Cami de Cavalls or Horse Trail is an ancient coastal path all around Menorca. The path is about 186km (116miles) long. It is assumed that the path was used to connect watch towers, distribute weapons and other goods and allow travel between the watch towers and other strategic defence buildings along the coast. It is not confirmed how old this path is. In fact not much about the Menorcan history seems to be documented and known as we found our during our holiday. Maybe not a bad sign.
Before you get too enthusiastic, we didn’t do the complete path. We only did a day tour, starting in Es Grau and walking to Es Colomar and the Martello Tower. I would say that we walked about 6km from Es Grau to Es Colomar and the Martello Tower at which point we turned and walked back the same way we came until we reached the big bay with view on Es Grau (Cala en Vidrier). There we turned right into a signposted path leading to S Albufera Nature Reserve.
Starting in Es Grau the path follows the beach. The scenery and difficulty of the path is very varied from beach, levelled path with good surface, stony sections and almost climbing up steep rocks. Some sections offer shade whereas other offer no protection from wind and weather at all. Some of the steeper sections have steps but others are just rocks and gravel. I’m quite happy that we did a day tour only and didn’t have huge back packs with us. Good walking shoes are definitely recommended for people wanting to completed larger sections of the path. The way is signposted and was easy to follow (for us). However, I read that improving the path, sign posting it, etc. is an ongoing project. We did this tour in October 2014 – things might have changed since.
There are not many significant landmarks along the path but amazing landscape and nature. At some point we got a bit childish (ok, maybe not just a bit) and started building our own stone circle. I would love to know what happened to it. Did people continue to build it? Did it get destroyed? Is it like we left it? There is only one way to find out… we have to go back!
The Martello Tower is built on Es Colomar and could well have been a watch or defence tower. During high tide the tower is cut off the main land but we were lucky and could get to it. On the way we noticed bizarre rock formations which almost looked like art work.
Back in Es Grau we treat ourselves with some nice food. It was low season (October) and not that easy to find a space in the very few cafes and restaurants but we were lucky and found a table with beach view at the end 🙂
A useful link to get more information about the complete Cami de Cavalls.
