Judith's blog

We got a phone call from the plumber this morning to say he’d got our message and he was coming round this morning to fix our heating. Phew.

We managed to get through a day of doing company accounts without tears and tantrums, which must be a first.

Otherwise, we’ve had a strong, but very warm, southerly wind here. Top temperature in Olot was 21°C today, which was nice, but rubbish for the ski resorts, who had a minimum temperature of 5°C. We watched the UK lunchtime news and saw the havoc caused by the weather in Scotland, where they reported -12°C at lunchtime in the Borders. Amazing to think there’s a difference of 33°C between here and there.

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We arrived back at home way after midnight, after my lovely dad waited for our delayed flight and picked us up from the airport.

This morning we found out that our boiler has packed up, despite having it fixed a few weeks ago, so we have no heating or hot water. It’s a national holiday today and Wednesday, with a bridging holiday tomorrow. With everything shut, there’s no chance of getting it fixed any time soon. If we are stuck without water until Thursday, then it will be a trip up to my parent’s house for a shower.

The lack of heating isn’t a problem. We’ve had 18°C temperatures during the day and the snow is melting in the ski resorts with the temperatures in the Pyrenees well above freezing. The snow line was above 2700m today, so it was raining even at the very top of Masella. There were 37km of piste open, but what it will be like when we actually get to go skiing after the public holiday, I don’t know.

We have a mountain of work to catch up on, including our annual company accounts, so we have a week of stress and potential acrimony ahead. Ho hum.

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Our last day in Lanzarote and the forecast was lousy. Even stronger winds, but the possibility of rain had been reduced from 75% to 45%. We packed our flying stuff away and walked out of the apartment into a gorgeous hot and sunny day. Rain seemed nowhere on the horizon. Any thoughts of trying for a quick morning flight on the off-chance were soon dashed when we realised how windy it really was. Instead we went Costa Teguise to find a non-fried breakfast and failed miserably. We didn’t think anything of the place, so on to the last must-see thing on our list for the week: César Manrique’s house. Manrique was the artist who designed most of the amazing places we visited during the week, like the cactus garden, Jameos del Agua and the many kinetic sculptures that dot the island. He laid down the strict architectural and planning rules that have stopped Lanzarote becoming some trashed and trashy tourist resort.

His house is built in a lava field and incorporates a number of lava bubbles or jameos, where the roof has caved in, so you have an indoor/outdoor space, complete with trees growing in the centre of the room. The rest of the house is fascinating too. I loved it.

Next we drove to Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote, and the only place where Manrique’s town planning guidelines don’t apply (although I think he’s spinning in his grave about the new settlements in Playa Blanca).  Arrecife in general is a bit of a dump, but the sea front was nice. By the time we got there the wind had increased even more and swimming was out of the question. I can’t believe I went to Lanzarote and didn’t swim once (actually, that’s the same as last time!). I did get a paddle, a bounce on the beach trampoline and then we walked to the raised park which has a sea wall. The waves were breaking on it so hard that the spray was sometimes 20m high. Geoff let himself get drenched.

Then more walking round the sea front to the old fort and through the old town until it was time to go to the airport. Luckily, we arrived in plenty of time, since there were twice as many people than normal there, with all the backlog of people still waiting to get onto their flights. We ended up leaving an hour late and were greeted by a lovely young stewardess called Vanessa, who sent us greetings from Roger. She had been stranded with him in Marseille the previous day. Once we were airborne, and before the trolley came round, she brought us two complimentary beers. Not compliments of Ryanair, obviously! Roger had asked her to give them to us as a present. It’s the nearest I’ll ever come to feeling like I’m travelling first class on Ryanair. We were really, really touched by his kind thought.

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The forecast was for strong winds today, and getting stronger as the day progressed. Although Fritz hinted that he thought it might be possible to fly today, we wrote it off when it seemed to pick up a lot over breakfast. We drove past the south coast and didn’t see anyone flying, but then again, the palm trees seemed to be doubled over.

We headed over to the north side of the Timanfaya national park to do the hike recommended by the information centre. The Montaña Blanca trail took us on a rocky path through a lava field into the crater of a little volcano. We then walked along a better path to Montaña Blanca, while we looked for the path up to the crater. We eventually found it, but the wind was getting stronger. We spoke to a German couple at the bottom of the sloping path and they told us that the wind on the edge of the crater was really strong, so much so that they had been scared walking down and had relied on their walking sticks to keep themselves balanced. They suggested we take our glasses off as both of them had nearly lost theirs. We decided to walk up part way and see. As we climbed higher, the gusts got stronger and stronger, blowing down little rocks and making us crouch down, to keep steady. Another group of Germans came down the hill and reported conditions where it was difficult to stay steady on your feet and one said she was nearly pushed over by the wind.

We had a lengthy discussion about how sensible it would be to carry on. The forecast was for increasing winds in the middle of the day and I was already concerned about the conditions half way up, never mind in the dip of the crater, where there was a strong venturi effect. In the end we decided there’s a difference between doing something dangerous and just being foolhardy, so turned back and walked back down. We were really disappointed though not to see the crater.

As we walked back along the bottom of the volcano, I estimate the gusts to have been about 45 – 50mph and occasionally we were bent forward walking into the wind. It was hard going. Once back round the volcano we spotted another path (which hadn’t been on our map) and eventually found the way up. The path up took us through the pyroclastic flow between the two volcanoes and you got to see the swirling mass of broken lava up close. The path here was much more sheltered and the wind wasn’t an issue until we got to the rim, where we sat down to admire the view. It was getting on by this time and we decided it was time to head back. Our walk took over four hours in total and we decided to head back to the coast in search of a sandwich via La Geria, Lanzarote’s wine growing region. It is a deep black landscape of man-made hollows, some with protective walls built around them, to protect the vines from the incessant wind. As I stopped to take a picture, I had to hold onto the car door to stop it being blow open violently and I had to walk nearly diagonally to be able to walk into the wind.

A couple of kilometers later, we could see the backside of the flying site of Macher and to our complete and utter amazement, there were hang gliders flying! I couldn’t believe that the conditions could either be so different, or that they would be so crazy. With much head shaking and tutting, we drove down to Playa Quemada to see if we could get something to eat and a beer when even more amazingly, we saw paragliders in the air. Admittedly, they were taking off about 30 or 40m AMSL, and it still seemed strong, but four of them managed to get a short flight before darkness. Incredible.

We had been following the air traffic control strike on the news and internet, but it seemed like the government’s intervention would work and we would be able to get our flights home no problem. Geoff had a skype chat with our pilot friend Roger, who had had to divert to Marseille, and was stuck there while his passengers were bused to Girona. Asked if he thought the military coming in would solve the problem he said “Sure, if they use enough ammunition”. The air traffic controllers here really didn’t make any friends this weekend, particularly when it was revealed that their average salary is 350,000 euros.

See photos of today.

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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.

See photos of today.

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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!

See photos of today.

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