Hi,

I am interested in trying to organise a trip to Majorca/Mallorca to go caving next summer.  Does anyone have any recommendations on places to stay that are relatively cheap?  Also any recommendations on places to eat?

Many thanks,
Hannah

No campsites to speak off. Best thing to do is get a massive group of people together an rent a villa.

I went out with the Irish lot a few years back - we had a palace (inc sauna and swimming pool) at a very cheap rate!

Talk to Mike Wilson. He should be able to sort you out.

Friends and I have now had three excellent caving holidays in Mallorca. THE place to stay is Puerta Pollensa. THE place to find cheap accommodation is;

http://www.latelet.com/

This excellent website has sorthed us accommodation on trips to Mallorca and Sardinia. It pretty does what it says in the address, finds accommodation to rent at short (late) notice. Take a tip, don't accept the price it gives on the site for any apartment/villa; ring up the owners (details on the site) and make them an offer. The shorter the notice, the less you should offer.

The alternative, which we did on our first trip there; is to fly out, drive to Puerta Pollensa and ask around. It worked brilliantly for us on our first trip, though it could of course have gone pear-shaped.

Des Marshall has produced a reasonable guide to some of the islands popular caves, and there is an excellent Spanish guidebook called "501 Grutas", or something like that. It's in Catalan though.

I've pm'd you as well.

thanks badger et al.  I was thinking of cheap villa or hostel etc.  Would prefer not to camp unless there were showers, loos etc as I'm a lady and like some comfort!

Mike Wilson uses a friends villa but i will speak to him regarding organising a trip as i know he wants to do one next year - could be a BEC expedition!

the more accommodation suggestions and any places to eat people feel free to keep them coming!  I already have one caving book on Majorca although cannot remember who wrote it other than its about 20 years old and has yellow writing on the cover!

Chris J said:

No campsites to speak off. Best thing to do is get a massive group of people together an rent a villa.

I went out with the Irish lot a few years back - we had a palace (inc sauna and swimming pool) at a very cheap rate!

Click to expand...

Was that the trip with the dodgy video at this years symposium?? 

Sorry to ressurect an old topic - figured it would be better than starting a new one just to keep info in the same place.  I'm interested in organising a trip to Majorca next year so would be keen to hear if the trip talked about above happened and how it went and if there's any useful up-to-date info that can be passed on? I'm particularly interested in getting an idea of accommodation/hire car costs (around Easter time most likely) and if there were any issues flying with caving gear without incurring massive extra baggage costs.
Cheers for any info.
Lurker

There is of course a book:

MALLORCA, BELLEZAS EN LA OSCURIDAD. The practical and visual guide to caving in Majorca by Daniel Mayoral and Tomeu Mateu


What am I going to find in this book? "Mallorca, bellezas en la oscuridad" is useful guide, with descriptions of 16 of the most wonderful Majorcan caves. - Each cave is presented by an artistic portrait, carried out using different drawing and painting techniques. - An aerial photo with a superposition of the access and the plan view of the cave, helps to give an idea of the location and surrounding area. - Detailed access , to the cave with a sketch made to scale and an illustration of the route by means of points, time, pictures and partial co-ordinates. - Cross section of the difference of height from the car to the cave. - Detailed and useful descriptions together with large pictures. - Technical details of the cave with spot height of every belay. ? A list of the equipment needed to rig the cave. - Useful advice to make the visit easier. - Cave surveys in 2D and 3D with small photos of the key points. News about the latest explorations made by the Majorcan Caving clubs: - "Cova de Sa Gleda"", the longest underwater cave in Europe (GNM). - "Cova d'es Coll", a real underwater treasure (GNM) - "Cova des Pas de Vallgornera", new discoveries to add to this amazing and unique cave in Europe, over 23 km of passageways (GELL). Also enclosed is a CD ROM with a compilation of software, surveys, information and lots of useful stuff for cavers. Furthermore, the CD ROM contents the first " Interactive caves inventory of the Balearics", with over 4000 caves.

