Silver Tansy, slow recovery after a wildfire

Silver Leaf, Silver Feather, Magarza Plateada flowers by Parador de Tejeda

A few days ago, still in the first half of June 2025, I went for a short walk between Cruz de Tejeda and Artenara. On getting off the bus at Cruz de Tejeda, I always take a pic or two of the Caldera de Tejeda and generally look around. I must have a few hundred, if not thousands, pics taken from this spot. 

This time, looking to my right, towards the cliffs of Los Moriscos, I've noticed a few white patches on the slopes and the sight filled my heart with joy.

Roque Bentayga

Looks like a troll with his tongue stuck out, no?

Roque Bentayga is my favourite piece of rock on the island.

What follows is a description of a very short walk, or rather a visit, to the uppermost reasonably accessible bit of it. There is a little platform up to which you can come by a path. After that the formation becomes really vertical and you can’t possibly scale it without climbing equipment, and I believe you are not supposed to. I think there is about thirty meters from the platform to the very top.

The surroundings of the Roque offer beautiful views around Caldera de Tejeda. As I said, the walk could be extremely short, if you simply drive up to the car park, but doesn’t need to be, if you feel energetic. It can be done as a side branch of one of many possible circular routes that start and end in Tejeda.

For example, this circular route — https://es.wikiloc.com/rutas-senderismo/circular-tejeda-por-timagada-y-las-moradas-191897592 — is just over 8 km. The visit to Roque Bentayga will add another 6 kilometers to it. And if you don’t feel as energetic as those resulting 14 kilometers you can do what I did — take a bus to shave off some of the distance, visit Bentayga and return to Tejeda walking. The number of routes criss-crossing the center of the island is such that it permits endless permutations. 

Sardina del Norte — Puerto de Las Nieves

Cave house at the end of the promenade, Sardina del Norte

I did this easy hike several times already, sometimes alone, sometimes in a small group. It is not very long, less than 11 kilometres, and doesn’t have that much ascent and descent, below 500 metres of both. Both villages are reasonably well connected by public transport, so you can do the hike in either direction. Just keep in mind that Sardina has a nice sandy beach, but fewer places to eat versus the pebble beach, rocky natural pools and disproportionate number of restaurants per square head of population of Puerto de Las Nieves. 

The Guardian of Bentayga, The Dog of Bentayga, etc.

Here is is. Who’s a good boy? Sit! Good boy!

Last year, when we were on our way back, and rather steeply up, from Cuevas Del Rey, a young couple graciously gave us a little lift, thus saving a bit of walking up on a wide zigzag. They themselves were looking for a rather curious rock formation, which they called El Guardián del Bentayga, The Guardian of Bentayga. Roque Bentayga is a prominent volcanic formation in the middle the Caldera de Tejeda, and the dog-shaped rock in the photo was looking at it, with Tejeda village in the background. 

South of Gran Canaria, Andén del Zurrado in Barranco de Arguineguin ravine, circular route

If this pic gives you vertigo, don’t go

Well, I would like to start by expanding on the caption above. The main point of this hike, at least for me, was to see and walk a spectacular “Andén del Zurrado”, andén* being a pass or a path in a precipitous place, in this case with a strong emphasis on precipitous. There is no real danger, of which later, but if you have a fear of heights, it can get really tricky for you.

OK, warning done, back to the walk. A pic of Andén del Zurrado came up in Facebook and we started planning the walk immediately. The main problem of this walk is logistics, not the difficulty, once you are sure that everybody in your group can handle heights.

So, first problem, the transport. There is no public transport that come close to the start of the walk, at least I can’t find any. The nearest stop of Global is about 7 km out, so not a viable option.

Altavista, or Azaenegue

View west from the viewpoint, La Aldea de San Nicolás to the left

A walk along the crest of Altavista, or Azaenegue in aboriginal language, towards a viewpoint on the end closer to La Aldea is one of the easy and beautiful linear walks in the vicinity of Artenara village, on the edge of Tamadaba nature park. It does have some ascents, with the corresponding descents, but they are as light as they go on the island. There is no getting lost either. The only problem here is the transport to the start of the walk, the same as in nearly all of the walks to the west of Artenara. Once again, driving, or being driven, is the most realistic option for a one-day trip. But, unlike Faneque, you can do it if you stay in Artenara village; you can even do the longer version of the walk starting in Artenara and using the public transport, but you will have yourself a very tiresome day.

Faneque behind the solitary pine. The pine was burnt partially in the Valleseco wildfire in 2019

El Camino del Cartero, The Postman’s path, Gran Canaria

La Aldea de San Nicolás to the left. To the right, a new road.

La Aldea de San Nicolás, or simply La Aldea, is the least accessible village of all on Gran Canaria. There are three roads leading to it — one from Mogan, another from Agaete, and another from the central part of the island, Artenara and Tejeda. All three of these roads are quite long on the island’s scale, narrow, curvy and difficult, and at least two of them close whenever it rains. Emergency services occasionally have to go to La Aldea by helicopter, which of course has its own limitations.

