Mallorca 2026 - Day 2

The summation of the day is that we have formulated the plan for Wednesday and tried a lot of different sausage! 

The new aircon was so good, it was gone 9am before we had all woken up so our aim to get out before it got too hot was out the window before it started! After some breakfast and more studying of the excellent Open Street Map app that has Ordinance Survey level maps showing all the local footpaths, we decided that we would drive into the village, grab some food for lunch and start our search for somewhere to watch the eclipse from the Sa Bassa picnic site, just off the Ma-10 road that runs up and through the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range.

On Wednesday the Ma-10 is going to be closed so we will have to walk all the way from where we are staying, but for the purpose of today to find somewhere with a view down over the sea for the eclipse, it was a good place to start. The challenge with this particular eclipse is that it will occur just before sunset with totality around 8.30pm, so unless you have a view of the sun very low on the horizon, it will just get dark and then light again without actually being able to see the sun disappearing behind the moon. Back in 1999 totality was around midday, so anywhere with a view of the sky was fine, but this year is very different.

After our picnic lunch we made a start heading up into the mountains aiming for a point that we hoped could just have the view that we wanted. We didn't see one other person on our walk, but perhaps the saying of only 'mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun' needs an update to change the dog for a mountain goat.

We were getting close to where we hoped the sea would come into view and eventually after a few more turns than we anticipated, the deep blue of the Balearic Sea was in sight. There was also great views in the other direction over Fornalutx and Sóller.  We're sure that it will not be quite so quiet on Wednesday, but hopefully the effort to get there will keep the numbers manageable. 

The walk back to the car being downhill went a lot quicker than the walk up and we were soon back in Fornalutx enjoying an ice cream from the local gelato shop (no photos!). Once back at the cottage the kids made the most of the outdoor shower and we all had a little siesta before a BBQ that included many different varieties of Spanish sausage as the sun set over the mountains. 

The chorizos were the clear winners with the blood sausages being to none of our tastes. There are a few cats that seem to have made the grounds of where we are staying their home with one in particular being more friendly than the others, but we thankfully managed to keep it away from the BBQ and our rejected blood sausage! 

Tomorrow we will head to Port de Sóller and an adventure out to sea. 

Blogged by Matt.