Through the hills and by the sea on knobby tires
Even though I have been riding bikes on Mallorca for some years there is still new stuff to explore - even close to home. So Martin and I packed light and rode off on mountain bikes for an overnighter along the East coast.
A two day mountain bike packing trip exploring the trails of the Mallorquin East Coast
After talking about doing a longer ride together for some time Martin (who keen readers might remember from other articles on this website) and I met on a weekend with solid 20 degree C and dry weather in mid November and set out on our bikes.
As I already discovered during several other MTB trips on the island riding the rocky and unforgiving Mallorca trails can be hard work and our 150km / 2000 meter elevation route promised to be a solid challenge - especially with a lot of unknown stretches in it - just how we like it!
The route for day one first followed the very well established Via Verde to Manacor before heading south through more technical terrain and quite a bit of elevation hugging the coastal hills. After that quite strenuous section things mellowed out again before an easy finish down to Colonia Sant Jordi where we were welcomed by friends for the night.
On day two we mostly went along the coast and made our way over beaches and rocky trails back north. Making good pace in perfect warm and windless conditions there was even time for a leisurely cafe stop in one of the coastal towns. However the real challenge of this day came during that last third back home: A longish, rocky and steep climb from into the hills and a similarly rough descent on the other side - if you do not count the giant hellhound of a dog that pinned us down for a few minutes!
We arrived back where we started fairly exhausted but with a sense of a cool trip done and discovering even more cool corners of this island that keeps on giving.
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Adventurers: Martin and Bengt
PS: Thanks to Franziska and Sebastian for hosting us at their place for the night!