Risco Blanco — Pico de Las Nieves — Cañadon del Jierro, Gran Canaria

Risco Blanco, The White Cliff, shining under the sun.

After we had been finally released into the wild post-quarantine, we successfully attempted several quite difficult hiking routes. The temporary (we continue to hope) closure of our favourite hiking company made us go where they’d probably never taken us, for the reason of it being too risky or too hard or both.

Double dose of spring, Gran Canaria

Almonds of Tejeda

This year, since we are allowed to go out and look at the beautiful spring of Gran Canaria, we try to do it as much as possible. Last spring, as I am sure everyone remembers, all or nearly all of Europe was in quarantine. What not everybody knows, perhaps, is how unnecessarily draconian the quarantine was in Spain. We were not allowed to go out of the house except for necessities. Said necessities didn’t include walking or any other form of outdoor physical exercise. Only dog owners were allowed to walk their pets, which give raise to infinite number of memes showing dogs being walked to exhaustion.

Even after we were finally allowed to get out a bit, the requirement of not getting too far from the house was imposed, thus preventing us from seeing the last flowers of spring. So, this year we try to compensate for that. I already did a number of hikes which I haven’t attempted before, and maybe I will write about some of them in details, but this post is here just to show the spring flowers and give very brief indicators as to where and when they could be seen.

Barranco Hondo, the Deep Ravine, and Salinas de Tenefe

Impressive cliffs

The second walk we’ve done in a very short stretch of time — we are all worried that our long awaited freedom will be suddenly taken from us again — is another one that was new for me. The south of the island is full of deep and steep ravines, and one of them has a double arch, called Arco del Coronadero. Of course, we had to go, because, as the famous saying goes, “it’s there”.

Euphorbias large enough for all the King’s horses and all the King’s men to get lost in

Grand Canyon of Gran Canaria — Punta de las Arenas or Playa de Artenara

Smooth sandstone walls, arches, caves and grottoes

While we continue to live in a situation where very few leisure things work*, we have to make do on our own the best we can. Last week we arranged a couple of hikes and I would like to record them. I’ll start with the last one, a hike to Punta Arenas aka Punta de las Arenas, Punta de las Arenas Blancas, a relatively short hike between the old road to La Aldea de San Nicolas and a light colored sandstone cape below it. The various names of the place all refer to Arenas, i.e. sands. I read that what is now sandstone used to be the sand of a beach which due to geological processes has risen above the level of the sea and is now effectively a fossil of a beach. The sandstone is pale yellow, hence the name of Arenas Blancas, i.e. white sands.

The cape, as seen from the beginning of the walk. Most of the path down is done in the shade

Ventana del Bentayga stone arch, interspecies kiss

Do you see a camel on the left and an elephant on the right?

The amusingly-shaped stone arch above is called Ventana del Bentayga, Window of Bentayga. If you are on the right level, Roque Bentayga formation can be seen through it. If you are slightly above the arch, as in one of the photos below, behind and above Bentayga and to its right small white houses of Artenara village are visible, and directly above it — the top of Tamadaba massif. On a good day, Teide is seen on the horizon, too. The height of the opening is about 4.5—5 metres.

Aserrador massif. Road GC-60 circling it, branch to Juncal goes to the left

North-West of Gran Canaria: Sardina del Norte, Faro Punta de Sardina and rock pools

Small development next to the lighthouse looks Santorini-esque under the hot Canarian sun

By now I walked most of Gran Canaria and liked most of it, too. However, there are still parts of the island of which I am aware mostly because of the photos seen in various social networks. Sometimes I have a feeling people want to keep the most beautiful places to themselves and that is why they don’t explain where they take their photos. If that is the case, they shouldn’t publish the pics in the first place. For me, it works as a challenge, and I imagine I am not the only one.

Beautiful water, isn’t it?

Cruz de Tejeda — Pico de Las Nieves

Million euro view

Pico de Las Nieves is the highest point of Gran Canaria, some 1,949 metres above sea level.
Except it's not really the highest point, because its neighbor rocky outcrop with a hole in it, Morro de la Agujereada, i.e. Holey Mountain, is a few meters taller. But you can't get on the top of Agujereada safely and easily, so Pico de Las Nieves is sold as The Summit.*  It's where you get the classic, the most postcardy view, with Roque Nublo, Roque Bentayga and Teide on Tenerife all in front of you.
I have been to it a few times, even watched the sun setting from there, but somehow failed to write it up.

Barranco de los Cernícalos — water!

A small waterfall a bit off the path

Finally, I’ve seen all three places where water always runs on Gran Canaria. Well, actually, there are just two left, poor Barranco de La Mina having been killed off by the owner of the water*. So, now on Gran Canaria you have just two places where freshwater runs all year round — Barranco de Azuaje and Barranco de los Cernícalos, Kestrels’ ravine.

