The winding road of Sa Calobra
The processions of tourists do not take away an iota of charm from the road of Sa Calobra, rated as one of the most beautiful, spectacular, dangerous and demanding in Spain... and in the world You have to try it!
The road MA-2141 , on the island of Majorca, is only 14 kilometers long, but they are 14 devilish kilometers, full of closed and linked curves, on sheer precipices, along a narrow road, without a central line, with few guard rails and with traffic from cyclists, cars and buses. An exhilarating experience in a spectacular landscape.
Arriving at Sa Calobra (La Culebra), a small town and cove in the Sierra de Tramuntana, on the northwest coast of the island of Mallorca, it is not easy, it tests the hands and nerves of the most experienced drivers. But the effort deserve the sorrow.
The Sa Calobra road is hidden in the Tramuntana mountains
POSTCARD DESTINATION
Encased between the cuts of the saw, with walls of rocks up to 200 meters high and with waters of a spectacular turquoise color , is a postcard cove where you can enjoy wonderful sunsets.
for that very reason appears on the excursions of all tour operators by land, but also by sea, to prevent customers from getting seasick. The result is that in the summer months it's so crowded that you wonder if the photos you've seen in brochures or on the internet have been photoshopped to remove the humans.
The cove of the small town of Sa Calobra
The MA-2141 starts from the MA-10 road, which crosses the entire mountain range from Andratx to Pollensa, in the town of Escorca, 38 km from Sóller and at the foot of Puig Major, the highest point in the Balearic Islands (about 1,500 meters) and Puig de Massanella.
It ends at a paid car park on Cala Tuent beach, but before arriving there is a detour to access Sa Calobra cove, which gives its name to the road. In the last kilometers it is called 'Carrer Port de Sa Calobra' and it is one way.
The cove has been forming over thousands of years and although the sand is rather stony It is one of the few beaches in the Sierra de Tramuntana.
The Sa Calobra road is hidden in the Tramuntana mountains
TURNS OF UP TO 360 DEGREES
The road unfolds between two ravines, the Morro de Sa Vaca and the Morro de Ses Fel-les, in 14 kilometers of vertigo descent that allow to save the around 800 meters of unevenness.
Linked curves to the right and left, 12 of 180 degrees in a horseshoe and one that has its own name, **as in a circuit, the Tie Knot (Nus de Sa Corbata) **, a complete 360 degree turn in which the road passes under itself with a small bridge. At this point there is a viewpoint from where you can see in perspective the curves that we have overcome or that we still have to trace.
1932 ENGINEERING
The design of this crazy road, which winds through the stones of the landscape, was work of the engineer Antonio Parietti, also responsible for the road that leads to Cabo Formentor, northeast of the island.
It was built in 1932, only with the strength of man, without machinery and without any tunnel, which makes it even more spectacular. The chronicles say that For its construction, more than 30,000 cubic meters of stones were moved. It covers the 800 meters of unevenness with slopes in some sections of 7% and with other surprisingly narrow ones, encased between the rock walls.
A sign indicates the direction to Sa Calobra
From Sa Calobra you can access the nearby mouth of the Torrente de Pareis, that runs through a deep canyon for three kilometers. To get to the point where it merges with the sea there is a narrow walkway of about 300 meters with a tunnel carved into the rock. This torrent is National Monument since 2003.
The Majorcan Sierra de Tramuntana has been a focus of tourist attraction since the 19th century. The Archduke Luis Salvador of Habsburg was the first hippie in northern Europe who bought possessions in the Tramuntana and invited his cousin Elizabeth of Austria, Sissi, to visit him . Both were ahead of the masses of Germans who now populate the island of Majorca.
The musician Frederic Chopin and his partner, the writer George Sand, spent a winter in Mallorca in 1838 and stayed in Valldemossa. That year the weather was terrible, perhaps like this, but it was very prolific for both authors. The writer British Robert Graves , author of Yo, Claudio lived intermittently in Deià from 1929 until his death in 1985.
And the Argentine writer Julio Cortazar he thought he saw the green ray of a sunset, of which Jules Verne spoke, when he visited the Tramuntana.
american actor michael douglas In 1989 he acquired a spectacular mansion near Valldemossa, S'Estaca. There he spent the summer with his wife at the time, Diandra , and then with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The curves of the Sa Calobra road
To attend to the illustrious visitors of the 21st century, **the Majorcan Sierra is dotted with elegant hotels such as Es Molí **, which occupies a 17th century manor house, or Belmond The Residence , with art gallery and spa.
READINGS IN WEST
The last novel by Carme Riera, The Last Words, is a story about the Archduke Luis Salvador written as a fictional manuscript where he talks about his life in Mallorca and his participation in the turbulent politics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Lea Velez set in 1835 a murder investigation carried out by the wife of the coroner of Mallorca in The surgeon from Palma . Part of the novel also takes place in Mallorca Blitz by David Trueba.
The Sa Calobra road is reserved for the most daring