day 4 - Sa Cova Tancada - Cova De Cal Pesso

Full of enthusiasm we were up and out next day with plans to find not just one, but two caves in the day. We had picked two that were fairly near and needed almost no tackle – an easy day then!
Setting off to find the first one, which was right on the coast, I was driving the first car with Mark guiding us from his Maverick app on his phone. Using the app he managed to avoid all the busy main roads, taking us instead along ever-more-narrow-and twisty back streets between farms. Unsurprisingly, we also managed to lose the other car at some point, but Mark wasn’t too worried; “Brendan has the map so he shouldn’t have any problem finding it” he said.
The road soon turned into a track full of potholes, and we bounced along until we found the parking place noted in the book. There we waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually we tried phoning the other group, which was more difficult than it should have been as half our phones wouldn’t work in Mallorca. I spoke to Brendan, who told us that they thought they were close, as they were following the coast road towards us. Mark then checked his app and found that the coast road was a dead end! The phone rang and Brendan’s little voice said “Could you come and find us? We’re lost…”
Back down the pot-hole track we went and managed to find them. Back over the pot-holes again – thank goodness for hire cars! Finally we were all ready to find the cave. “I thought you had a map?” I asked Brendan. “I did” he said “Mark borrowed it!”

Parked ready for the walk to the cave - Photo by Mark

Climbing down the cliff to the cave - Photo by Mark

A pleasant path through a forest soon turned into a steep cliff path which led to an obvious entrance by the sea – the cave of Sa Tancada. Inside the cave, we were in for a surprise. Not only was the cave stunningly beautiful – as we were starting to expect in Mallorca – but had undergone some modifications in the past, in the form of steps everywhere.
The cave was a 3-D maze, so we all spread out to explore. At one point we were joined by a French couple who were hiking in the area. Looking at us all in our blue boiler suits, and Brendan and Mark with their cameras, they seemed to be under the impression we were undertaking some sort of work in the cave.

Sa Cova Tancada - Photo by Mark

Sa Cova Tancada - Photo by Mark

Sa Cova Tancada - Photo by Brendan

Sa Cova Tancada - Photo by Brendan

After a good explore we made our way back to the cars and set off to find our second cave of the day, Cal Pesso. Mark, Brendan and Helen had found the cave entrance the day we arrived, so it was decided that Loz, Chloe and I should try to find it. After a couple of false starts (the hillside is covered with small caves) Chloe found the right entrance and we went in to see what it was like.

The group at the cave entrance - Photo by Mark

Cova De Cal Pesso - Photo by Brendan

Cova De Cal Pesso - Photo by Mark

It was a lovely little cave! More like the ones we’re used to in the UK, with lots of squirrelling around and route-finding, but still full of beautiful formations – definitely my favourite cave so far. Finally as the sun started to set we made our way back to the villa.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney, Phil Lester and Brendan Marris
Report: Jess Burkey

Mallorca 2014 - Day 3 - Cova De Na Mitjana

Our chosen cave for the day was ‘Cova de Na Mitjana’ and we all set off in high spirits and with a lot less kit to carry than the day before. It was quite a long drive, and on arrival at the gates of a country park it was quite comical to see the occupants of both cars dash off in all directions to find suitable bushes!

Searching for the route down to the cave - Photo by Brendan

The group at the cave entrance - Photo by Brendan

The group at the cave entrance - Photo by Mark

We followed the book directions to the top of the hill and set off towards the coast, Mark disappearing with the GPS app on his phone in one direction, Wal following his nose in another and the rest of us trying to follow cairns and make sense of what the book said. Arriving at a little inlet, we could see so many possible cave entrances in the craggy cliffs surrounding us that it would have taken us ages to find the right one, but it turned out that the GPS coordinates that Brendan had given Mark from Google Earth turned out to be spot on, Mark had gone straight to the cave, and he guided us along the coast to the cave mouth. It turned out that all the directions given in the book were really good, but only once you’d found the cave and could work out what the directions were trying to say. GPS a definite winner this week.
There was only a short pitch to gain access to the cave, and again we were blown away by it. Although only one chamber really, it was packed with every formation possible, and a few that looked impossible as well. A beautiful blue pool of seawater completed the look.
The photographers in the group were wetting themselves with glee and started setting up myriads of flashguns, but after a couple of hours of wandering round and gazing, there was little else to do, so a group of us made our way back out and spent a pleasant few hours paddling and swimming at the nearest beach while we waited.

