Caves of Drach
Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Travel brings excitement doesn’t it. There’s so much to see in this wonderful world that we thought we’d share a few of our experiences. Majorca is a lovely island that is part of the Balearic Islands off the east coast of Spain. There’s a lot to see, do, eat and drink there. The Caves of Drach are a series of four large caves on the Island of Majorca. Sitting on the east coast of the island, they’re a hugely popular tourist attraction.
The nearest town to the caves is Porto Cristo in the Manacor area. We didn’t actually get there as the tour we were on went straight to the caves themselves. The caves were discovered a long time ago. There is apparently references to them dating back to 1338 but they were explored more thoroughly in the late 1800’s. The area itself looked great and from our research there seems to be plenty to do there. The caves though are by far the biggest drawcard.
We travelled there by bus from Palma taking in the countryside. Once there, it was time for the tour, which takes about an hour and covers around 1.2 kilometres. The caves themselves are lovely. We’ve been on quite a few cave tours around the world over the years and this was certainly worth the trip.
The tour also includes a short classical music concert and a trip on a boat across the underground lake - Lake Martel - named after E. A. Martel who explored the caves in 1896.
The acoustics are amazing. They’ve been running the concert here in the cave since 1935. There are plenty of seats for the concert but as it only last 10 minutes it really wouldn’t matter anyway.
Still, it’s very pleasant sitting there gazing out over an underground lake listening to classical music. The music is played by a quartet consisting of cello, harpsichord and two violins. They’re on a boat that slowly floats across the lake to stop in front of the audience. It ends later with them slowly drifting away. It’s certainly dramatic.
The caves are certainly pleasant inside too with a fairly constant temperature all year round of about 21°C and humidity around 80%. If yhou’re in Majorca then a trip out to the Caves of Drach is well worth the visit.