Judith's blog

We had a bit of a late start today and planned to have that as a theme for the day. A nice chilled tourist day and then try to fly in the evening, as we thought this would be our last chance to get in the air while here on the island. It seemed breezy from the outset, so we went for breakfast and then headed out for the volcanoes in the Timanfaya national park. Because it’s a national park, there are no laybys to get out and walk around, which is a real shame, as you miss a lot of the scenery if there are cars behind you. We eventually stopped at the camel park and wandered around. It’s a really spectacular place with amazing colours.

Next we went to the visitor centre to check if it would be possible to go on the organised walking tour of the park (the only way you are allowed to walk anywhere there). Every one is fully booked until after next week, but we managed to get some info on volcano walks outside the national park, so that’s the programme for tomorrow.

Although it was windy, the sky was just getting better and better, so we decided to have a look at some flying sites. Two hang gliders were having a wail of a time on El Cuchillo, but it was clear from the village that it was far too gusty for us. The German guides had mentioned a site near Soo to us, so we drove there, but with no idea where the launch is and no other pilots there, we drove on to Famara village, with the intention of having a sandwich and a drink. The beach front restaurants only served full meals, so we carried on towards the north part of the island, closer to the other NE flying sites. On the way, Geoff’s window stopped working. The electrics were bust and it wouldn’t come down. I didn’t think much of it – we had three working windows and air con (not that we ever use it).

We got to Mala and could see the hang gliders who are in the Canarian Hang gliding Open playing about on the ridge, but again, it seemed too windy, with white caps on the sea and strong gusts even at sea level. We checked through the binoculars and there was nobody flying at the Mirador, so we found a sandwich bar in Arrieta. Before we got to eat, Geoff decided to have a try at fixing the window. He did get it moving, but only for it to completely open and stay open. After that it wouldn’t budge. Arrgghh. So we now had a hire car with a permanently open window, so if we did go off to fly, we would have to take everything with us and one of us would be grounded. We had time to take the car back to the airport, and on getting there, unpacked the gliders, cameras, picnic and all the other crap you accumulate on a trip. Just after we loaded it onto a trolley to to take it to the car hire desk, Geoff had one more try with the window. Worked perfectly…

We drove back to Mala and Geoff is under strict instructions not to touch the window buttons and not, under any circumstances, to try to fix stuff that isn’t currently a problem. At Mala we spotted paragliders at the Mirador, so raced up there. Conditions still seemed a bit breezy, but when we got to the front it seemed perfect. The German group of Fritz were there again and despite the calmish wind, they advised us that launch conditions were tricky. The wind was a little off to the east and the laminar airflow was interrupted by the cliff in front of take-off. We got ready anyway, but as we were unpacking the wind started to slowly pick up again. The guys in the air seemed to be having more trouble penetrating and white caps started forming out to sea. We decided to wait a little to check out what was happening, and Fritz came back with a wind meter. Above us at the hang gliding take-off it was gusting 25 – 36km/h. He described the conditions as ‘not exactly the yellow of the egg’ and that you would need to be a really good ground handler to take off in these conditions. On the grassy slopes of the UK I would not have hesitated, but we were standing in a small cleared area surrounded by rocks. Even having to run up the hill with the glider could break your ankles. And the wind was still picking up…

We waited until the last possible launch time and then canned it. Two guys who had top landed gave us a lift to our car and one said that at times he was stationary and had he known what it would be like, he would not have launched.

Out for dinner later, we had loads of touts asking us to come into their restaurants. One even asked us if we wanted to come in and celebrate our honeymoon there. When I burst out laughing, he seemed a little surprised. I’ve worked out a way to thwart them though… You get in there first and greet them with a hearty ‘Hey, how are you?’ in Spanish and by the time they have worked out whether they know you, you’ve managed to get past them.

