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Wednesday 11th

The holiday comes to an end tomorrow, I will spend the 4 hour flight home writing a summary and sorting out all our photos so something for you to not look forward too.

The last couple of days have been spent trying to see as much of the island as possible. Yesterday we drove to the most southerly point on the island (and the EU) and did a nice walk along the coast across lava fields. El Hierro is the most westerly island of the Canaries and is 290 miles from the coast of Africa so we were surprised to see a great many locusts on our walk. They get blown over from Africa and if there a lot of them they can devastate crops so not good news for farmers. Their presence has not been on the local news so it might just be a rogue group, the last time they were a problem was in 2004 when locusts ruined crops in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote both of which are much closer to Africa.

Today we drove up to a juniper forest, a bit of an exaggeration, an area where there are a number of juniper trees and because it is at the top of a mountain the trees have grown in a windswept way. The most famous of these trees is the emblem of the island.

Also at the top of the same mountain is the church of the Virgin of the Kings. The story goes that the "Virgen de los Reyes" miraculously supplied the inhabitants of El Hierro with rainwater in one of the worst dry seasons on the island. Since then, every four years and in her honour, the Bajada de la Virgen de los Reyes is celebrated, the island's biggest festival.

I am not sure if it was an act of God but when I climbed the steps to examine the bells I bashed my head resulting in quite a bit of blood and a bruise just where the injury from banging my head in the tunnels before Christmas had healed.

The islanders are very proud that they are now self sufficient in electricity, there is a lot of wind in the middle of the Atlantic to power turbines and they have also built a large pump storage system to act as a battery when the wind is not blowing. A good bit of infrastructure which is more than can be said for a lot of other projects. Just along the coast from where we are based is a very swanky swimming pool and play area, the sort of thing you see in all inclusive hotels, it is locked up and deserted. Apparently it was built by the local council but not maintained, now they cannot decide who is responsible for maintenance so it is becoming derelict. A number of tourist sights have had walkways built but in all cases the quality of the materials used is poor and they are looking scruffy and becoming trip hazards. Just below our little house they have upgraded the street furniture and installed lots of solar usb power points. The output is 50w so it would take a long time to charge a bike or scooter and no one is going to leave their phone in the street whilst it charges. The people of El Hierro don’t seem to have much confidence in their local government and it is not hard to see why.

Yet another photograph of the sea and cliffs. The painting opposite was one of several in the small town of La Restinga, it filled the side of a three story building.