GR 222 GR 222 GR 222 --- VARIANT DVARIANT DVARIANT D SON SERRA DE MARINA SON SERRA DE MARINA SON SERRA DE MARINA ——— CAN PICAFORT CAN PICAFORT CAN PICAFORT

The whole route leads the walker through un-spoilt surroundings in the municipality of Santa Margalida: a coastal area of great architectural and scenic value, with the naval sighting tow-ers as a highly unusual feature and a visit to the Punta des Fenicis prehistoric necropolis as a must.

ROUTE STATISTICS

Starting point: street Carrer Verge de Guadalupe, Son Serra de Marina (3 m)

Finishing point: Son Bauló, Can Picafort (3 m)

DESCRIPTION OF THE ROUTE

This route turns off from stage 3 in Son Serra de Ma-rina, at the crossroads formed by the streets Joan Frontera Riera and Verge de Guadalupe. Take the latter towards the coastline and then walk on parallel to the shore between the built-up area and the sea in a north-westerly direction, until you reach the Mollet de Son Serra harbour.

On leaving the housing development you will see a wooden gate, the purpose of which is to keep traffic out. This is where you start out on the path across the sand dunes that will take you to the Fondo de Son Real, a small wetland at the mouth of the Son Real stream. After crossing this, you go past a machine gun emplacement and carry on until you reach Es Serralot, an outcrop of fossil dunes covered in juniper trees.

Continue close to the sea, and you will pass near to the remains of the Barraca des Civils, before leaving a small hut to your right, and, a little further on, coming to Punta Llarga de Son Real, where you will see another machine gun emplacement and a building in ruins.

Walk in among the trees of a juniper grove and then opposite you, you will see the sands of Arenal d’en Casat, which you cross alongside a fence erected in an attempt to preserve the dune system. Once across the dunes, and with the Punta des Patró on your right, you walk on through the Son Real pine wood, following which there is a sighting tower, a relic of past naval exercises. Some 75 metres from the shore you can see the S’Illot des Porros islet, while on your left stands another tower situated on the publicly owned Son Real estate.

Beyond this lies Ses Pedreres, an old quarry where the extraction of sandstone has left a chaotic area full of holes, piles of debris and deeply rutted cart-tracks. Next, you come to

Punta des Fenicis, with its ne-cropolis, which is an exceptional vantage point over the bay, and Arenal de ses Assutzenes, where sea lilies abound (Pancratium maritimum).

You finally reach the Son Bauló beach, behind which is the housing development of the same name, where the built up area of Can Picafort starts.

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Arenal d’en Casat

Sea lilies

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Time required: 1 h 45 min

Total ascent: 29 m

Total descent: 29 m

Distance: 6.817 m

Type of route: point to point

Difficulty of the terrain:

Orientation en route:

Difficulty of the ground surface:

Effort required:

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PLACES OF INTEREST

1. Fondo de Son Real

This small wetland, located at the mouth of the Son Real stream, often breaks through the sand barrier to the sea after heavy rain and obstructs one’s passage. A habitat where tamarisks (Tamarix sp.) predominate, together with vitex (Vitex agnus-castus), reed (Phragmites australis subsp. australis) and several spe-cies of rush (Juncus spp.). It is also an area that serves as a refuge and nesting ground for mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), coot (Fulica atra), moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) and the black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus).

2. Machine gun emplacement This is one of the military defensive structures built of stone and concrete during the 2nd Republic (1931–39) along much of the Balearic shoreline.

3. The juniper grove

Behind the semi-mobile sands, there is a stretch of dunes of up to two kilometres from the shoreline running parallel to the coast. It is populated mainly by juniper trees (Juniperus phoenicia) and strawberry trees (Arbutus unedo), in addition to pines, narrow leaved mock privet (Phillyrea angustifolia), wild olives (Olea europaea var. sylvestris) and common myr-tle (Myrtus communis).

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4. Illot des Porros Lying very close to the shore, this islet is just over 3.000 m² and conserves the remains of a necropolis that has been severely damaged by storms. The old-est tombs date back to the 4th century BC and the isle may also have been used as a burial ground in Roman and mediaeval times.

5. Son Real

This was one of the largest estates in the area and 395 hectares of it was acquired by the Balearic Government in 2002 for public use. There is a considerable concentration of ar-chaeological sites in this area, while the estate buildings include a chapel and the oldest part consists of a series of buildings arranged around a clastra or inner courtyard. There are also a number of structures designed for livestock and agricultural use, some of which have been turned into the interpretation centre.

6. Ses Pedreres In the vicinity of Punta des Fenicis you can see the old workings of a sandstone quarry; this stone was first used for burials nearby and later as a building material. The quarry is currently disused and has been colonised by juniper trees and pines with twisted trunks, as well as endemic species such as lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus subsp. magonica) and a flowering plant in the As-teraceae family locally called socarrell (Launaea cervicornis).

7. Punta des Fenicis This surprising necropolis was established in about the 7th century BC. It may have been larger in ancient times, even though nowa-days there still exist around a hundred tombs of various shapes and sizes that, on a small scale, imitate prehistoric structures such as talaiots and navetas; they would appear to have been used as the final resting places for the ruling classes from all over the island.

Necropolis of Son Real

Illot des Porros

Seaside at Son Real

Fondo de Son Real