Isla de Cabrera

Isla de Cabrera is an archipelago just over 5 miles to the south of Mallorca. It has been a National Maritime and Terrestrial Park since 1991 in order to preserve the rare indigenous plant and animal life and, significantly for us, access is restricted and a permit must be obtained.

We had an enjoyable sail across to Isla de Cabrera from Palma and, as we got closer, the skyline started to be dominated by the castle that overlooks our destination, Puerto de Cabrera.

Anchoring is pretty much prohibited, so part of the bookings process included the allocation of a mooring buoy for our overnight stop. The website we made the booking through apparently has an English site but it wasn’t working on the day that we made our booking so Nicky had to try to work some magic on the Spanish site. However, the booking was made, our money taken and we had received an email confirming the booking. We were a bit perturbed, therefore, that our arrival seemed to be a complete surprise to the warden. A lively ponytailed character with skin burned to a dark tobacco colour, he intercepted us in his RIB and, in a commanding voice that filled the whole anchorage, commenced something akin to the Spanish Inquisition. Satisfied that we had not just turned up but had actually made a booking, he helped us to tie onto our allocated buoy and then wanted to inspect our permit. All was smiles when we realized that he was expecting a yacht called Reg Barker and not Blue Velvet; nombre on the forms had not been quite specific enough it seems.

Our permit ran from 6 pm on 30^th April until 5 pm on 1^st May and so, having arrived in the evening, we relaxed on board enjoying the views and a bottle of vino tino. The 14^th century castle built as a defence against pirates was to be the priority for us to explore in the morning.

After a short dinghy ride ashore we zipped up the hill, clambered up a very tight spiral staircase and popped up on the battlements. There were fabulous views north towards Mallorca and south across the bay we were moored in.

It was then time to explore further afield and find out a bit more about the islands’ history. Walking is restricted to the paths and roads near the Puerto de Cabrera (the bay in which we were moored) but you can see quite a lot. The attendant in the small office by the quay was helpful and explained that the island had been requisitioned by the Spanish government in 1915 after a German submarine had been sighted in the bay. There is still a small army garrison on the island and, whilst technically it belongs to the Spanish MOD, it is now administered by their ministry of the environment.

We made our way around the coastal track, looked at the remnants of ancient buildings from the Roman and Byzantine eras, and also the memorial commemorating the 9000 French prisoners who had been interned on the island during the Peninsular Wars. Nearly two-thirds of them had died here of disease and starvation

We also saw the rest of the settlement, pictured above, where we think there is a retreat you can book into.

A large number of people we had spoken to in Palma had said how much they like Cabrera, how clear the water is and how peaceful it is. It certainly is a lovely place and, when the Nature Reserve personnel aren’t strimming around the picnic area in preparation for the coming season, it is incredibly quiet and peaceful. For us it was, rather unusually, the sort of place that is better appreciated from the shore than from the boat so we are very pleased that we took the trouble to go ashore to explore. However, at the moment it’s not necessarily on our list of places we ‘must do’ on our way back out of the Med. Maybe that’s just because we have seen plenty of other lovely places during the low season (and so pretty much empty of other boats etc), whereas in high season, from what we hear, many of those places become incredibly crowded whereas at Cabrera boat numbers are closely regulated.