Sunday 8th

La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro are all within 50 miles of each other and are the result of volcanic activity so I imagined they would be very similar but that is not the case.

La Gomera, which we visited two years ago, is green and has lots of nice woodland and wonderful steep sided valleys.

La Palma is very mountainous with the highest being over 7,000 feet, it also has woodland but it is the sheer scale of the scenery which is striking.

El Hierro has one long ridge one side of which is a sheer drop, the other side has gently rolling hills with cattle and sheep grazing, just like England. But the big difference is the coastline. The volcanic larva has been eroded by the sea making lots of interesting pools, caves and in particular basalt columns, a bigger version of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Neither of the other islands has any coastline as impressive. So impressive that yesterday we walked 2.5 miles along the clifftop to a nice restaurant and the 2.5 miles back again, it took us four hours and we took over 180 pictures! That will take some sorting out when we get home.