Mallorcan Countryside

Chapter 20

(Click photos to enlarge)

Going for a drive in the country was a favourite pastime for many in those days when country roads were quiet, save for the occasional flock of sheep, horse and cart or neighbours passing on their bicycles.

Mr. G. enjoyed a Sunday drive out into the Mallorcan countryside, where once out of Palma city one could notice the scents of olive wood smoke, freshly turned soil and wild thyme growing on hillsides.

We would go with Helen in the Citroen deux cheveaux to join the domingueros or Sunday drivers as they exited the city to take in the warm Mallorcan sunshine by perching on a hillside under a pine tree, or by spending the day on a beach with a picnic basket. Some families would scout the woods for wild asparagus after a spring rain. Others could be seen unloading a carload of equipment for not just a simple picnic, but a full cooked meal in the woods, with camp stove or bonfire, tables, chairs and cooking pots brought for boiling the Sunday dinner al fresco.

Mallorca was an island full of stones. Stone walls, stone castles, stone fences and fincas, or country estates were constructed from native stone.


I had been accustomed to the rainforest greenery of Vancouver Island and so this Mediterranean island was a sharp environmental change. Pine trees lined mountain ridges, their rounded crowns like soft green puffs painted on a gentle landscape.

Photo of Deià by Adrian Pingstone


I felt sorry for the poor dogs tied to the back of horse-drawn carts who were expected to keep walking even when tired.



Continue on to Chapter 21......Loli

Go back to Chapter 19......Eurovision 1968