Walking in Sunshine

Suddenly we are experiencing a lot of sunshine!!!! its FANTASTIC...Our first full day in Fuerteventura found us walking in sunshine taking on a couple of the local caminas - one along a gorge to a small hermitage and the other a wild and windy cliff top meander to a rather marvelous massive esoteric rock which was almost an island and had a huge natural hole in it. 

We didn't start the day too organised! the supermarket was closed last night so we were badly supplied for breakfast so after getting up later then intended - but then again we are on holiday - we got into our much more suitable hire car - a fairly old renault clio - much more our style than the merc hire care we had last time and hit the high roads of Fuerteventura intending to find somewhere nice for breakfast.

view across island

Surprisingly we got sidetracked, missed several breakfast opportunities and somehow ended up at an amazing viewpoint  - the Mirador Morro Velosa, a kind of visitors centre on top of a peak which could be seen for miles- and once up there we could see for miles... it was a tad hazy - there was a lingering sea fret - but we were well above it and it was slowly being burnt off by the ever increasing sun!  By the time we got to Betancuria - a very picturesque village, it was as good as lunchtime so we had pizza for brunch in a very pretty coffee shop. We felt a bit guilty (it was supposed to be breakfast) so we thought we had better walk it off so we headed over the hills to Vega de Rio Palmas, parked the car and set off to walk down the Baranco De Las Penitas a granite gorge. It's a pleasant walk along the stream bed to the reservoir, past an impressive dam and finishing at the tiny white chapel of Nuestra Senora de la Pena. It was hot going but there was a cooling breeze and it didn't take long for us to realise we needed to add some layers to stop getting sunburnt!

Baranco De Las Penitas

amazing view from the top of the dam

chapel of Nuestra Senora de la Pena.

Lovely walk, Dr Fred went off and clambered around the rocks I sat and sketched the valley and the chapel and enjoyed the fantastic scenery. We met loads of little lizards and Dr Fred reckoned he saw a rock squirrel type creature - its a very barren landscape but still has stunning colours - the volcanic rock is quite varied and makes for really interesting drystone walling.  Last night we walked home in the dark and some of the walls looked almost luminous in place as they are built using a mix of white and black volcanic rocks.  Its not so obvious in the daytime - the overall impression is varying shades of brown and red from raw sienna, through crimson, via burnt sienna and deep umbers...

Three hours later we got back tot he car. We were hot and dusty and still badly supplied so we had a quick detour into Paraja to buy water and a picnic and then headed out to the coast to a small place called Ajuh. 

We were tempted by ice cold beer in the beach side bar but resisted and instead followed the many other tourists over the black sandy beach and up the cliff side to look at the caves of Ajuh.  Sadly these are not accessible due to wild (seriously wild) seas - massive waves crashing all along the coast line - huge rolling magnificent waves - incredibly noisy and fantastic to watch - but no access to the coast or caves.  Most people stop at the lookout over the caves but we carried on - climbing up over the cliff top and walking across what felt like a martian landscape - desolate, windy, but beautiful - no one else to be seen - we followed the cliff round a couple of headlands until we came to a huge solitary rock - almost an island but just joined the the mainland by a stretch of black sand.  The waves were crashing around and over it and as we got closer we realised it had a huge natural hole right through the middle.  It was too much for Dr Fred - he couldn't contain himself and leaving me to sit and sketch as best I could in a windy spot he took off down the cliff and up the rock!! 

large rock with hole and Dr Fred...

We walked back along the cliff and this time really felt we had earned una cervesa so we stopped in a local bar- we were going to have something nice to eat but frankly we were too cream crackered and grubby so we just headed home to eat our picnic we had never got round to and sat out on our terrace enjoying the mountain views drinking sensibly priced vino and enjoying a balmy evening. Perfect end to an excellent day out.  

Manana will be less energetic!!!!