Hi, here are a few notes about some Mallorcan caves. You should be able to get directions/coordinates from the Internet.
Cova del cal Paso, Mallorca
Richard, Mick, Miranda and I visited this cave just outside Puerto Pollensa for our first trip in Mallorca. The cave wasn’t too difficult to find up a hill outside the town, but there were a few problems. After a short crawl there’s a handline descent, and then you bimble round among and through the formations, round the pitches (which we didn’t descend).
A nice cave, with lots of fine formations, but a lot of damage and much carbide spread around. We were underground a bit less than 3 hours.
Cova de sa Campana, Mallorca
Richard, Mick, Miranda and I walked up the hill in search of this cave, which had proved elusive on M.’s last visit. In fact, there was no real difficulty in finding it, apart from the sheer flog of getting there!
The cave is very impressive, with longish sloping pitches (at least as far as we went!) . . . we didn’t actually go to the bottom (the deepest cave in the Balearics). There are lots of fine formations (but also lots of damage/graffiti/carbide/broken stals/etc.). We were underground for ~3½ hours.
Avenc del Fra Rafel
We spent ~3½ hrs in this cave; I don't remember much about it, except that we abseiled part-way down the entrance pitch then had to swing into a passage that lead to the rest of the cave, and that it was quite well decorated. (I think that this cave was quite close to the road.)
Cova de na Mitjana
The Cova de na Mitjama is to the south of Capdepera, a small town in the northeast of Mallorca. Take the Ma-4043 out of the town, and down to the south until you reach the end of the built-up area at the eastern end of Calle del Morrás, where you can park, and set off along the obvious track through the trees, which takes you up a small hill (past a cove on the left). Down the other side of the hill takes you to the seaside, where the cave is off to the left among the rocks in a small rock face; it’s some time since I was there, but I don’t remember it being too difficult to reach – I’d suggest that if the going gets rough, you’re going the wrong way!
The entrance is roughly circular, maybe 4 feet in diameter, and just inside there's a 6–7-m pitch; when we were there, there was a very rickety step-ladder in two sections, which made climbing it a bit awkward, but that was years ago, and I imagine that the set-up will have changed by now. It's obviously a popular place, so there might be a decent ladder in place – but I wouldn't count on it! So it's probably best to take equipment for the pitch.
Anyway, at the bottom of the pitch there is a small network of good-sized passages, very well decorated. It's a very easy trip (we just took helmets and lamps, not 'proper' caving kit), but a pleasant outing, the walk there being quite nice.
Here's a snap of the biggest chamber in the cave; the pool is connected to the sea by an underwater passage, and the day we were there the sea was quite rough and there were constnat surges of water coming into the cave:
Any other must-dos on the island also welcome
) in the cave/mine/quarry make venturing inside worth it?
