2026 — Vuelta Balearica

A Micro Adventure. Still Counts.

Let me be upfront: this is not one of the big ones. No world records. No charity cheque at the end. No broken ribs, no holed pistons, no three nights on a French gravel car park. Just me, a 59-year-old scooter, and two islands in the Mediterranean.

But sometimes that is exactly what you need.

My phone had become an archive of mediocrity. Food photos. Screenshots of things I meant to read later. Messages that felt important at the time and weren't. The months after the Amazon war had left me sitting in a hole I kept trying to decorate instead of climb out of. So on the 10th of May 2026 I did what I always do when everything feels slightly wrong: I booked a ferry.

Night departure from Barcelona on the 12th. Destination: Mahón, Menorca. Valentina in the hold. Me on the upper deck with a coffee that tasted like regret but cost four euros.

Valentina

This micro adventure belongs to Valentina — my 1967 Vespa GS150. Old hands will know her from the Barcelona book as Sofia. She has since been renamed. Same bike, new identity, PX 200 engine under the vintage bodywork. The kind of machine that makes petrol station attendants put down their phone and come over to have a look.

She is not fast. She is not modern. She is, however, mine. And she started first kick every single morning. Which, at her age, is more than I can say for myself.

Menorca — Zig Zag from Sunrise to Sunset

I arrived in Mahón at dawn and rode off the ferry straight into one of those mornings that makes you feel like a genius for leaving.

I gave Menorca the whole day. Not the tourist route — zig zag. Every track that looked interesting, every dead end, every lighthouse. The island is small enough to cross in an hour if you go straight. I took seven hours and still missed things I would have liked to see.

On Menorca the highlight beyond the general perfection of the place was El Toro — the highest point on the island, a short climb that gives you the whole thing laid out below you — and the lighthouses. Menorca does lighthouses properly.

By evening I checked into a hotel near Ciutadella on the western tip. I ate something local, drank something cold, and slept like a man who had not been staring at a laptop for three months.

The Ferry to Alcúdia

Next morning at noon I rolled Valentina onto the ferry from Ciutadella to Alcúdia on Mallorca. Stood on deck and watched Menorca shrink into the horizon. It is a very small island and it disappears quickly. I found that oddly moving.

Mallorca — 2.5 Days, One Rough Figure of Eight

Mallorca is bigger and more complicated than Menorca. I gave it two and a half days, sunrise to sunset each one, and drew something resembling a rough figure of eight across the island with my route. Not planned. Just what happened when I kept turning toward whatever looked interesting.

The lighthouses were a theme. I have a thing about lighthouses. And monasteries, as it turns out. The Santuari de Cura sits on top of the Puig de Randa — the highest point of the central Mallorcan plain, a short but steep climb that rewards you with a 360-degree view and a coffee from the monks if you ask nicely.

They are always at the end of the best roads and there is never anything to do when you get there except look at the sea, which turns out to be enough. The first evening I stopped at the airport perimeter road — Valentina parked on the tarmac while Palma de Son Sant Joan's planes came in low overhead. They had taken two hours to get here. I had taken two days. We were both fine with our choices.

The first night I slept in Peguera on the south-west coast. The second night in Cala Ratjada in the north-east — a place that knows it is beautiful and has stopped trying too hard about it. There was one breakdown. One. A spark plug. I pulled over, removed the side panel, swapped the plug, replaced the panel, and was back on the road in twenty minutes. For a 59-year-old machine on a spontaneous island tour, I consider this an excellent result.

## Cap Formentor and the MA-10 The following morning I rode to Cap Formentor. If you have not been: it is the northernmost point of Mallorca, and the road to get there is the kind of thing that reminds you that someone, somewhere, decided to build a road in a place where a road had absolutely no business being. Hairpins, drops, views that make you stop the engine and stand very still for a while. Then back along the MA-10 through the Tramuntana mountains to Palma. The MA-10 is one of the great European roads. I am not going to oversell it. You should just go.

## A Word About Ibiza and Formentera I have already done them. After the 80-day world circumnavigation in 2018 I was invited to present at the Sargantanas Vespa Meeting organised by the Vespunics Ibiza. I rode both islands. I even made it to the lighthouse at the westernmost point of Formentera — where there is a monument to Jules Verne. Which, when you have just ridden around the world on a Vespa, feels about right. They are in the logbook. Balearics: complete. I mention this only because someone will ask. ## The Night Ferry Home Before boarding I rode through Palma one last time. The Cathedral La Seu at night, lit up against the dark blue sky, Valentina parked in front of it. One of those moments where you stop and think: yes, this was worth it.

From Palma I took the night ferry back to Barcelona. Arrived on the morning of the 17th. Rode the Ronda Litoral in the sunrise — the city still half asleep, the road almost empty, Valentina making that sound she makes when she is happy. On every ferry — Barcelona to Mahón, Ciutadella to Alcúdia, Palma to Barcelona — Valentina was the only Vespa. Surrounded by BMW GS adventure bikes, Triumph Bonnievilles, Land Rovers with roof racks. They looked at her the way people look at something they do not quite understand but cannot stop looking at.

About 1,000 kilometres in total. Two nights on ferries, three on the islands. Not a standard adventure — those start at 15,000 km. Not even a medium adventure, which would need at least 5,000 km. This is a micro adventure. Under 5,000 km, short duration, spontaneous departure. The classification matters, and I think it is worth being honest about it. But I came back with a full phone and an empty head. Which was exactly the trade I was looking for.

## Key Facts

Dates	12–17 May 2026
Distance	~1,000 km
Classification	Micro Adventure
Islands	Menorca · Mallorca
Machine	1967 Vespa GS150 "Valentina" (PX 200 engine)
Ferries	Barcelona → Mahón · Ciutadella → Alcúdia · Palma → Barcelona
Nights	2 on ferries · 1 near Ciutadella · 2 on Mallorca (Peguera + Cala Ratjada)

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