Sa Dragonera is a small and rather beautiful island, just off the coast of Sant Elm, at the Western-most point of Mallorca. In 1995, the island was declared a Parque Natural (Nature Reserve) and has enjoyed environmental protection ever since.

For the last twenty years, an annual kayaking event has taken place there, involving a 13 km long Volta a Sa Dragonera by canoe or kayak, and so again this Sunday just gone. I wish I was fitter than I am and in a more suitable athletic shape; I would really like to participate in one of these festively sportive challenges. A challenge it is every time; even though there is neither a race nor a winner, but the currents of the open sea on the western shore of Sa Dragonera can apparently be quite strenuous, depending on wind and weather.

For the last two years, there has also been a similar swimming contest, the Volta a Sa Dragonera nedant, an open water swimming challenge but also, non-competitive. The course is over a distance of 10 km, and all they got at the end was a lousy T-shirt. No, I’m only joking. A total of 110 swimmers participated in the event last May, including extreme swimmer Anna Wardley from the UK. Ms. Wardley had earlier swum the English Channel and the Straits of Gibraltar. She has recently embarked on a 5ive Island Swim Challenge for charity purposes, a series of five extreme swims around Dragonera (done), Portsea (Hampshire, UK), Jersey (Channel Islands), Tiree (Inner Hebrides, Scotland) and the Isle of Wight (Solent, UK). Not bad for a female who used to work in Public Relations. She actually commented that the Dragonera swim proved to be much tougher than she had expected. I bet. Well done, in any case. One done and four to go, Anna. Best of luck.

The photos were borrowed from the Internet, courtesy of flickr.com/photos/jmdiazpalmer (top), ultra-quim.blogspot.com.es (centre) and annawardley.com (bottom).

Thank you very much,

muchas gracias, and

moltes gràcies.