Mallorca 2019

One December evening after a few too many espresso martinis, there was a realisation that 2019 was going to be a BIG year for the gang we swim with an ironmonger row on Friday mornings.

2 marriages involving 3 of the group
One 50th
One 40th
and quite frankly when you are knee deep in espresso martinis anything else you can think of.

So it was decided that we should head to Mallorca for a stag/hen do at end of March. Allison’s mum had other ideas and whisked her and Dan off to Mexico, whilst me (Manda), Katie, Brian (stag) and David (50th) jetted off to Mallorca.

Our daily planned involved 3 key targets:

Swim 5k pool session at Best Swim Centre
Refuelling -> lunch and oreos
Sea swim
Refuelling -> Oreos
Dinner and drinks

1. SWIM TRAINING.

We had contacted Best Swim Centre once we decided to go to Mallorca and they were super helpful not only with arranging us a lane daily but also sorting out our accommodation. They know all the hotels in the area and with Colonia San Jordi, where the pool is located, being a small town you know you aren’t going to be a long walk from the pool whichever hotel you stay in. Katie and I had each written a 5k set for the first 2 days and the final day we did 50x100m to celebrate David’s birthday. Just what everyone needed with the accumulative fatigue in our bodies from swimming and drinking!

2. REFUELING

Day 1 Katie’s mission was to locate the white chocolate covered Oreos, which are hard to find in the UK. Knowing she didn’t need help sniffing them out, off she went and duly returned with them like a kid who had just got their first bike under the Christmas tree from Santa. Fortunately they come in packs of 2s so you never need an excuse to have another one or 2…or 6.

3. SEA SWIMS

Anna Wardley endurance, long distance, marathon swimmer extraordinaire lives in Colonia San Jordi so supplied us with idea on where to swim. Additionally, Best Swim Centre do a open water swim festival every year at end of May and conveniently have the race routes on a massive map on their reception floor.

Es Trenc is a long stretch of golden sand to the west of CSJ. We ventured off there (we had a car between the 4 of us) and parked up and changed into our swim gear including wetsuits in the car park. Water temp around 14/15 degrees c.

We entered the water and decided to swim out to a fishing boat, which in hindsight was a stupid idea as who the flip knows where their nets were! Another open water swimming lesson learnt. Then we swam onto a sailing boat. David and Brian swam around it whilst me and Katie started heading for shore. There was a moment when we were heading back where I had a realisation that we had been swimming with the wind on way out, so swimming back against the wind for the first few minutes felt like a never ending task. We finally made it back to shore and celebrated with some Oreos.

Cala Mondrago is one of the smaller bays up on the south east coast of the island. We headed up there for a swim but David and Brian decided they didn’t want to get in. A little peer pressure and Brian was in……. temporarily. From Cala Mondrago you can swim/walk around to Cala S’Amarador. Despite it being early in the season the beach café was open so we had another refuelling session this time with ice-cream.

Cala Santanyi – upon arrival we “hiked” up the steps to the right when facing the sea to a lovely restaurant (details below under 5.). Sufficiently stuffed we made the unsurprisingly easier return to the beach where we utilised our tow floats as pillows and had a 30 minute beach siesta before heading to the water. We swam out from the beach and discovered a mini cove to the left which me, Brian and Katie swam around in whilst David ploughed on further out of the bay. Similar to Cala Mondrago, with the right conditions and support (you would need to check re currents along headlands there) you could swim along to Cala Llombards.

4. REFUELING -> MORE OREOS

5. DINNER AND DRINKS

These were our favourite meals of the trip:

On the first day we walked along he coast and stumbled across a restaurant, that I had actually booked for dinner on Saturday but we decided to test it out and returned Saturday night. Cassai Beach House is set in a lovely little bay of CSJ and perfect location for watching the sun set with an Aperol spritz/sangria.

We went also went to Sal De Coco, a restaurant in the habour/port area of CSJ that had been recommended to us by Anna W. Another lovely meal of seafood accompanied by a local white wine, which was surprisingly (sorry for underestimating you Mallorca!) delicious.

The lunch we had in Cala Santanyi was at Voramar. Brian had found this restaurant and despite the stairs to it (swimmers are designed for gradients) it was another lovely meal and a good coffee!

All in all, a lovely time in Mallorca with a good balance of training, oreos, dipping, sangria and squid.