Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

A beautiful morning in Mahon, and forecast for today: partly cloudy, light wind.

So down to catch our bicycles, to blocks down toward the harbour, down 100 steps to make the way faster....
and outbound to Es Grau, apprx. 10 kilometers away.

We arrived within an hour, only one steep part where we still have to walk up the hill, but are sure that within short we will manage here, too.(?)



Arriving at Es Grau, lock up our bicyles, and start walking across the first long sandy beach.

While walking with our feet into the water at the wateredge, we spotted some strange small jellyfishes.
They were in the water and quite a few had been thrown up on shore by the small waves.
We didn't know what kind it was, but as my wife got hurt in the water two days ago here, we reckoned it might be from such a creature.
So went by, and headed for the small beach just off the picture to the right.




If you ever wish to find a small beach all for yourself, you're lucky if you are the first one to show up here in the morning....
at least in the tourist season, which luckily has now ceased.

So out into the water. Beautiful temperature, but then OH! On the upper partof my arm something stuck.
Now, as we had seen several of the jellyfishes in the area today, we found out it had to ber one of those that hit me. (Or I hit it?).



http://www.rossinglish.com/images/gym/Day2_8841/mon_christel_jellyfish_stin.jpg

As I don't like any pictures of my self on the net, I found this one elsewhere, but it truly shows just how my upper arm looked.
It was hurtfull for about two hours, and then the pain slowly passed away.

Normally small jellyfishes don't hurt that way, so what was it that made it hurt so hard?

It has a latin name, of course: Pelagia noctiluca.
In english that is : “mauve stinger”

The following message was put on the net on : 05 October 2010, 12:00

Spain is currently struggling to cope with a plague of jellyfish, which scientists attribute to rising sea temperatures. Mediterranean seas are teeming
with millions of an especially poisonous species of stinging jellyfish, the “mauve stinger”, or Pelagia noctiluca.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pelagia_noctiluca_(Sardinia).jpg
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The Spanish Environment Ministry announced yesterday that eight tons of jellyfish have been collected and 200 volunteers recruited to help
study them and figure out why they’re flooding to the Spanish coastline: in some areas, a survey by the Oceana environmental group found
concentrations of more than 10 jellyfish per square metre. Factors are thought to include a rise in sea temperature and a decrease in predators,
specifically sea turtles and tuna fish. - See what mankind has done to this wicked world???

Spain relies on the many holidaymakers attracted to its beaches and is desperate to prevent its tourist industry from suffering,
but the swarms are so large that some beaches have had to be closed. Numbers of lifeguards and first aid staff have been increased,
and a leaflet created to warn tourists of the danger, but the Red Cross is already reporting a 50% increase from last year in the number
of patients being treated for jellyfish stings.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187464-i494-k3614456-o10-Jellyfish-Minorca_Balearic_Islands.html

However, it is really not that bad, as severtal other reports tell that the monster is only found on the beaches once a while -
some say once a month, others for two days and then they are gone again.

To avoid scaring you from coming here, there is one good rule to avoid the monster. Stay ashore.
But on the other hand, on the popular beaches there are lifeguartds all day long, at least in the tourist-season, and usually there should be a flag
visible - green when everything is OK, yellow if you have to be careful, and red if you are not permitted to go into the water at all.

So to stay at this small lonely beach, with a small white house on the side, when we could not take the chance bathing any more that day,
we decided to make it a walking day.

  

We then went northward for about a mile, and came to another long beach, and even as we spotted no jellyfishes there (?),
we found it to be to narrow to the walking path (also used for horseriding and not at least by mountain bikers - and they are many).

A sign marked the path further (they really have made many signs and maps along the path)

so we went on to a small lagoon with a very nice beach - and had it all for ourselves for a couple of hours.



The water ? 23 degrees celcius, salty and absolutely wonderful for swimming.
Did I really forget to say that there were absolutely no sign of monsters on this beach?




Posidonia oceanica (commonly known as Neptune Grass or Mediterranean tapeweed) is a seagrass species that is
endemic to the Mediterranean Sea. It maintain the coastal stability and protect the beaches from erosion.

That is why, on many beaches, you will find this seeweed has come ashore, and is still lying there.
In the summer-season the beaches are cleaned up, to serve as beautiful white sandy beaches for the tourists.
Rest of the year, they let it be there, and it protects the beaches from erosion.
Read more about Posidonia oceanica and what it means to Menorca here.
  


As you see, after a few storms, there are quite a mass lying on the beach.



As you could see two pictures above, there is an old tower out on the peninsular, forming what we like to call 'our lagoon'.
We went up there, and was amazed by the way they built such things.
This tower is from the year 1800. There are 15 similar towers on this island, and they was build to protect
ships from coming into the bays (cala), so set enemy-soldiers ashore.

Notice the door up on the wall. That was the main-entrance to the tower, to where you could get up on a ladder.




There are three levels inside the tower. Below, as shown on the picture above, they store ammunition and food.
Next floor was were the soldiers spent most of their time inside, with kitchen and beds. And on the top floor were the canons and the watchout..




The landscape here was remarkable. All lava from old volcano in many different forms and figures.


  

Isn't it amazing what the nature can produce?
It is often said that if an artist wants to create something special, they go out into the nature and look.
But whom brought it there?

If you ask Carl von Linné   , here's his answer:

O JEHOVA! Quam ampla funt opera Tua! Quam ea omnia sapienter fecisti ! Quam plena est terra possessione tua! Psalm.CIV 24

You could go around here for hours studying all the varieties in the rocks.



A dry season it has been - and this is all that is left of this plant.
These days the seeds are falling off down to the ground.




Even if it is the dryest summer they have had for many years here on Menorca, Fauna is not dead yet.
Three days ago they got a few rainshowers, and see what happened shortly after!
Those tiny seeds have been lying here for whoever knows. Suddenly they blossom as ever before. Right up of the sandy ground.



Beautiful, aren't they?



Notice the one to the right, just coming up to day - few hours ago?



On a hot sunny day, it is good to find places like this under an old tree.



This is what the roof in the 'hut' looks like.



On our way further, we discovered this cormorant on the shore.



The Cami de Cavalls, which goes all around the island, is mainly the path you can follow up and down the coast here.
Sometimes it is rough an rocky, sometimes lovely quiet and green like on this picture.




This is one of the many signs along this path, here our last stop at Cala de Sa Torreta. (See map on top).


Here also a long and sandy beach - with an old boathouse at the end.
But watch our for monsters when the wind is blowing hard right in......



We have mentioned the many stony walls, marking borders between different properties.
But we still are thinking of those people who once build all these.
On the picture above you can see it turning to the right and disappering on the top.


As we passed the 40ties long time ago, we spent about an hour to return to Es Grau and our bicycles.
On our way back, there were only one or two stingers left on the first beach. All the others may have gone out into
deep sea as tidewater was coming in?

Forgot to say that when you come back to the parkinglot, there is a small tavern that serves drinks and coffee
under some shadowing trees close to the beach. And a cappucino somethimes tastes very delightful.......

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