Exploring the Son Cifre canyon

A very unexpected outdoor close to home

Besides its many options for hiking, climbing, cycling and caving Mallorca also offers quite a few interesting canyons that have been carved into the landscape by heavy rains over the aons. The Torrent de Pareis is very well known but there are dozens of other ones.

Naturally most of these canyons are situated in the Tramuntana mountains and I was a bit surprised when I discovered the Barranc de Son Cifre close to where we live and in an area of the island that is mostly flat. The name (Barranc meaning canyon in Spanish) and the sharp drop on both sides on the topographic map looked promising. I knew the bridge that crosses it and that allows easy access from many many bike rides, however I never noticed anything special about it.

After spending some time trying to find more information we decided to just go there and take a look the same day. A short drive later we parked the car right by the road (about half way from Manacor to Colonia Sant Pere; note that there is very little space here!) and made our way down into the Barranc. Quickly it became clear that this place is unexpectedly special with lush vegetation even in the summer heat and bizarre rock formations to both sides.

We ventured about 3,5 kilometers down the canyon that does not pose any major difficulty if you follow the waters way over the rocks on the bottom. During our little exploration we discovered a few interesting caves, tons of potential for bouldering and even a few freshly bolted rock climbing routes (that I have not found on any of the typical websites - I guess somebody wants their sector for themselves :-)). Finally we turned around at a huge overhang with a waterfall dropping down from it - truly a very unique sight on such a dry island in the summer!

In summary a quite unique and unexpected little adventure close to home that has opened up the possibilities to come back with climbing shoes and maybe a rope in the pack.

Adventurers: Brigitte and Bengt