This is a suggested maritime route that highlights the outstanding geological sites in the S’Albufera des Grau Natural Park and that runs from the Platja des Grau beach to Port d’Addaia, although its interest centres on two areas, the one between the Illa d’en Colom island and the Es Tamarells beaches, and the one that demarcates the Cala en Brut cove and the entrance to Port d’Addaia. The route has been designed so that it can be completed using kayaks, although it can just as easily be done with other types of small boat, as long as they are able to reach the shore.
The route can be done in three different ways depending on how much you want to do, the boat used and your physical fitness (if you decide to travel by kayak). You can do a partial trail (Stopping Points 1 to 3) starting and ending at the Platja des Grau beach and centring interest around the Illa d’en Colom island and the Cala de Tamarells cove; or another route starting and ending at Port d’Addaia or Na Macaret (Stopping Points 8 to 5), which goes from this point to Cala en Brut cove. These two partial trails can be joined together in a complete route covering 16.2 km, where a Stopping Point 4 is added to the initial stopping points along the coastline that separates the two areas mentioned.
The coastal stretch between Es Grau and Port d'Addaia offers a wide range of possibilities for discovering the geological features of the reserve. The route describes geologically diverse aspects such as the lithological variability, the processes that took place in the formation and deformation of the rocks, their peculiarities and characteristics, the geological risks and the coastal geomorphology.
Except for the rocks that make up Port d’Addaia and the islets located at its entrance, which are attributed to the Mesozoic, the stretch of coast encompassed by the route corresponds to materials that were sedimented in the great sea depths over 300 million years ago, the Paleozoic, in the Carboniferous and Devonian periods (in the case of the Punta de Mongofra headland). In parts, these rocks are covered by marès sedimented in the Quaternary (less than 2 million years ago) and related to the accumulation of sand from old dunes and beaches.
Punta de Mongofra headland, which demarcates Port d’Addaia behind it, flanked at its entrance by the Illes Gran i Petita d’Addaia islands.
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The route can be started at the Platja des Grau beach, which you can get to directly from the residential area of the same name, or at the Platja de Na Macaret beach or Port d’Addaia. Although the route is designed by boat from Es Grau as far as Addaia, it can be done perfectly the other way, or in two stages concentrated in each of these two areas.
