Path from Deia to Puerto de Soller

Today started off in the pouring rain waiting for the bus to take us from Puerto de Soller to Deia, a mountain village, famous for being the home of Robert Graves. The village has also attracted other writers, musicians and artists and has become quite an artists' refuge. I couldn't believe that it was raining so hard before we'd even started - my waterproofs were well and truly put to the test through the subsequent four hours.

We started, in Deia, with a clamber to the top of the village to visit the wonderful little 18th century church and the town cemetery where Robert Graves is buried. This is a tremendous place to have one's mortal remains laid to rest - despite the rain, the views over the countryside and coast were fabulous.

Graves made this part of the coastline and the footpaths here famous in his writing: he particularly wrote about a pretty cove and we headed there through sheeting rain. The water was a beautiful turquoise and we stopped for a short while before carrying on through olive groves, woodland and pastureland - stunning landscapes, even seen through a grey sheen - you can get the idea here.

We walked for several hours on the Deia-Soller footpath before stumbling across an avenue with two huge farmhouses - one of which, the Son Mico (named after its owner in about 1600 whose nickname was Mico) was miraculously serving coffee and cake. Better still, the owners stoked up an open fire for us and we were able to warm up and dry off. And then, as the sun started to force its way through the cloud, they brought us a bowl of the most delicious strawberries. This was hospitality at its very, very best! The gardens were beautiful there too, you can see the view, such as it was, in this blip.

We carried on along the footpath, spotting wild orchids on the way and walking past olive groves displaying every shade of green. The path began to open out and drop a little towards the sea. We could have taken a path directly back to Soller Port but made a slight detour to return via the Cap Gros lighthouse. The sun was winning now so several of us basked in it for an hour at the old refuge, with stunning views out to sea, before completing the final descent to sea level. There were houses on the path going down that reminded me of Dali's house in Port Lligat.

I knew I'd be slow to catch up but I didn't think I'd be this slow - promise to do my best to catch up with all your journals soon.