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We thought the forecast was for flyable weather in the morning, but stronger winds in the afternoon. However, we’ve been having problems finding a reliable forecast for here and there may not be one – it seems you need a significant amount of local knowledge to get it right. We called Marcus and Duncan who pointed us to El Cuchillo. We met Marc there at 10.30am and walked up this fairly crappy looking hillock, only to peer over the edge and see this amazing half crater. What an amazing flying site! It would have been lovely to fly there, if it hadn’t already been too windy.

Next we tried Mala. There were quite a lot of hang gliders there already and it was perfect HG weather – i.e. too strong for paragliders. I asked a German pilot about the conditions and he told me that it was just getting to the point where there was enough wind for us to stay up, so I ignored any advice he tried to give me, including trying to explain to me how a wind meter works. He clearly thought wanting to flying paragliders equated to some sort of mental deficiency. I did get a marriage proposal from him as well, but I am not sure he was entirely serious.

We drove back down to the village and debated what to do, when I spotted paragliders flying at the Mirador del Rio. Looking through the binoculars, we spotted over 15 people there, so rushed up. The road to the site is terrible and our low Citroen hire cars couldn’t make it up the track, so we walked over, only to find the wind had gone off and local guide Fritz advised us against flying. We drove a car down to Orzola for them and got some excellent advice in return.

After a spot of late lunch, we drove back up the hill, while the group of German pilots stayed at the landing field in Orzola and tried to kite up and then soar to the top. We found the wind spot on and lighter, so got ready fast. I was first off and climbed up to 500′ ATO, where I could see the entire island of La Graciosa. I headed out to sea, climbing all the way. Max altitute I got was 1165′ ATO and the views were spectacular. Marc and Geoff were also playing around flying out along the spine of the ridge in front and flying over Orzola.

It was getting late and I needed to take off my sun glasses to see properly. I decided it would be a load of hassle if all of us landed at the bottom and have to collect the car from the top, and as I had launched a while before the others, I top landed to get the car. Getting in on top was easy. Probably more easy than bottom landing in a car park full of cars, which Marc and Geoff wisely avoided and went to land on the beach instead. We all met up in Arrieta for a beer, pleased to have got a great flight after so much driving and chasing around.

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A gorgeous sunny day and the winds seemed lighter, so we were optimistic that we would fly today. Problem was that we were unsure where to go, so we phoned our old hang gliding mate Duncan, who phoned a mate Marcus, who reported paragliders flying at Famara, and getting along the ridge to the Mirador del Rio. We have always wanted to do the Famara ridge run, which is many kilometers, probably a quarter of the island, some of it over unlandable terrain (read: the sea). It wasn’t to be, by the time we got there the wind had picked up too much. A couple of local guys pulled up in the landing field, kited up and then soared up to the launch, but they were being flown, rather than flying, and only the most skilled went on along the ridge. Two of the guys came back from the mirador, tried to land, couldn’t, resigned themselves and went back to do the ridge run again.

For us, it was far too windy the whole time. I am a firm believer that just because there’s people flying, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily flyable. The locals know what’s what and the rest are tourists who have paid mega bucks to bring their gliders on Ryanair, so will fly just because of that, regardless whether it’s safe or not. At home (UK or Spain) I would not have taken off in those conditions, so didn’t here, despite seeing a few others doing the ridge run and looking on with longing and envy.

Enough parawaiting, we went to look at Teguise, which is the nicest town we’ve seen in Lanzarote. The old capital, it’s got lovely squares, churches and a very chilled ambiance. At 4pm, we went back to take off and eventually got off for a flight. It had turned further north, so worse for getting onto the higher ridge, and still windy. I managed to jump a couple of bowls and tried to get onto the hill with the English take-off, but despite getting past the two sets of power lines, I realised that I was between a rock and a hard place… soaring up the ridge would put me in rotor, flying out would make me mix it with power lines. It wasn’t dangerous – it’s easy to fly out and over the powerlines, but I decided that there wasn’t much point trying to make progress since it was late and I wasn’t going to get far. So I turned back to a bowl that was into wind and soared there, taking photos and enjoying the view. I top landed to get the car and chat with Marcus and Duncan, who’d had a fantastic day on the hang gliders. If we lived here, I’d certainly still fly hang gliders!

