On Sunday we had a pleasant walk of about 7 miles in the hills above Santa Cruz. Up until now all the walks have been nice and peaceful as the only other walkers are Germans who, like the brits, seem to enjoy the tranquillity of the countryside.
Being a Sunday lots of Spanish/Canarian walkers were making the most of the day off to go for a walk, they all talk at the top of their voices continuously. We came across several family groups all jabbering away and at no point on our walk in the hills could we not hear Spanish voices. Fortunately they are now all back at work or school so our walks on Monday and Tuesday were peaceful.
We did pass two rather curious shrines in the hills, lots of plastic flowers and effigies. As it was Sunday I felt it appropriate to stop and say a few prayers, mostly for an improvement in Barnet's results.
Monday was a frustrating day. We drove to a town in the north in order to do a one way walk of about 8 miles.
It started well, the weather was fine and we were making good progress. At almost the half way point we came to a “Path Closed” sign and tape blocking the path which I ignored scrambling down into a deep valley where I could hear park workmen doing something ahead. Not wishing to upset the Park Keeper (a lesson I learnt in Highlands Gardens when I was about 6 recovering a cricket ball from a flower bed) I beat a hasty retreat and we walked back to the car. I was very annoyed, if they had put a “Route closed” sign at the start we would have gone elsewhere.
I was even more annoyed when I found, buried in the parks web site, a list of closed paths and ours said “Open – proceed with caution” so we should have been able to do it!
Today (Tuesday) was much better. We did the last two volcanos along the spine of the island. The purists say when you do the Route of the Volcanoes we did last week you should do these at the same time but an extra 5 miles and 1200ft of climbing would have been too much for old people like us.
We actually did this walk in 2019 when it was blowing so hard it was dangerous, today the weather forecast was for 5km winds, they lied, it was close to being dangerous. It is a great walk and is rated as a grade 4 yet we did it in the recommended time so we are quite pleased with ourselves. The banner picture shows the volcanos and as you can see above Gill is just able to stand upright on the summit without being blown off.
Yet again we came across “path closed” signs but as no one was around we ignored them. The park wardens in La Palma seem to think the parks would be better if no one came at all.
In La Gomera the emphasis was on safety. Wherever a path crosses a road they have erected huge signs warning walkers to be careful. The picture was taken where the footpath crosses an access road to a farm, hardly a major thoroughfare.
Tomorrow we move house, the apartment we have been in for the last ten days is very stylish but quite small and apart from not having an ice making facility it does not have any outside space or a washing machine. We have found a house about 100 yards away which has a roof terrace, a washing machine, dishwasher and much more space. Fingers crossed it lives up to our expectations.