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Hike B - To Portinatx Lighthouse and back along the coast
From the Can Lluqui restaurant on the road to Portinatx take the concrete driveway opposite slightly to your left (1). This leads uphill past country houses for a while till a house to your right (2), where you turn left down a gravel path to be confronted by a gate (3) with our destination in the background.
Click on the images for larger versions.
Follow this path, closing the gates carefully behind you as these are fairly primitive Ibizan security devices, and continue down the path past this distinctive olive tree (4) as the track reaches a junction at which we turn left heading downhill (5). At the next right turning there is a blue arrow indicating a right turn (6), but this now leads only to the stone wall in the photo, so it should be ignored. Instead carry straight on down to the main road and turn right. Some 200 metres down the road take a turning to the right as indicated by an official hiking and cycling route sign (7). This camino leads you up and through a beautiful lovingly farmed valley with abundant wildlife keeping the many domesticated animals company (8).
A quite delightful stretch of totally unspoilt Ibiza countryside being farmed much as it must have been for centuries (9). At a junction in the camino (10) at a finca with an Indian gurt attached (11), the camino bears to the right and sweeps around the valley to the left (12, 13).
At a pretty finca (14) the road takes a bend to the left and then a hard left turning at the next intersection, with another official hike route sign (but with the hikers mysteriously cut out!) (15).
This camino descends gently through a couple of curves taking in the head of the valley and we continue to follow it, even as it becomes asphalted after a while (16), till we arrive at the San Juan - Portinatx road and turn left (17).
We follow the asphalted road down to the turning to the right to Cala D'en Serra (18) and follow that right till the next curve to the right (19). Here we head straight on down a camino through the woods to reach the Portinatx lighthouse some 700m metres further on. At the fork in tracks, follow the blue arrow to the left (20).
Eventually the lighthouse comes into sight (21) and with it a good excuse to sit on the cliffs to renew your relationship with the sea. Or a photo opportunity at the building itself (22,23).
Did you spot the Che Guevarra lookalike? (23). If the wind is coming from the north or west you can spend many hours here marveling at the way that the gulls fly in from the east below you, then rise on the thermals to incredible heights without flapping a wing, to eventually glide back above and behind you to repeat their effortless journey over and over again. (24) As the sun starts to descend at speed towards the horizon you'll realize that it's time to start the return journey, but this time along the coast.
The path back along the coastline is rocky and sometimes a little difficult to follow, but hey, that's half of the fun... Anyway, here are a few difficult bits where a photographic clue might be helpful. (25,26,27) (Unfortunately the blue arrows all face in the opposite direction to that in which we are traveling till we get back to Portinatx, but as long as you know this you shouldn't have a problem...).
Your arrival point is the Sa Guarderia beach to the north of Portinatx. From here follow the main road through the village till you reach a stairway down to the beach of Gran Arenal, the main beach of Portinatx (28). Cross the beach and follow the promenade along the coast to the beach of Petit Arenal (29). Cross this and take the stairs up he other side for 40 metres till a turning to the left (30). This takes you uphill to the main road where you turn right and find our starting point some 50 metres up the road.
