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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Matt Haig

It was genuinely healing to return to Ibiza, the place where I’d nearly died

The islets of Es Vedrà and Es Vedranell off Ibiza’s south-west coast, with the 18th-century Torre des Savinar.
The islets of Es Vedrà and Es Vedranell off Ibiza’s south-west coast, with the 18th-century Torre des Savinar. Photograph: L Apolli/AidBC/Getty Images

The thing that might surprise you about Ibiza is the quiet. Even in August, there are pockets of tranquillity all over the island. Walking along the nature trail between and behind two of its most famous beaches – Es Cavallet and Ses Salines – you hear nothing but the chirp of cicadas and the soft whisper of the Mediterranean. You will also see, if you turn away from the dunes and pinewoods, the salt pans that dominate this southern tip of the island with an almost eerie stillness, a flamingo or two standing like ornaments on the mirror-like water.

As with many parts of Ibiza – from the hilly forests of the north to the views of the rocky islet of Es Vedrà in the south – it is easy to feel like you have passed into another world. Even more so if you catch them at sunset, when the sky becomes gold and whatever clouds are around become luminous lines of orange-like furrows in some heavenly field.

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