Out bicycling again. Weather cloudy and a bit threatening, and the famous Menorca wind worked full time.
Our destination: The Albufera National park, about 7-8 kilometers away. Up - and down.



The road was very good for bicycling, with path for bicycles on both sides, as shown on the upper picture.
It was a bit farther than the trip yesterday to Sa Mesquida, out to the right on the map.



Last downhill to the parking, and then we wandered for 3 to 4 hours, both to the left and to the right.



A fantastic (to us) unusual scenery, and there were flowers all over in various yellow colours.

  

In the nationalpark they have preserved the old rockwalls as part of their old culture.
Here on this little island, which is only 50 kilometer from west to east, there once were 70.000 kilometers of such walls.
The gates were maid of wild olivetrees.
To pass the wall in an easy way, they had built in a small staircase in the wall on both sides.
On the picture to the right you can see where we left our bicycles.



By the way, we saw not only the yellow flowers. Here a beautiful white one blooming.




A Grey Heron, Ardea cinerea, was the first exciting bird we looked up.

       

We met four people up here, but at least 4 to 5 times as many egrettes.
Probably we also saw a stork in flight, but it flew away before it could be confirmed.
Few days later we read in the newspaper about one that had settled down on top of a churchtower in the central part of the island.


  

Why both Albufera NP and Menorca is famous for their orchids, we have no problems to understand.
The one at left is a Ophrys tenthredinifera






Albufera NP has a large wetland area. Here we found several cormorants.



Even if yellow and white flowers where all over, so the red ones were also coming up.



and so we almost overlooked the blue ones....




We walked - and we walked, but we fould shelter for the blewing wind down between the large "trees" along the path.
Now, notice a bit of blue sky in upper left corner!




It was not that there were few birds here, what was wrong was that our bird-spotting scopes were back at home.




Nature altered all the time. Here an old wetland which once was used for growing rice..
However, it didn't pay off, so it came to an end.
On the "bridge" in the middle of the picture, a lots of cormorants and ducks are sitting.
And, of course, in the water were a lot more.




One place along the path, we came to a place where it was forbidden to stand up.....
so we sat down and had our lunch. Then we lay down in the sun, which now was shining from a blue sky for a short hour.



Well, to be fair... It wasn't at all forbidden to stand up, but there was a closed path ahead where we should not walk..



Several places near the water, walls for shelter were set up, not to disturb the birds while watching.
There were also several signs telling us to keep quiet when we observed the birds.




It is SPRING down here in Menorca.

   

The birds that gave us the most problems trying to get a good picture, and which we found to be the most interesting,
were the Great Crested Grebe, Podiceps cristatus.
There was a couple swimming around flirting with each other.



They really looked like this, but as our bird watching scope where back in Norway.......(Clikk here for more about the Grebe)




There should be turtles here, but this wasanimal we saw on dry land..



Fionally we walked as far east as we could, and had a good view toward Es Grau, a wellknown holiday resort near the NP..
Than small town which we should visit later, was north of where we were yesterday.
In our binocular we could see the waves thundering against the cliffs, high because of the hard wind from east. .
Now it grow overcast again, so we found that we had it well done for to day.

From the park back to Mahon the road was climbing uphill the first two kilometers.
So we could roll down, and we did, all the way down to the harbour, and back to our hotel.



Here in the city, old and new meet.... an old monestary? to the right, and modern living-blocks further out.
Notice that the whole town lies on top of a cliff, with steep ridges down to the harbour.
We returned by the harbour-streets yesterday, but now an up-hill road up to the central part of the town,
from where we found our way home, through old narrow streets.
Of course we had to get lost, as many of the old streets were to narrow for two-way trafic, so they were one-way streets.
We also only drove one way - that's how tourists always do. What else to do in an unknown town?
But believe it or not - suddenly we were stopping right outside our hotel.



As you will find it impossible to go stright out from the town and down to the harbour, they have a lot of staircases along the ridge,
but only two (or was it three?) roads going up from the harbour in more than two kilometers length.

Back home again, and quite exhausted
.



The service we met at this hotel, was above most we have experinced in hotels
To day we were moved to (the best room?) another room in third flor, with a terrace towards the sun, and view to the swimmingpool.




However, we wanted to take our bicycles and get along at 9 o'clock, and asked if we could move before we left.
Oh no, here cleaning had to be done first, and that would be finished not till 12 o'clock. Then we would have gone.
So we asked if we could put our luggage in a corner while they cleaned. No.
No problema, as they say. They would make it up.
So when we came home nearly at five o'clock in the afternoon, all luggage was moved properly to our new rooms.

If you ever come to Mahon in Menorca, this is their address:

Apartementos Royal, C/ Carmen, 131 – C/ San Sebastián, 50 07701 Mahón – Menorca – Baleares
and their web-address with more pictures and videos: http://www.apartamentosroyal.com/

Please mention you saw it on OUR pages, www.vulkaner.no

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