With hindsight, we have decided that we should have only done an extra week in Mallorca after the sailing. However, this week we had Fran’s brother Ash came to visit, which mixed things up a bit. He couldn’t get into our hotel, so we booked him down the road at a real Spa hotel. On seeing the facilities, including full spa, gym and sizeable pool we showed no shame and made frequent visits to use his facilities, of course booking everything including all drinks onto Room 11. We also discovered they had a snooker table and so asked if we could play. The reception staff were most amused “no one ever wants to play that game, they don’t knows the rules”. Very odd we thought but ignoring them grabbed the cues anyway. Taking the table cover off we had one major question, whose stolen the pockets? Also, why are there only three balls. We discovered that they’d ordered a billiards table thinking it was a pool table and not even “English billiards” but the French kind with no pockets.

Knowing Ash was going to struggle with the heat, we decided we would do mostly water-based activities this week. Stuart was in charge of events and booked a caving trip, which caused some alarm to Fran and Ash who both get claustrophobia. However, he calmed them down by explaining it was available to kids, so it wasn’t likely to be anything too demanding. To be fair it wasn’t exactly potholing but he was a bit frugal with some of the finer details. We met our instructor at a car park in

Cala Romantica, a pretty bay located on the east coast of Mallorca. We were given a rucksack with wetsuits, hard hats, buoyancy aids and other safety gear. It’s safe to say that at this point the anxiety levels in the team rose ever so slightly. However, Ash calling Stuart an arsehole was probably an overreaction. We had to hike for about 45 minutes to get to the entry point of the caves, which was enjoyable as we got to talk to the other people in the group who hailed from Germany, Holland and the US. When we arrived, the water was pretty choppy and the instructor was unsure whether we could do the “wet” route as entry would be difficult. There was a dry option involving different caves but we later found out it wasn’t anywhere near as impressive. A review of everyone’s swimming ability and the instructor was happy to give it a go. The entry was indeed difficult, involving going underwater to get into the system but after that it was pretty easy and truly spectacular. It’s amazing when you look at the stalactites and stalagmites and realise they only grow an inch every 100 years, some are huge and have obviously been growing since before the birth of Christ. The cave system included large pools, which we swam through and unlike the sea, were refreshingy cold. At one point we all turned off our torches and sampled true darkness, which whilst also floating in a cold pool is quite a spiritual experience. The final outcome was that Fran and Ash loved it….Stuart had been redeemed!

That night we celebrated our intrepid caving trip by taking the train to Palma and having a tapas meal in the old town. A great way to watch the world go by.

We visited a number of beaches this week, a couple for the second time. The highlight was a sunset swim and meal at Si’llot beach near Alcudia. It is a very small rocky beach with an island small enough to swim around and a great place to watch the sunset across Alcudia bay. This was our favourite swim spot of the whole trip and we had a wonderful evening.

Of course this trip isn’t just about visiting beaches and other places of interest, we have also set ourselves a number of goals to fail at. Both of us have started learning a language, with Stuart learning French and Fran learning Spanish. Obviously, Fran is currently able to practice her skills on unsuspecting Mallorcans with varying (but mostly comic) results. Her various interpretations of grassy ass and mucho gusto and the enthusiasm in which she delivers them seem to cause the most hilarity. We are also trying to do some body improvements with Fran doing Yoga daily and Stu following an awesome body App. Before shots have been taken, which you will get to see but only if there has been some improvement over the year, otherwise they’ll go to the trash for long term storage. In all seriousness, we are very keen that this trip isn’t just one big holiday and we are both keen that we learn new things. Next stop is Ibiza and we are not quite sure what we will learn there other than the perhaps the difference between Tehno and House or possibly more likely the limits of