By Soller Shirley
The class of 2022 have imaginative, innovative people amongst them, and this is the story of one couple.
Jamie, Constanze and little Athea are new arrivals to the Soller Valley. They love this world and their rural life, 15 minutes from the centre of Soller. They are embracing everything and determined to create an acceptable business within it.
The creation of Wild Spa and the launch of the mobile sauna is the start of their lives in this place. www.thewildspa.com will tell the full story, of the vision just launched here, in Soller. This is a solar powered mobile sauna, where you want it. This combined with cold water swimming, private hires near pools plus many lake and seaside venues make this the experience of 2025.
The journey is a great story and accompanied by great pics tells the story of Krakow to Soller, over mountains and surrounded by the beauty of the journey. How it ended stuck opposite the Repsol garage in Soller is the other end of the tale.
Jamie tells his story like this –
‘The three of us (me with Constanze and Athea) spent one night in the historic, beautiful city of Krakow before heading to the factory, where our sauna was being completed. This had been a six-month design and build process and was our first trip to Poland.
We set off gingerly with sauna in tow. It was the first time our Land Rover, ‘Rudy ‘had pulled anything so big’. We were full of excitement and anxiety. Our first destination was Munich to deposit Constanze and Athea at the airport to return home to Mallorca. Then it was me, Rudy the Landrover, and the Sauna.
From Munich my mission was to drive along the highest spine of the alps, from North to South and eventually reach Barcelona for the ferry to Mallorca, 5 days after setting off.
I knew this route and had a few destinations in mind to test the sauna.
My initial plan was to sleep in the sauna, but this idea was quickly discarded when I reached the mountains and realised how cold it was by 4pm. My first night was spent in the foothills of the Austrian alps in a local hotel where I was the only valued guest, I had a great time with the owners.
The next day I set off towards Andermat, via an iconic waterfall for a morning shower. By mid-day I was heading up the Furka Pass which is a little outside Andermat. At this height I was rewarded with a close-up experience of a glacier and her lake. Now I was in Switzerland and taking the roads very slowly. The skies were as blue as you get and the sun brilliant. Blessed by white peaks the downhills were approached in second gear. I had the odd brave cyclist overtake me. I made it to Fiesch on the Furkastrsse for a sleep that night.
The next day I followed the valley floor to Martigny before starting another ascent towards the boarder with France near Chamonix. When I got into the Chamonix valley, near Le Buet I pulled over to start up my first wild spa experience.
It was a comical disaster. At first, I could not get the sauna hot, then it began smoking me out. I quickly realised this sauna making thing was an art, a labour of love a new craft that I would have to practice. It takes patience and knowledge and some process and preparation. I did manage a cold dip in the adjacent river, and I felt a new emotional bond with the sauna, but it was a pretty unsuccessful dry run.
After a night in Chamonix, I continued to follow the alps south. I wanted to get to La Grave, which is a special ski destination and attracts hard core mountain lovers from all over the world. I drove there via Les deux Alps. I spotted the perfect, discreet parking place alongside a river to have test number two, and the following morning left without breakfast excited for some contrast therapy. I had felt the river, and it was beyond freezing. This time the whole process went a little more smoothly as I had been visualising it since Chamonix. In fact, it was a sublime and memorable experience.
It set me up for the last two days of driving to reach Barcelona
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At the ferry terminal I was approached by a couple who have a Finca in Arta, and they asked if they could rent out Wild Spa in the new year for 5 days as their family were joining them. This felt like a good sign for the launch of our new venture.
When finally, back in the Soller Valley, our home and launch pad for Wild Spa the journey was far from over! At first, we could not get the sauna up our mountain path. Low hanging trees and fallen walls were blocking the path. It took five days and help from family and friends to finally get the sauna home.’
Now we are home and ready for business and the beginning of many more sauna adventures…
Jamie Anley
