We’ve had a couple of damp days since the Christmas Day fun. Actually, we’ve had one damp day and one day of solid torrential rain! Climbing and swimming were both off the menu, but between the showers, we took a Boxing Day walk up our local volcano!

Which happens to have a church built on the summit. I was so busy looking at the views and the ornate interior, that I forgot to take a photo of the actual church.

There were good views down the coast of the island from the top, despite the low clouds.

We spotted some good plants along the trail too. Incredibly, it’s possible to drive right up to the church, but we fancied the exercise, (and didn’t want to test the hire car on the very steep concrete track). It’s about a kilometre from the tarmac to the top.

Since our time in the village, a new restaurant has opened over the road from our apartment. We’ve been watching them get the place ready since our arrival. First the sign went up above the door, then the electric was connected by the pole climbing guys, while tables and chairs were delivered. We thought we should show some support and popped in on their Boxing Day opening night. We went early without reservation, and they made room for us, by bringing in a table from out on the pavement and squeezing us in! Beer, wine, pizza and pasta – more than we could eat, came to the princely sum of £19.50!

The 27th December started with blue skies and somehow we stayed dry on the roof top terrace, as huge dark clouds push in from the sea. They seemed to be going all around us, leaving us a bit of sunshine to breakfast in, before finally reaching our village, causing an absolute wash out as we retreated back inside.

Afternoon cabin fever was avoided by donning waterproofs and hiking up to some of the other climbing sectors to see what they were like. It was actually possible to climb in some of the big caves (as long as you’re strong enough), such as Dragonera Cave.

The walk took us through some ancient olive groves, that had seen some serious pruning over the years.

While we were out, we started following signs up to the ruins of a very old castle on the top of the ridge, but the path soon turned into a slippery mud slide and as we had no supplies, decided it might not be worth the efforts given the conditions. Back to base we went to dry out!