Lomo de San Pedro - Cuevas de Berbique - Puerto de Las Nieves

Impressive cliffs of Tamadaba.

After I went to see Cenobio de Valeron I've shown pics of it to my walking companions. One of them said that it looked similar to Cuevas de Berbique, a toponym which I had never heard before. Of course I had to find out where it was (close to Agaete) and how to get there. To my pleasure I discovered that it is possible to do a linear walk past the caves using the public transport. You have to start from San Pedro (there is more than one San Pedro, so careful, San Pedro of Agaete). Currently, there is a bus from Galdar to "Valle" (which is valley of Agaete). The end of the walk is in Puerto de las Nieves, and there are buses to Las Palmas every hour.

Cuevas de Berbique

I somewhat hesitate to add links because they change from time to time, so, please keep this in mind and do your own research before embarking on your outing.
Interurban bus company "Global" : https://www.guaguasglobal.com/ 
Las Palmas - Galdar : numbers 105  and 103 once every twenty minutes.
Galdar - Valle : number 102 (very infrequent!)
Puerto de las Nieves - Las Palmas : 103
If you don't want to catch the infrequent bus, you can do a different route, starting from Agaete, but it will be longer and with more ascent. But it is perfectly possible.

Dangerously invasive, but beautiful, crimson fountaingrass

There was just five of us on the bus from Galdar to San Pedro and we all got off at the same stop, Lomo de San Pedro. I was going to get off one stop earlier, but the other passengers told me that no-no-no, it is the next one. One of them even offered to walk with me for a while to make sure I am on the right track.

We talked a little bit and I found out that although he was perfectly knowledgeable about paths and walks, at least about where they start, he has never been on any of the walks himself. The reason is that he has vertigo, to such extent that he can't even look up (!) let alone down, the steep cliffs surrounding his little village. Imagine, you live is a narrow alley and you never, ever, look up the sides. I can't.

Anyway, from the bus stop you have to cross the valley (and village) and start walking, always ascending. Crossing the valley sounds dramatic, but it is only couple hundred meters, and you are at the start of the walk to Tamadaba. First it goes along the slope, almost horizontally. In the route recording you can probably see that I did some wandering around at the very beginning - ignore it, just follow the path.

Digitial infrared conversion

The caves of Berbique are visible from San Pedro, so there is no losing your way. The path gets steeper as you get close to the caves and stays steep till you come to the "Era de Berbique" - round paved patch used for threshing, that is, separating the grain from straw and husks.
You can approach the caves if you wish (I didn't), but you have to find your own side path and ensure your own security. I think some effort was make to discourage people from approaching (such as metal railings along some parts of the path), but it is not actively forbidden. 

Path marker. Don't know if it means anything.

After the caves, the path goes through the out-of-this-world landscape of dark eroded rock. The omnipresent fountain grass makes it even more alien somehow.

Alien landscape. The orientation of the moon still surprises me sometimes.

Era de Berbique is not that spectacular in itself, but the views along the valley of Agaete are good, plus it is the point where you change your rhythm completely. Before the Era you have a steep ascent;  after it, it is a gentle descent to Puerto de las Nieves.

Dry fountaingrass.

For a little while the path runs along one side of the valley almost horizontally. It was a weekday when I went and most of the way there was absolutely no one around, I only meet one couple walking down before I came to Era de Berbique.

Fred Olsen ferry is coming, Teide visible to the left

As you can see, the hills along the way are gentle and eroded, with patches of opuntia cacti (also invasive) here and there.

Faneque, the tallest over-the-sea cliff of Europe

The views get dramatic again as you leave the wall of the valley on your left behind and start seeing the awesome west coast of Gran Canaria.

On the photo above you can see the road Agaete - La Aldea de San Nicolas. It was always the most dramatic road of Gran Canaria, having tall cliffs on one side and near-vertical drop to the ocean on the other. Last year, they cut a tunnel through a massif closer to La Aldea, shortening the road way by about 20 minutes and making it a little safer, if somewhat less spectacular. Next stage, they are going to drill through Faneque.

I got a little extra bit of knowledge from doing this walk - now I know where I can see temporary waterfalls after the rains and how to get to them reasonably easy. They are just about 1 km into the walk. So... I'll be back when the rains start.


Elapsed time: 02:35:13
Distance: 7.85 km

↑ 435 m
↓ 585 m

Agaete , Tamadaba and Faneque on shutterstock