In 2018 I came to La Palma on the Unnecessary Boys walking holiday and we did a wonderful walk called the Route of the Volcanos. It is one of those classic routes like the Snowdon Horseshoe, Striding Edge and Helvellyn or a circumnavigation of Underhill stadium (a route which is sadly no longer possible). There was however one major snag with my plan to do it again. The guidebooks we are using put a banner across the top of each walk to summarise the key attributes. The summary for this walk is as follows:
The knife fork and plate indicates there is a five star eating establishment en route, unfortunately in this case right at the end;
One way obviously means you need a taxi, not a problem;
500m climbing and 1250m descent, sounds good lots of going down;
19km long so 12 miles, not too bad;
4 1/2 hours, that’s walking time excluding breaks, photo stops etc, should be over in time for a siesta and a beer;
5 next to the little man is the issue, the walks are rated 1 – 5, there are no 1’s and up until now we have done 2’s, 3’s and 4’s. 5 is labelled strenuous and Gill was not sure she was up to strenuous.
So I have spent the past five weeks going on about how good the walk is and encouraging / cajoling Gill into doing it much against her better judgement.
Today was the day, the weather was set fair, we drove up to the start at 5,000ft and then climbed up to the top of the ridge at 6,400ft. We were above the clouds all day as we walked along the rims of four or five big volcanos and lots of little ones which are all in a line along the backbone of the island. It was great. It took us 6 hours but that includes plenty of photo stops, lunch and a great many stops to get volcanic sand out of our boots. Gill managed, as I knew she would, and you can see she is smiling at the top although she does not think she will do any strenuous walking for a while.
Plastic cones for dog poo? Do you get the dog to do it in the cone or use it to scrape it up.
What happens if a child thinks it's an ice cream!
Tomorrow is a day of rest (and a nice dinner booked), not sure after that, watch this space for news.