The magnificent chamber - Photo by Mark

The magnificent chamber - Photo by Mark

The magnificent chamber - Photo by Mark

The magnificent chamber - Photo by Brendan

The magnificent chamber - Photo by Brendan

All out by about 8.30pm, we raided the local supermarket and got back to the villa.
As we planned the next day’s activities, various opinions were aired (with emphasis) about what we each wanted out of the week, as the logistics of moving as a group of 8 with differing aims and abilities hit home. Various compromises were sorted and the next day’s trip was decided.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney, Phil Lester and Brendan Marris
Report: Jess Burkey

Mallorca 2014 - Day 2 - Cova De Sa Campana

Having chosen to start with the cave that Brendan had been to before, ‘Sa Campana’, we were all up bright and early and still milling around aimlessly in various states of undress well past 8am. Wal of course had been up since 5 but was no more ready than the rest of us. Finally we managed to get into the cars by 9 and got out of the drive, at which point Brendan stopped, got out of his car and came to ask us
“Have you got Helen?”
“No, she was in your car”
“Well she’s not now”
“She’s only small, she hasn’t slipped between the seats or something?”
“No I checked. I think we’ve locked her in the villa then!”
Helen rescued, we set off for the drive that was billed as ‘interesting switchbacks on a narrow mountain road’. Oh yes. You wouldn’t want to stall, and lose your power steering and brakes, that’s for sure! The other car soon showed up too and Brendan’s fingers were prised out of the dashboard while the colour slowly returned to his face.

The team at the car park ready for the slog up to the cave - Photo by Brendan

We found the parking spot, amongst signs that warned us DO NOT HUNT THE MUSHROOMS! (Maybe truffles??)
Brendan set off among the undergrowth like a trained hound and for the next hour or so we followed a combination of book directions and GPS (but mostly Brendan’s memory) over rocks, up climbs, through spiky bushes and over the top of the mountains with our shedloads of heavy kit.

Mark looking out over the Torrent De Paries - Photo by Brendan

The team at the entrance to the cave kitting up - Photo by Brendan

It was knocking on 1pm when we got to the cave entrance, and there’s no way you would have spotted it even from 6 feet away if you didn’t know where it was. A full trip report will be posted separately, but suffice to say the cave was HUUUUUUUUUUGE!!!!!!! We wandered round absolutely amazed at not only the size but the beauty of the caverns – on one wall alone was a display of ‘antlers’ that makes the ones in Daren look like pocket-sized toys.
By the time we got out of the cave the sun was beginning to set, and the last part of the walk back to the car was in darkness – good job we had headtorches! The drive home through the switchbacks was even more fun in the dark, and I’m proud to say my passengers only screamed once! Mind you, they had their eyes shut after that…

Jess in the magnificently decorated Sala Des Fangs - Photo by Mark

Chloe in the magnificently decorated Sala Des Fangs - Photo by Mark

Helen in the magnificently decorated Sala Des Fangs - Photo by Mark

A late meal in town found us returning back to the villa about midnight. Plans for the next day were then hastily changed as we decided an easier day than originally planned might be in order as we were all fookin knackered.

Present: Mark Burkey, Jess Burkey, Steve Wal Wallis, Helen Nightingale, Loz Appleby, Chloe Burney, Phil Lester and Brendan Marris
Report: Jess Burkey