Following our triumphant carnival parade dressed as tortoises last week, it made complete sense to us to continue the natural forest dwelling theme and go for a walk in the woods on Sunday. In my experience taking small children on walks is only fun if they are motivated to go for it on their own two feet: they get extremely heavy when they demand to be carried. So it worked out fairly well that we decided to go to La Reserva which is close to Puigpunyent. There’s not just trees you see, there are other things to enjoy as well, which means the kids (La Gidg and her friend) forgot to remember to get tired. Result.
Going for a walk at La Reserva was a breeze: it’s a circular walk and somehow there is very little up, and a lot of down, which doesn’t really make any sense, but I’m not going to complain. We ambled along happily, stopping now and again to look at the amazing waterfalls, crossing bridges and jumping up and down on them (as you do). The sun was shining, it wasn’t too hot or too cold, perfect weather. We found peacocks, ducks, geese, sheep with crazy horns, and of all things, ostriches and emus! Feeding the birds is allowed, and they sell seed for exactly that purpose. But guess who pulled the short straw and got to feed the emus? Yep, me. It’s making me laugh nervously now as I write this, but I still have all of my fingers.
In the middle of the walk is a kids’ playground, more animals (including a couple of very sweet, but noisy, donkeys) and an area to barbecue your lunch. The clever ones amongst us know about these things and put the heavy bag containing food and drink into the pick-up truck at the front gate and it is kindly driven down for you to collect. Well, we’ll know for next time (ahem).
On our way home we saw the new 110km/h speed limit markings being put up, to be ready to implicate the new law the next day. I wonder if lowering our speeds will help the environment in Mallorca, apart from make the island feel a little bit bigger as it will take longer to get to where we’re going. It’s easy to ignore or take the breathtaking environment of Mallorca for granted, especially when we’re all working hard at keeping our heads above heavy financial waters. But walking in nature, with fabulous views, fresh air and happy company is a fantastic stress buster. This Spring I am going to try to pay a little more attention to our beautiful island, and not so much of my time speeding past it.
http://www.facebook.com/vicki.mcleod
(first published in the Euro Weekly News on March 10th 2011)