La vida de Annie

By Annie

Camí d'En Kane.

This is the only picture I took today, in the car while returning from a foiled attempt to take some at the lighthouse of Favàritx, which has just reopened after the restricted tourist season. Unfortunately everyone else seemed to have had the same idea, and being the weekend lots of locals were spending their free time driving about. Not wanting to play car dodgems on a tiny carpark by a cliff edge, we abandoned the plan and opted to take the Camí d'En Kane as far as the Alaior turnoff and then back home. I've not been along here for quite a time and was impressed by how well it has been maintained. It looks like a typical minor road with the drywall borders, and on the bottom right you can just about make out the monastery on top of MonteToro. I found an interesting history of the road on Spanish Wikipedia - you're free to skip this detail, but I'm including it for my own information (iffy Google translation):
Kane's path is a horse path that crossed Menorca from Ciutadella to Maó and that today, from Es Mercadal to Maó, is a scenic route. The road is so called because it was made while Richard Kane was governor of the island, during the British occupation in the 18th century. It was done as a more comfortable and faster alternative to cross it without having to go through the middle of municipalities, where they were booed by the local citizens, who saw them as heretical overlords. In the end the Menorcans managed to see that the English did not do little for them, and today the effort of those men for Menorca, building this well-traveled and also important road for the inhabitants of Menorca, is more than grateful. Since the main road of the island runs a similar route, but with much better conditions for automobiles and passing through all the municipalities, for a while this road had been rather abandoned and thought even with its deletion But the Menorcans showed up to take care of and maintain this road, it is still used for cycling, on foot or on horseback enjoying nature. The road is currently quite flat, paved (can be done by car), with one or two lanes depending on the section, signposted and surrounded by the typical Menorcan stone walls (the Menorcan name is Paret seca) on both sides. The island is crossed by the central axis, passing next to the Mountain of the Bull (at 337m, the highest point of the island and where the monastery of its patron, the Virgin of the Bull, is located), by completely white cemetery on the outskirts of Alaior and for some Neolithic monuments, such as the tomb of Ses Roques Llises. The path has four troughs for horses, like those typical of the 18th century, in perfect working order. The walking excursion between Maó and Es Mercadal is twenty kilometers, has no technical difficulties and is done in about four hours on average. Nowadays, the road is one of the most delightful walks you can take by car or bike.

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