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Packing and hoping for the best didn’t work out so well. I forgot my shorts. A mistake I bitterly regretted in the extremely humid weather today. More wind and showers forecast, so more tourism.

After a walk down to the port and old town of Puerto del Carmen, we drove out to Yaiza, which is claimed to be the prettiest village in Spain. It’s not. Spectacular setting yes, but the village is pretty nondescript and nothing out of the ordinary, even by Lanzarote standards. I could certainly name 15 Spanish villages off the top of my head that are nicer.

Our drive to El Golfo took us around the edge of the volcanic national park and in contrast to yesterday’s green landscape, today’s colours were all black, red and ochre. We walked up to the higher view point of the acid green lagoon and then went to look at the village of El Golfo, drink a coffee and explore the black sanded beach. The breakers on the waves were huge. We were so impressed with the lava patterns, colours and sea that we drove round to be able to walk up to the lake as well. Stunning.

Next stop was the ‘boiling pots’ of Los Hervideros, which are caves, inlets and natural bridges made of basalt. We watched the sea crash in, around and through them. Las Salinas (where they make salt by drying out salt water), was interesting enough, but we decided to drive to the southern most tip of the island to the lighthouse near Playa Blanca. There were obviously big development plans in the area, as there are hundreds of new (but empty) houses, building sites and roads that go nowhere in the area. It seems that Spain’s building boom crashed here too.

I find uniform housing estates with hundreds of identical houses really depressing so we drove off to Playa Blanca. I thought it was quite nice, but Geoff didn’t think too much of it. We did manage to meet up with Marc and Isabel and finally managed to celebrate her birthday with a sumptuous fish dinner on one of the seaside restaurants.

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We knew the forecast was poor for the first couple of days in Lanzarote, but it was still a bit of a shock to wake up to warm, but rainy and windy weather. We had a lie in and then trundled out at 10am for breakfast. All the restaurants on the strip were just opening and the shops were all closed. This is obviously a proper resort… everyone sleeps late. Despite the fact that we never have cooked breakfasts in the UK, we had a full English breakfast for 3.75 euros. We couldn’t face a full Irish – it was twice the size. Once finished, we went to find the tourist information office that should have opened at 10am, but was still closed at 10.40am. Our very nice apartment has a guidebook, so we just grabbed that and headed out for our first day of exploration.

The last time we were in Lanzarote we rented hang gliders and despite being told that the island is known for its windy conditions, it was nearly nil wind every day. We did, however, try to fly everyday, so they only tourist thing we did then was to see the Timanfaya Volcanic National Park. We’ve heard from so many people about the other delights of the island, so we were keen to get out and see them. As we drove past the first crater, Geoff shook his head and said “talk about building houses right on the side of a volcano!”. I nearly wet myself laughing… what a statement from someone who lives on top of a volcanic plug!

Our first stop was the cactus garden. It was a really nicely laid out park with every type of cactus imaginable. Big ones, small ones, hairy, spikey, you name it. Fascinating.

Next we went to the Jameos del Agua, a really tranquil park created using a lava tunnel, with a natural pool which is home to a unique species of fluorescent blind crabs. It has a few cafes and the most amazing night club/concert venue ever. We bumped into Marc, Isabel and Sergi there and fixed up dinner, which we promptly postponed, when we met them again at the next stop, the Cuevas de los Verdes. These are caves formed by the same lava flow as the Jameos del Agua. We made the mistake of not going with the Spanish group, who were at the front. The young guide tried hard, but her English was incomprehensible and her German three times worse. The caves were amazing though and also included a concert hall and a surprise at the end of the tour that would be unforgiveable to reveal here.