CONTENTS: Foreword: Cave conservation by J. Vega, President of the F.B.E. A short introduction. How to use this guide. Index of Caves: Cova de Sa Campana, Avenc de la Canal de la Coma Freda, Cova des Coloms I, Avenc d?en Corbera, Cova de Cornavaques, Avenc de s?Embut, El Forat 502, Avenc de Fra Rafel, Avenc des Gel, Cova de Na Mitjana, Cova de Cal Pesso, Coves des Pont - Pirata (2 caves), Avenc des Portuguesos, Cova de Les Rodes, Cova Tancada des Cap de Menorca, Annexe I, Ongoing Explorations; -"Cova de Sa Gleda", the longest underwater cave in Europe (GNM). -"Cova d'es Coll", a real underwater treasure (GNM) -"Cova des Pas de Vallgornera", new discoveries to add to this amazing and unique cave in Europe, over 23 km of passageways (GELL). Annexe 2, Useful Information: Resources used in this guide. Caving Clubs in Majorca. Multilingual words glossary. Multimedia CD ROM. Bibliography.

SB In Spanish ?54.75

There are some pictures from the book are on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMDEHay7f7Y&feature=related

Hi

The BEC trip to Majorca was a great success with lots of old caving reports used to accurately locate some caves.  We took a GPS for this.  I'm happy t oshare the knowledge.  Send me an email at busty_caver@hotmail.com and I'll send you the info.

Basically 15 BEC went out there from 6th - 20th September.  We went caving about 4 times the whole trip.  Some caves were difficult to locate and others had new villas built over them!  The canyoning out there is amazing and several of the canyons actually have caves lining the route so it is worth canyoning and taking a light to explor the caves.  Torrent de Gaug Blau out there is amazing with 300-400 metre high cliffs.  At the base of which can be found many caves.  Easy to go down no kit required in summer.  Other gorges need figure of eight, ropes and other kit.  In spring lots of water but we went summer when you can canyon in shorts and knee pads.

Excellent island, cheap villa was superb with own pool and cost ?100 week perperson.

email me for cave/canyoning info.

Han
busty_caver@hotmail.com

Lurker said:

Sorry to ressurect an old topic - figured it would be better than starting a new one just to keep info in the same place.  I'm interested in organising a trip to Majorca next year so would be keen to hear if the trip talked about above happened and how it went and if there's any useful up-to-date info that can be passed on? I'm particularly interested in getting an idea of accommodation/hire car costs (around Easter time most likely) and if there were any issues flying with caving gear without incurring massive extra baggage costs.
Cheers for any info.
Lurker

Click to expand...

Myself and a friend went last May for a week.  We camped at the Lluc Monastery which is free.  There is basic toilet facilities here (no showers) and barbecue facilities with plenty of free firewood ready chopped.

Flights cost us around ?80 and we only took SRT kit, wetsuits (for canyoning), lights, helmets and enough rope to do the deepest cave and were comfortably withing the weight limits.  We bought camping gear in Decathlon which costs around 80 Euros for tent and 2 sleeping bags. 

We cooked on the barbecues everyday with fresh fish bought cheaply in any town.  At the weekends the campsite gets very busy with locals.

All the caves are comfortably warm enough to do i shorts and T-Shirts.  In one cave I was warm enough to fall asleep.  There was one cave on a peninsula where the formation are absolutely stunning, some of the weirdest and certainly the most prolific amount of helactites and stal i've ever seen.  The only other cave we did was the deepest one, this is not so pretty, but is worth a trip to see the large chambers.

The canyons as mentioned elsewhere are simply awesome.  Sa Fosca - Gorg Blau is simply the best canyon i've ever done and reputedly the most beautiful in Europe.  Everyone should do it once in their life.  Mortix is also good, it ends in the sea and there is a via ferratta to exit.  If you go anytime other than Easter time though they are likely to be bone dry.

