More Lluc

Ok, I’m bored. Today was another rest day. N managed to step on a sharp and pointy piece of wood yesterday at the crag. It went through the sole of his strops and into his foot, making walk-in’s, tight climbing shoes and sweaty climbing feet a bad idea for the next day or so. So today was spent in the picnic area of the Lluc sanctuary. After staying in the sanctuary itself for three days, we decided that we’d indulged ourselves in enough luxury and it was time to look after the coffers again. We are now staying in the Lluc campsite. It’s ok. Most of the tent sites are flat, dry, unshaded and dusty. We have scavenged ourselves a fairly nice little spot against the wall. It’s shaded from most of the day (gets late afternoon sun) by some big trees and it’s far enough away from most other campers that noise isn’t an issue. It is on a slight slope, but we figured that we’d cope. We do, but each night does involve a certain amount of leopard crawling back up to the top end of the tent. The toilets are awful. Truly nasty. I was lulled into a false sense of happiness when I accidentally went into the men’s toilets the first night and found the one clean loo in the entire place. After that, I have been so appalled by each of the toilets I have attempted to use that now I just prefer to walk the 300 metres or so to the sanctuary, where there are clean public toilets. The good thing about this campsite, though, is that it’s free. And so we soldier on….

Just next to the sanctuary and the campsite, there is a large picnic area. It is filled with grey rocks, shady trees and olive trees. I love olive trees. They are the most beautiful things. Well, the old ones are. They get all gnarled and wizened and twisted. They make incredible shapes and you can see things in the wood. N has decided that olive tree gazing is my substitute for looking into the sky and making pictures out of the clouds. Soon I will post some olive tree pictures. But not yet because they are still on my camera.
So yes – we spend our rest days, and afternoons when it is too hot to climb, in the picnic area. N sets up his solar panel and we both take out our computers. N works and I write. Or email people. Or blog. Or edit photos. N is happy as Larry, puttering about with his gadgets and tweaking them to get the angle of the sun just right. And I am happy because I usually have a glass of red wine in reach of my paws as I type. Today, though, I have reached saturation point. I have emailed. I have written. I have done stuff. It is hot. The benches are uncomfortable and the only other thing to sit on is rocks. There is no green grass. There is nothing to lie down on comfortably. My bum is sore from the benches. There is nowhere to go. There is nothing much to do. I am bored and unimpressed. My faintly grumpy recommendation is that you don’t go to Mallorca in the dead heat of summer, when the island swelters every day and the tourists swarm. Most particularly, do not do this if you are not going to stay in a nice room with air-conditioner. And showers. And toilets. If you have no room, no air-con, no showers, no toilets, no fridge, no chair and no comfy bed, Mallorca kinds of sucks at midday. There is a reason that all the Mediterranean folk siesta…

On a more positive note, I would still rather be here than at work. 

Since I am lacking in inspiration today, I shall just share a few arbitrary points:

I wrote an email to my mom today. N has been doing his best to pester me as I write. I think he is bored. He has been trying to sneakily type randon letters into my email. He finally managed to type an "n". I deleted it. He is now threatening to tell my mother that I deleted the letter that he typed to her...

Europe is a very dirty place in many ways. Everywhere you go people are peeing and poohing. Toilet paper lies around every rock. People seem to drop their pants as and when they please. 
Are South Africans any cleaner? Our country does not have loo paper around every rock. Does this mean that we are better behaved in SA or would our country look the same if it was as densely populated as Europe?
Europe does, however, have a massive recycling effort going. Everywhere you go there are rubbish bins. But not just bins – often 4 different kinds of bins. Yellow for plastic, tins and tetrapaks; green for glass; Brown for organic waste and black for irredeemable rubbish. It would be so cool if recycling were this widespread in SA. But it’s unlikely to happen until we have as much of a space and a “where are we going to put our rubbish???” problem as Europe does. 

South Africa has a bigger range of foodstuffs than I have been able to find in Italy or Spain. We have been to both small café type shops and larger super-markets. SA wins hands down. Peanut butter was all but impossible to find in Italy. (Fortunately we have found a supply in Mallorca – N was starting to twitch with desperation.) Marmite or anything of the sort? No such luck. Salt and vinegar chips are just about impossible to find and when you do find them they are bland and you might as well not bother. SA has a huge range of chip flavours which are not found here. There are no blue Doritos. Biltong is clearly wishful thinking. We’re quite well catered for in SA in terms of the variety of foodstuffs we get. I will admit that Italy kicks our butts in terms of ice-cream varieties. And in terms of mozzarella cheese, but who cares about cheese…