We were going to go to the Mirador del Rio on the way home, but it started raining again, and there didn’t seem much point in going to a view point without much of a view, so we’re saving that for later in the week. As we were driving back through Teguise, we spotted a pharmacy and the time was an hour earlier than we thought. This tallied with the clock in the car (which we had assumed hadn’t been changed after the clocks went forward). I checked on the internet and much to our surprsise, the Canaries don’t have CET, but GMT. Explains all the stuff this morning. Sigh.

Geoff’s been a happy bunny here and already checked out all the cheap places to eat, so we went to a Chinese buffet tonight. All you could eat and with the bill came a free drink – the choice of plum wine or a spirit that had real dead lizards in the bottom of the bottle. We opted for the plum wine. It did come in glasses that were clear, but once you put liquid in them they revealed a naked man with a large knob in the bottom. We really are in a tourist resort!

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We were a bit chaotic and hadn’t packed or prepared a thing for our trip to Lanzarote, so it was a matter of chucking it in the suitcase and hoping for the best. My dad dropped us off at the airport and we were off on our hols!

Visibility on the flight was stunning right until the south of Spain. We got to see Santa Brigida and Puig d’Afrou from a completely different perspective. Flying over the rest of Spain, it was clear why it’s the most mountainous European country after Switzerland. You could see whole geological features like ancient river beds, rifts and endless ridges. I had my camera with me and spent the first two hours of the flight taking photos.

Unfortunately, we arrived in Lanzarote just as the sun was setting. Had we been half an hour earlier, I could have got some fantastic photos of the Famara ridge and the volcanoes from above. It was nearly 8pm once we got the car hire sorted and so we hit the bars of Puerto del Carmen for some food and drink. It’s about 11 years since we were last here and the place is nicer, with a lot of landscaping having been done. Can’t wait to go off exploring…

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My friends Angie and Royston are on holiday in Barcelona at the moment and contacted me to see if we could meet up, so I got the coach early this morning and headed to the big city. After coffee we walked up to Sagrada Familia, the crazy Gaudi church, but the queues were so long, we decided just to look at it from the outside. Next we thought it would be nice to get away from the crowds and I thought Parc Güell would be far enough off the beaten track for most tourists. I suggested that we take the metro there and then walk back through Gràcia. As we go onto the train I was telling them what a safe city Barcelona is – very little violence, but it’s full of pick pockets and con artists. Right enough, as we got off the train, Royston noticed his wallet had gone out of his front trouser pocket. He jumped straight back on an grabbed the person who had brushed past him. He spotted him throwing the wallet to his partner and raced over to him. Angie ran and held on to the pick pocket. I was so surprised and slow witted that I didn’t do anything for a minute, but then went over to help pick up the money they had thrown down in an attempt to distract Royston and Angie and make a run for it. They did get away in the end – we couldn’t call the cops without a signal underground and we would have struggled to keep hold of them until the police came anyway, but on counting all the money, it seems they got away empty handed. So well done to Angie and Royston for thwarting the scumbags.

That adventure over, we did get to the park, saw the great views of Barcelona, the Gaudi sculptures and houses and chilled out in the sunshine. Far from being away from the tourists, it was pretty busy. Late lunch and a few beers later, it was time to catch my bus back home. It was so nice to spend the day with them!

Geoff writes: a frustrating day for me. It was warm and sunny, but with strongish southerly winds forecast. Checking round in the morning, there was no sign of wind, and I phoned Peter to see if there was any at the coast, but nothing significant there either. So we decided to meet up at Sant Pere de Rodes. Arriving there, though, the balise (wind machine) on top was giving strong northerlies, and the wind in the landing field was from the west, rather than the sea, where it should come from. Although there is a north launch at Sant Pere de Rodes, it was probably too strong, so rather than go up, we phoned Marc to see if Santa Brigida was on – but no, it was too west there, but they were going to El Mont. So, off we went. We arrived there, and there was almost no wind. We were going to drive up, but I thought I’d show Peter the landing fields. In the hang glider field, some friends had just landed, and reported that it was very strong on top, way too strong for PGs, and they had needed people on the wires to launch. So that was that – back home to do some work.

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