Ibiza : St Miguel
It was very beautiful inside the cala, we had to get past various rocks to get into the anchorage and there were two or three beaches in the anchorage. At the entrance was a rock joining the land by a causeway, with a stunningly beautiful private residence built on top, which we at first thought might be a restaurant
or hotel.
We anchored in 10 metres of water, and decided to take the dinghy to look at the other boats and have a look at the beach. It was quite late and when we got to the beach we realised that it used to be a river, which had been diverted using a concrete canal, and a beach built in front of it, which was covered in loungers and parasols. To the left we heard some noise and realised there was some sort of childrens’ show, we went to have a look and sat down. We presently realised that we were on a private resort, it turned out that most of the apartments and buildings and beach equipment belonged to the Thomson holiday company, and that we were among a horde of almost exclusively British holidaymakers, the resort being quite out of the way and set in beautiful surroundings. We made friends with a couple from Newcastle, who were there with their grown-up son. They were on a totally inclusive package holiday which they had only booked the week before, and treated us to a lot of “free” beers. We watched the children’s show and later on the reps’ show, which was based on various musicals, so a good evening was had by all, and it was remarkably cheap. It was nice to chat with some ordinary Brits.
The next day we met up with Ted from the day before, and sat by the pool at the resort for a while. The area has been very well designed and I would recommend the resort very much. However we learned that the excursions do not seem very well organised. We took Ted out in the dinghy to explore the area a bit, and landed at the beach on the neighbouring anchorage, we had a rough landing because there was quite a swell on the beach. We met two British guys who had a motor boat in that bay, unfortunately they had been robbed the evening before – cash, phones and cameras gone. The boat had been locked and was forcibly broken into. They were trying to get the police to investigate. We later learned from them that it was the first incident of its kind for the local police, and that they were quite excited about having the project and were getting a forensic team in.
In the afternoon we went for a walk at our anchorage, and got somewhat lost in the cliff paths and ended up climbing some rocks before we reached a private residence. On the road we were helped by a passing Spaniard who told us where the correct paths were, so we got back successfully to the beach! The walk was well worthwhile however and Dan was quite happy to walk and climb, for once!
In the evening we stayed on the boat, and early in the morning Nigel started up the engine and we set off for our next port, Cala de Portinatx, right on the northern tip of Ibiza. It was only a short hop of an hour or so away, and although there was some wind offshore we were not really able to sail.