Fraguel

From Bunyola drive towards Santa Maria. Turn left immediately after the village, 200m before the bar on the left. The road becomes a dirt track; follow this up the numerous hairpin turns passed the gate. Park the car immediately after a short tarmacked section (about 5 km from leaving the main road) near a path on the right. Beware - this area is used for timber logging . Park the car so that the lorries can pass. Follow the path to a small clearing (50m) and take the left-hand fork. Continue for 15m then follow a track leftwards, past another grassy clearing through the woods. Don't miss a turning right and continue until a tree blocks the way. Go rightwards towards the edge of the crag and scramble down until the path leads easily to the base of the crag.

Accommodation is not a problem as any travel agent will have hundreds of rooms on offer, but most of the hotels are about an hour's drive away from the crags. Package deals (flight & car only) can be very cheap and the best thing to do is to find a Bed & Breakfast inland.

Apart from the summer months, climbing is possible all year round. March/April and October/November are ideal. The crag receives the sun only in the morning and if it's windy, then it can be extremely cold. Most difficult routes stay dry whatever the weather. The easier routes seep after rain.

The Balearic Islands, ideal for those in search of sun, sand and, above all, an outrageous nightlife, are currently one of the trendiest summer holiday resorts in Southern Europe. Infamous for the sheer number of high-rise hotels, pubs and clubs, the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formenter do little to shrug off this self-cultivated image of excess. But it would be wrong to believe that this Spanish archipelago has nothing to offer except for cheap holidays on crowded beaches.Not far from this chaotic urban sprawl are beautiful secluded coves, quiet small villages and rugged mountains. It is not surprising that these once fertile islands were an important Mediterranean stop for the Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and then the Romans. Their prosperity declined rapidly though and they lay virtually forgotten until the middle of this century when artists and intellectuals, attracted by the mild climate and beautiful scenery, made these islands the place to be once again. And now, far from Mallorca's sunburnt package tourists, incredible new crags have been discovered on which to climb on almost all year round!

Mallorca. Sport climbing and Deep Water Soloing by Alan James and Mark Glaister, Rockfax Publishing