Lurker said:

and if there were any issues flying with caving gear without incurring massive extra baggage costs.
Cheers for any info.
Lurker

Click to expand...

I have flown to Matienzo and the Pyrenees several times over the past few years with Easyjet. It is possible to get all caving gear and clothes for a week into the 20Kg checked baggage + one item of hand luggage allowance (no weight limit, but size limit). This includes SRT kit and we have managed to get in a tent plus stove split between 2 people on some trips plus camera gear. If you really want to take more than that then you can book an extra 15Kg bag as sports equipment for around 15 quid each way, but I usually don't bother as this doubles the cost of the flights in most cases! Of course we take no ropes in this allowance, but you could add 15Kg sports bags up to one per person if needed. This sports allowance is not clearly explained on the Easyjet website, but we phoned them up and confirm it before some of our group used this facility at Easter 2008. Just book it as golf clubs on the website (or a similar bag like item) rather than as skis or a surf board and they will be expecting you to turn up with the extra bag.

Weigh your bags before you get to the airport as excess baggage fees can be expensive. Best way is to weigh yourself on the bathroom scales with and without your bag and subtract the difference. This is accurate enough as they generally turn a blind eye to being 1 or 2 Kg over, but will charge you for every Kilo over if you are much more than that unless you get lucky at the airport (sometimes they don't really care if the flight is not full).

Obviously put the heavy stuff in hand luggage (subject to rules on what can be carried in hand luggage: no knives etc.). SRT kits we are never quite sure about in hand luggage, so if weight is really that tight I put the jammers in checked luggage and the rest in hand luggage. Usually it is all my camera kit that takes up the bulk of my hand luggage, so you can fit all caving gear (clean and dry!) plus SRT kit plus enough t-shirts to last a week in the 20Kg. (Spending most days underground, the number of t-shirts needed for a week is only 2-3 as they are not worn for long each day!)

RyanAir baggage allowances are only 15Kg plus 7Kg hand luggage if I remember right, which is why we always use Easyjet.

Brilliant, thanks for the replies so far . Majorca sounds like an excellent place for some caving and canyoning.  I'll definitely send you an email busty_caver.
Cheers.

Hi Folks,
          We are off to Mallorca in a week and i'm just checking if there is anything important we should know before we go. We have the Spanish book so should be fine for gps fixes and topos but none of us can read spanish so can't read the 'recomendaciones'. I've google translated some of it which says you need to ask permission for Fra Rafel and canel de la coma freda, does anyone do this? (can't speak any spanish). Last question, are all the spits 8mm or will we need any 10mm hangers. Thanks a lot

some are p hung and others on 8mm spits, from memory rafel is p hung, and coma freda is on 8mm's. As for permissions  I've never had problem when we've been able to find anyone to ask but if you have the book with you they'll understand what your looking for.

Neoprene/tough gloves and gaiters for the walk in to the caves are essential; all the plantlife seemingly has barbs out to get you and you'll end up shredded. We caved in leggings and t.shirts with knee and elbow pads the caves are so warm. Taking water to drink whilst underground (water bladders in tackle bags) helps replace fluids whilst caving in the warm.

Looking forward to our trip out ................

Thanks for the advice. We are off tomorrow so I need to get home and pack, i never realised how heavy all this rope was. We only got a 90m rope and twenty krabs in our sports allowance bag (12kg)

Hi All
I've recently moved out to Mallorca and am hoping to do some caving out here.  Strangely, it seems as hard to get good information on caves here as it is from the UK!  Anyone have any contacts of cavers out here, places to get gear, or recommend caves in the South West of the island?
Cheers

a good start is

http://www.federaciobalearespeleologia.org/

or if more DIY approach

http://www.libreriadenautica.com/items/mallorca-bellezas-oscuridad-con-cd-LMBO-1.html

I remember a climbing shop in Palma stocking this and other tomes


Beardy