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. 

La Palma, Volcano Route, Ruta de Los Volcanes

Absolutely spectacular and very, very black ashes on Cráter del Duraznero, formed in 1949

The Volcano Route, Ruta de los Volcanes, on beautiful La Palma, is one of the most famous hiking routes of the Canary Islands, the other equally famous one being the ascent of Teide. The latter can be done in various ways (1, 2) though, whereas the Volcano Route is singular, running along the crest of the island north to south. The path forks a little sometimes, but the signs always and unambiguously point to the main path.

I was planning to do it for a while, and decided to go now-now, while the weather is not too hot. Let it be said right away that it is very beautiful, very worth going, but needs reasonable physical form and some preparation.

Spectacular Caldera de Taburiente, the morning clouds are still floating inside

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

Faneque, the first attempt

Faneque, as seen from Tamadaba campsite viewpoints. Teide floating serenely on his cushion of clouds

Faneque, the tallest above-sea cliff in Europe, is always very prominent when you are in the northwest of Gran Canaria. It looks infinitely majestic and quite, quite forbidding. The side view gives you an impression of a series of three plateaus, separated by sharp V-shaped drops. Plus, people always talk about “the last platform” or “the last point”, which contributes to the same impression. It’s not really true, of which later.

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

La Graciosa in summer — 2, Yellow Mountain and walking (a bit)

Amazing color of the Yellow Mountain, Montaña Amarilla

The last time me and Timur went to La Graciosa, the smallest of the inhabited Canary Islands, we only went as far as Playa Francesa, sheltered cove beach where many leaisure vessels anchor for an hour or so. We were not impressed: it was crowded, and there was a pink floating inflatable slide in the water, great way of spoiling beautiful landscape.

This time we wanted to walk a bit more, to get away from the masked crowds, and to try to see the other islands of Chinijo Archipelago from the north shore of La Graciosa. As mentioned in the first post, walking on La Graciosa is not a problem if you don’t mind sand and heat. Distances are ridiculously small and there is no vegetation, so you basically always see where you are and where to go.

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.

Third time’s the charm

Finally! A decent pic from the top. Shadow of Papa Teide on the morning mist and anticrepuscular rays

I know it probably sounds ridiculous, but I went up to the top of Teide twice this year. And my stupid persistence finally paid off. Although I am still to see all the other islands from the top, we had a beautiful and not very common view during our ascent at down — anticrepuscular rays. On the first ascent we saw very little because of the calima, on the second the wind was so strong that all we cared about was not to be blown away, and now, finally, a few good pictures, yay.

Honestly, I feel so ridiculously proud of the pic above, as if I have gone and painted the rays in the sky myself.

La Graciosa in summer

Shallow lagoon Bahia de Salino filling with water in high tide

Ok, with all the excitement of the wildfire over, the academic year has started for real, and I feasted my (and, hopefully, your) eyes on the rare sight of freshwater stream on Gran Canaria, I would like to return to our short stay on Lanzarote.

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.

Lanzarote in summer, Playa de Papagayo

Beautiful water. Playa Mujeres

This year’s summer holidays were a bit scrambled for us, due to this and that. To punctuate the month of August we decided to go to Lanzarote, just for three days. We’ve already been to Lanzarote a few times of course. This time, the aim was to check out Playa de Papagayo, Parrot’s Beach, a small cove beach not far from Playa Blanca, and La Graciosa, the smallest inhabited Canary Island, “the eighth one”.

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.