Classifieds

VILLA FOR TWO,
N.E. MALLORCA, direct access to sea swimming in a secluded creek.

I love Cala Gat! It is the most beautiful cove in Mallorca that you can still get to by car - there are others, but only accessible by boat. All the houses at the edge of the sea are owned and lived in by Spaniards, mostly Catalans, except for mine! And I have lived here, almost continuously, for nearly 50 years. From my house, you just walk down through the garden and some steps, and you reach a sunbathing terrace and slipway for a small dinghy. I am the only house in this happy position, as there is a path that runs along the coast from the beach, and separates all the other houses directly from the sea. This means that, as the coastline is public, the rocks or sunbathing sites can be used by other people. To get to "mine" is much more difficult, as you either have to swim there from the beach, 100 yards away, or trespass across my land - which does sometimes happen. There is a delightful beach at the beginning of Cala Gat for anyone who prefers swimming off sand - urgh! This has a small bar/restaurant on it, which is useful for some. From there, you can cross the beach and go for a delightful 15min walk along a tiled "Paseo Maritimo". Halfway along, there is an amazing statue by a very famous sculptor, made entirely of old anchors. He has used no fixative of any sort, and starts of with the biggest - HUGE - gradually going upwards in graduated phases. It is dedicated to the fishermen of the village - which is at the end of this walk, starting off with the port, which is mainly full of fishing boats. If you look at a shipping chart, you will see "open roadstead" written over "Cala Gat". For those who are not sailors, this means that it is a safe anchorage (when it is not blowing a "Xaloc", or strong wind from the SE). Before there was a port, Cala Gat was where the small fishing boats were kept, either at anchor, or pulled up on the beach. These small boats are called "llauds", and are incredibly seaworthy in the choppy, and sometimes very dangerous, Mediterranean. Some boatyards in Mallorca and Menorca have tarted them up, to suit rich people who want to go fishing, or swimming, off a llaud. They now have cabins, loos, kitchens - you name it. And come in all colours! And, for the timorous, some have steering wheels with wooden, or sailcloth awnings, instead of the romance of the tiller. The owners of these super-llauds are usually to be seen with a glass in their hands, and wearing bikinis and swimming shorts. They also often get into trouble, and have to be towed home with engine failure!

Behind the coastline of Cala Gat, the land rises more and more steeply until you reach the lighthouse. In between, before it gets too steep to build, there are some more private houses. All these, including the ones on the coastline, are set amongst pine trees and attractive natural ground cover, including wild rosemary, and, in the season, wild asparagus . . .