The marina of Sa Vallet, the southern and driest extreme of Mallorca

On this route we travel to the southern tip of the island of Mallorca, which is also the driest area of Mallorcan geography. The idea is to take a walk along the Llubi coast of Sa Vallet, an old subdivision of La Vall, owned by the Marquis of Palmer, which in 1919 the banker Joan March bought, between the Ses Salines lighthouse and Cala en Tugores, on the border of the municipality of Santanyí with Ses Salines. A place where the atmosphere of smuggling, traditional fishing practices in the area, and the past imprint of the fight against piracy can be felt, as well as the bunkers of the Civil War and, in the background, Cabrera (an archipelago of stories related to the hard life of the Mediterranean). We find a numerous toponymy here, mostly collected by the philologist Cosme Aguiló Adrover (Santanyí, 1950) in his doctoral thesis published in 2007. Place names collected by tearing shoe soles, because it is only by walking in the company of oral sources that this treasure is discovered, which is a very valuable intangible heritage of our land. All the information presented in this article comes from the immense work of our friend and teacher from Santanyí. We start the walk from the Ses Salines lighthouse, which is reached by the Ma-6110 road, a branch of the road that connects Ses Salines and Llubi (Santanyí).

The route

[00 min] We start walking from the lighthouse at Cap de ses Salines, at the end of the road (Ma-6110). Inaugurated on August 31, 1863, it was built on land then owned by the Marquis del Palmer. Where the asphalt ends, to the right of the fence that limits access to the facility dependent on the Port Authority of the Balearic Islands, a path opens up through the scrubland that in four steps places us in the middle of a large ledge over the coast, much battered by the action of the sea, with a wide and clear view of the Cabrera archipelago to the south.

Turn right, facing west and with the sea to our left, heading towards Caragol beach and Cala en Tugores, the final objective of the route. [15 min] Behind the fence that marks the division between public maritime and terrestrial domain and Sa Vallet property, we find a small house, recently restored. It is known as the Telegraph House. According to Cosme Aguiló,

A little further on, [25 min] we reach the height of Punta Negra, a narrow and short peninsula on the Llubi coast, 150 m long by 40 m wide, located between the cove of Punta Negra and Caragol beach. On the isthmus, the tracks of a path are visible where solid-wheeled carts used to travel. The lower parts show the dark coloration with which the topographic generic is qualified. On the way to the outer end of this small geographical accident, we find an old quarry and three small boat sheds – S’escar des Bessons (Joan i Mateu Clar, from Llubi), S’escar des Forner, and S’escar des Didot. We leave Punta Negra and enter Caragol beach [35 min], while on the right we leave a Civil War bunker and, behind the wire fence, a house registered on some maps as en March's villa.

Caragol beach is the sandy area of the Llubi coast located between Punta Negra and the islet of en Curt; with a length of about 700 m, it is the longest in the municipality of Santanyí. Behind it is a dune ridge with vegetation of sea thistles and sea lilies and a pine, juniper, and Mediterranean dwarf bush canopy. We also find a second Civil War bunker [45 min]. It gets its name from the enclosure of Sa Vallet where it is located. It is, therefore, a terrestrial toponym expanded towards the sea.

We continue the walk and leave Caragol beach. [50 min] To the left we leave a strip of land, not very long, at the end of which a narrow strait marks the distance between the coast and the islet of en Curt. More or less triangular, it is about 120 m long, with a maximum width of about 80 m. It is a place badly damaged by the extraction of sandstone. Immediately after, having passed the tip of the islet of Can Curt, two inlets appear, the first larger than the second. They are the Mascarelles, large and small. The next point of interest is marked by a new machine gun nest [1 h 00 min], located on a hill about 7 m above sea level, known as the Penyalar quarry, behind which we find the house of Can Curt. We descend almost to sea level and skirt, by passage and sight, the tip of the Galera and, immediately after, the more prominent tip of l'Aranyó, which marks the entrance to Cala en Tugores [1 h 15 min].

Cala en Tugores

About Cala en Tugores, Cosme Aguiló says: “Marine inlet of shallow waters, located, for the most part, on the lombard coast and the rest on that of ses Salines, between El Caragol and Carbó beach. It is approximately 470 m long, with an average width of about 200 m. The mouth faces southwest. It is a cove with low shores and marshland, populated by pine trees in some areas. Those on the east side have a dune-like shape. At the bottom, on the sandy beach, a large quantity of seaweed accumulates, in a strip of 20 m width, in front of a small marès step that forms two strata, at the end of which there are two machine-gun nests from the Civil War. In some places there are indications of marès exploitation. The closing of the final vowel of the surname is somewhat surprising. The toponym attests to the ownership of the surrounding lands by Arnau Togores, who owned Sa Vall, as well as the farmstead of ses Salines, before 1255, according to APF (1974: 17), which reproduces a note from the historian J. M. Bover”.

If we walk along the cove from one end to the other, we first find a bunker, the mark of war on a coastline wounded by the sea. At the end of the bay [1 h 30 min], on the right, a gate and a dry stone wall, marked by a boundary stone. Here Santanyí ends and ses Salines begins. Our route also ends here. We will return by the same path as we have described so far. We must therefore account for the same distance and duration to reach the lighthouse.