Friday Another ride from Santa Margalida

Friday Another ride from Santa Margalida. The sun shone all day and we completed the ride in shorts and short sleeved tops.
We parked in our usual spot and took the minor tracks to Maria and then on towards Petra. Just before Petra we turned towards  the pretty village of Ariany. We climbed the small hill and stopped for a coffee in the village square. The village seemed to have 2 bars and a pub crawl would involve a walk of 6 feet. The coffee was excellent value at 1.2 euros and so much more pleasant drinking with the locals than sitting in one if Petra's busy squares.  After coffee we tried to locate the mountain bike track that would have taken us across to the Bosch valley. Not every path is marked on our map but the track was eventually located. However it was gated and marked as private . It was whilst look for the track we saw our second Testuda Hermanni Hermanni Mallorca.  This time a larger specimen out 10 inches long. Defeated we followed the minor track to Petra and then climbed the 317 meters to the church at Botany. It has excellent panoramic views looking down on Petra and also out to the sea. Lyn managed the climb to the top without stopping and some of the sections were steeper than the 4 % indicated on the map. We then took the steeply descending mountain bike track and then road towards Sant Joan . We were hoping for a late lunch and although the village had a couple of bars they were not serving food . Rather than continuing straight to Sineu we took the short detour to Loret de Vista Alero and the bar we had spotted earlier in the holiday . A couple of vegetable filled crepes and a small beer later and we were ready for the last 10 miles back to Santa Margalida via Sineu. The free range pigs we had seen in previous years we still in the same field . We watched a sow suckling 11 piglets before gental climbed back to the football stadium and the van. A round trip of 42 miles .  On returning to Port de Pollenca we had time from a paddle in the sea and found ourselfs surrounded by Hermit crabs and their assortment of shells.