Gran Canaria after forest fire 2019, Cruz de Tejeda — Artenara

These pines kept their needles, although they are dry and yellow. I think they have a good chance of recovery.

I was hoping to never write this kind of report again, but it was not to be.

Only two years after the fire which started inside Caldera de Tejeda and burned the Parador de Tejeda hotel, and despite the controlled burns in the central areas of Gran Canaria, another fire ran through the tops of the island, Las Cumbres. Several fires, to be precise, one of them, tagged in social media with #IFValleseco, especially big.

Controlled burn, silver tansy, and heat of May

An eruption? A wildfire? Nah...

After years living on Gran Canaria I have identified for myself the three main "hanami" events. I try to go and see all three of them each year, but sometimes it proves impossible.
One of them is the blooming of almonds. Another - the blooming of tajinaste azul, blue bugloss of Gran Canaria. And the third one is the blooming of silver tansy, much less obvious event. I guess my attachment to these rare plants is mostly due to the fact that I found and identified them myself, while both almonds and tajinaste are well known seasonal attractions.

Tajinaste azul and other delights

Busy busy bees

When the year is just starting and everything goes green, it is time to check on some of our favourite plants on Gran Canaria.

First plants to start flowering are almonds, no question about that. Weather was fluctuating wildly from the norm (if there is such a thing) this winter: they started already in December, coming to the crescendo in mid-January and leaving practically no flowers for the Almonds in Bloom celebration in Tejeda, which was scheduled, as always, on the first weekend of February.

Second lot is the tajinaste (or taginaste) azul, blue bugloss of Gran Canaria.*

Again, the timing varies significantly. The first time I went to see them was in the beginning of May 2015, they were almost finished, but not quite; the second time, in 2016, it was in the first half of March and they were in bloom. Last year, we went in on a scheduled hike with Arawak in April and saw only two plants already in bloom, others still firmly in bud. This year, we went on the 14 March and found the whole Barranco de la Pasadera in bloom — and not just tajinaste plants. So. If you want to go, you might want to start checking social networks in the first half of March. Somebody from Gran Canaria is bound to publish some pics as soon as the first flowers appear.

There is very little to write really — just enjoy the pics :)

Spring equinox sunrise at the necropolis of Arteara

Somebody switched on an enormous spotlight behind Amurga massif.

On one of our very first visits to Gran Canaria we booked a stay in a village called Fataga. The reasoning was that the holiday house looked really nice and that it was “only” 45 km from the airport. We were thinking in terms of Fuerteventura or possible even East Anglia, where 45 km on the flat is no distance at all. What can I say. We were wrong. Between the airport and Fataga there is an enormous Amurga massif. You can either go through a steep and narrow pass called Degollada de las Yeguas or go a longer and somewhat less steep route through San Bartolome de Tirajana. The second option is easier, but you need to know that beforehand. We didn’t. The most difficult bit is going up to the pass from Fataga to airport (opposite direction being downwards and therefore easier). When I tried to do it the first time, I got stuck on the steepest curve. I kept stalling the motor and try though I did, couldn’t advance even an inch. If anything, I was going backwards with each stalling. A small queue of cars started to form behind me immediately, and eventually a giant tourist bus joined them. A guide from the bus, very nice and polite German guy, run up to us and asked what was going on. When he found out that nothing was wrong with the car itself, he suggested to drive us to the pass, and did. I was enormously grateful to him, still am.

That all happened in daytime (hence the queue and the help). We, however, were supposed to drive to the airport in the small hours, in the darkness, on the empty road. So. I chickened and we changed the booking for the last night to a guesthouse in Ingenio. I did have to drive the same road one more time of course, but not at night and I was mentally prepared to what was coming and managed ok this time.

Why am I telling you all that, all these years later?

Winter Solstice Sunrise on Mesa de Acusa

I liked this stage of the sunrise the most — the cone of shadow under Roque Bentayga was spectacular

An excursion to greet the first rays of the sun on the day of winter solstice is organized by the Cabildo of Gran Canaria every year. Well, this year there were two, on two consecutive days, coz, let’s face it, the difference in the position of the sun and timing is non-perceivable and we are no druids anyway.
We already tried to attend one of those three years ago. The bus picked us up later than it was promised, the driver took a long way to Acusa plus he seemed to be afraid of the dark or something. All these combined, we arrived to the Mesa de Acusa, a plateau in the upper part of the Acusa village, when the sun had already risen, to the general embarrassment of all.
This time was different. We started on time; the bus was small, so it could take a faster route via the smaller roads, and the driver was excellent. We arrived well before the sunrise and had a lot of time to freeze our bits off and to listen to a very good explanation from the Cabildo guide .
Of course, to observe the beautiful sunrise over the rock formations Roque Bentayga and iconic Roque Nublo you don’t need to be there on the day of solstice, but on that day and around it it’s well known where the Roques project their shadows (see map below). Plus, of course, I like a bit of ritual now and then.
Not overmuch, though.