Interlude - Lazy Ibiza

A masted boat is sailing past. I watch it as I sit back on my hotel room balcony drinking a chilled white local wine. Okay the wine (Can Maymo 2011) is crap but it doesn't spoil the moment. The white hull glistens as it bobs effortlessly on the blue Med under an early evening sun setting behind me. It's easiness mirrors my mood as I slip further back into my chair. Donna and I are on a short break in Ibiza, a last minute thing. We have very quickly forgotten horrid weather, unnecessary funeral processions and sycophantic Tories after a day by the pool.

It wasn't all day by the pool. Between our hotel, the Tropic Garden, Santa Eulalia and the calm blue sea stretching out to a light blue horizon lay a discovery. (I know this is a daft thing to do, but sitting typing this I've just looked up and spied the distance between the start of the sea and the horizon with one eye between my thumb and forefinger. It's only 5cm away! Isn't that odd!)

Anyway, a walk out early afternoon soon leads us down a wide stone-laid, palm tree-lined promenade between our hotel and neighbouring apartments, called Passatge Rigoberto Soler Perez. It appears to lead to a dead end of lush, green trees. As we approach, however, what looks like red sandstone earth paths appear, offering routes into the woods in either direction. We take the left, the better option we later decide! At first it's just a narrow path through a low canopy of trees but it quickly opens out. The scene that greets us is worth the walk alone. The sailing boat is moored in a small bay of mini red sandstone cliffs set against a backdrop of distant blue up to clear cloudless sky. As an easy, occasional breeze blows, trees edging the bay sway and sing. Clear, clean water laps jagged rocks under the red on blue walls, home to pools of gently swaying seaweed and shoals of tiny fish.

We walk first with the sun to our backs. No glare hinders our view. The trees are more spaced but offer intermittent shade. One area looks really interesting to Donna. A chance to, relatively easily, climb down a gap in the wall to rocks by the sea, then further down to a clear pool adjacent to a ready-made rock seat allowing her to wet her feet. Funny how wet feet in a cool lagoon looking out to sea makes your shoulders fall away from your ears and your tense back relax!

The walk back and beyond our initial left turn doesn't stop me keep looking out across the bay and the bobbing and swaying boat, except in a couple of places. Here, the red path narrows to no more than a metre between tree line and 4 metre drops to an unforgiving fall. Eyes forward and down here. It's sad that, shortly, these sections of the path will erode away. I can only hope that, when this happens, the locals will create new routes.

Pleased with our discovery, we head back to the hotel. As we return, I feel uplifted, like we've uncovered some hitherto unseen haven cove. Sad I know! But it was this feeling that made sitting back on the balcony, dodgy local wine in hand, watching the sail boat go by such a lazy Ibizan joy.