Road sign in Ibiza: Discontinues in [empty] km. Very specific

I like knowing where I am heading. Not knowing the route, the end point and the road to it makes me anxious. I like to control things. We, people from the Western civilization like to control things and have what I call illusion, that we do. But I guess it is really far fro the truth. We can make a choice, but the choice is really on the first step. And then the next. When there is three different roads in front of us, we need to choose one, whether we choose it using a (google:)map, GPS, or signs on the road or flip-a-coin*. Just the other day, I wrote about Life of Pi and what his father said “How can you find a way if you don’t choose the path?”.

Liisi’s three suggestions to plan your hiking and walking trips:

1. Find an end-goal, a point you want to reach. Like visiting all the parks in your city or going to Estonia’s highest hill, Egg Hill (316 m) or some other country or top that is fascinating for you. The goal is the important part here, you might need to train, travel, see the map for instructions, learn about the goal-point to be able reach it.
2. Choose the type of walk or hike you want to do: a difficult 50 km walk, a walk in the park, a walk to get to know the new city, a regular morning walk to keep you fit and to do your 10 000 steps a day, etc. The important factor is either your physical training, learning about something via walking, preparing for the 1st type of hiking goal.
3. Choose the time you have and decide to follow the random signs, gut feeling. This is what I call “random-see-what-happens-inspiration-walk” (I need to work on the name).The aim here is to let go of all the plans, get inspiration, have time to think about things that need to be sorted out in your own head and also see the things around the corner that you would not see if you take the map and follow a specific route or are training for some other goal.

Last week I had four walks, one of them was the 3rd option, a random walk. I’ll tell you more about it now.

My random walk in San Antonio

I was finishing my chores in town and decided to take the first bus to wherever it goes in Ibiza. I was already geared up with my comfortable hiking clothes, a banana, biscuits, water and my camera in the back-bag.

The first bus that was already waiting for me was to San Antonio, my Café del Mar place that I love so much. I was, at first, a bit hesitant, because I didn’t know any routes in there and the route I did know, was too long to fit my time (the route from San Antonio to Santa Agnes, you can read about it a bit from here, or see the pictures here). The time was not really that much up to me, since it gets dark quite soon after the sun sets and that is around 7 pm. I started from Ibiza around 2 pm.

I had heard that it is possible to start from the paseo, the new pedestrian path that is on the coast of San Antonio towards the sunset and get to many nice locations. So I decided to give it a go and see where I can end up within the time that I had. I decided that I need to be back for the sunset at Café del Mar, so in total, maybe a slow 4-5 hours for back-and-forth walk.

I took the shortcut from the bus station to the en of the paseo to get started exploring the new places a.s.a.p. The paseo is quite long and ends with the restaurant Golden Buddha, that is where I started to look for this “incredible place” I had heard about. Coming from town, I did not see that it was possible to go by the coastline, so I took a turn to the right, on to the road and started heading for a place called Cap Negret.

So many signs and no information on the distance!

To be honest, walking on the road was not anything special, yet, I saw the relaxed countryside with relaxed people doing their relaxed duties. Life during winter. Lot’s of men working on the houses, stray cats and silence. Until I got a bit outside and found a field of anemones, houses with names like Casa Happy and a cat that looked after an abandoned (for the winter) shop. The anemones were a surprise to me and reminded me of my home, Estonia. When you go for this path, you can choose to go on the road but also on the coastline, it is possible, I made it on my next try.

I would quite like to work in a Supermarket like that.

A whole new vista: Punta Galera

I didn’t really realize that I had reached to Cap Negret, because I had just squeezed myself in between some fence and houses to a nice plane that had a nice view. The Cap Negret signs were long forgotten. Google Maps on my phone said I had arrived, though. Going further and closer to the edge I saw something very interesting and intriguing that I immediately wanted to reach. I had this butterflies-in-the-stomach feeling, all else got blurred and I so desperately felt I need to get to the top of the smaller edge-thing, that had a Punta Galera written in Google Maps. From far away, it looked like is too narrow to get on top of and also too far in the sea to be even safe to go there. And HOW will I get even close to it?

The first view on Punta Galera

A closer look to Punta Galera – now I wanted even more to reach and walk it

Signs

In whole Ibiza, you can see a variety of signs, from stone arrows to blue, red, green markings, bike track signs, angels. Most of the colored arrows are made by Rolf Hürten, a German who has walked and written guidebooks about it**. Even though you might not have a map or guidelines for a walk, his markings on the ground are still great and can help a lot, even at random walks where signs are not that important. Then again, if you don’t know where the signs lead, why should you follow them, right? Well, in this case, it was obvious they will lead me where I want to go.

Blue arrow – usually it means that you are on a more popular route

It lead me to here:

Direct view to Punta Galera bay side

From the right side

At the end of my random-see-where-I-get-walk in San Antonio, Punta Galera

My random walk had led me to a wonderful and I think the most powerful place in Ibiza for me. I haven’t seen all, of course, but to me it was a greater feeling than Es Vedra, though Es Vedra definately has the magic and is magnetic. Punta Galera is a small bay, but the stone formations around it are just amazing.

Another type of sign. The divine sign that leads to and from Punta Galera

Time passed quickly and I had to head back. Since I had come via roads, I didn’t know that it is really possible to go all the way back through Cala Gracio and other beautiful terrain paths straight to the paseo and Café del Mar. That I found out on my next trip to Punta Galera and I even went further, to Cala Salada (and still you can go further).

The second time, two days later, I also stayed for the sunset at Punta Galera and had to run back right after to be able to see at least a bit of the rocky road before it got too dark.

The first random walk I did to Punta Galera and ON the cliff formation, made me really think about security on the hikes and on even the simplest of walks. I highly recommend you to read and follow the easy tips to be safe on your walks.

Some pictures from the same walk, from the paseo and on the coastline to Cala Salada and a sunset at Punta Galere stone formation.

Hidden from the world, it is just you, the stone (earth), the water and the sun (fire).

On the walk to Cala Salada, you pass many beaches, this is one of them.

Cala Salada. On your right, you can see another “goal”. Next time.

A bit more about random walks and signs. On my second walk to Punta Galera, knowing there is a direct coast path all the way, I almost gave up in mid way (the first time I gave up already at the beginning) because I just could not see a path and only saw waves and nothing that would tell me it is possible to pass the tip of the small beach. Luckily, there was a guy on the other side of the beach whom I noticed just as I was turning back and ready to take the car road once again. He waved at me fiercely, showing that yes, it is possible to continue. I looked at him. Then I looked at the beach, the path I was on. No way, mister. He kept waving and showing me to carry on. And all of a sudden, as I slowly approached, there were stone steps! I did not see them the first time.
I do believe that you will always have some signs to show you the way, the question is, if we are able and open enough to see them. I know I am definitely not always ready to see where the signs go. It can be a good thing, but also an obstacle. It is really up to us how much we see and use the signs we are given.

I leave you with these thoughts and wish you interesting journeys, goal-settings and reaching the tips of your mountains! Let me know about interesting places you have reached on your random walks.

* If you don’t know how to make a choice, try this random online flip-a-coin tool.
** If I got the name of the marker wrong, and you know the right one, please let me know, too.