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Walking holiday at Les Estables, Central France |
Walking in La Palma
Our guided, group walking and climbing holiday in La Palma Island - March 2008
We travelled to La Palma via Tenerife. We arrived Tenerife South airport, transferred to the North airport by taxi, 1 hours, and thence to Santa Cruz de la Palma using local small Binter aircraft. We stayed at the Paradores Hotel, near Los Cancajos about 4km south of Santa Cruz and 2km north of the airport. We would have done better to stay at either Las Olas Hotel or Hacienda San Jorge apartments which were much closer to the beach. Guided walking tours are organised by Natour who hire coaches morning and afternoon to take you to the starts of the walks and collect you ant the end of the walks, throughout the island. You need to book the walks in advance. Once ready for a walk there are several leaders, who split the party up according to language and then take slightly different routes. The local guides were all very knowledgeable and helpful.
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Saturday: Pick up 9:10am. Our first walk was called "Dream Paths" in the north west of La Palma from the village of Las Tricas. Total 6km, 100m
climb, 400m down, 3 hours.
The initial route was down an ancient stone path amongst many flowers, small cottages, a lady selling local almond nuts,
cultivated terraces towards the coast. The path then turned north and crosses over several ravines, or barrancos, giving good views on the headlands
and interesting vegetation and wild flowers in the gorges. On one headland, after passing a Gofio Mill, we found the oldest, one thousand year
old, dragon tree. We ate our picnic lunch overlooking the sea to the north, watching the white tops breaking on the waves in the bright sun.
In the final gorge we found a number of cave dwellings and colony of hippies living amongst their cultivated terraces. The weather was good, sunny with
light breeze. Water was essential and we had followed the recommendation to take 2 litres of water per person. The coach picked us up near Santo
Domingo de Garafia, then direct back to our hotel. Return 18:00pm.
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Monday and Thursday: Depart 09:10. The walk today was called "Enchanted Forest". 7 km, climb 350m, descend 550m 4 hours.
The starting point was on a forest road in Cubo de la Galaga to the north east of la Palma, following a brief coach ride. Somewhat cloudy today as we climbed
the hill, zig-zagging up the track with frequent stops to note the typical trees and plants. At the top, the viewpoint of La Somada Alta (900m) we had the
impressive view of mist - we were up in the clouds and just had to stand around on the terrace pretending that we were enjoying views across the wooded hillside
with the sea in the distance, while we had lunch. The downward return section was really the most impressive. This was a winding hiking trail
down a long gorge, all inside the deep green forest. You needed to be careful with tree roots but the most hazardous sections, where the path went
along the steep sides, was fenced and the dense foliage prevented you suffering from vertigo. I would not recommend this walk on a rainy day as it could
get rather muddy, wet and slippery underfoot. Back on the road there was a refreshment stop, followed by two options, continue in the gorge right down to
the coast (extra 3km, 100m down) or travel in the coach. About half of the people on the walking tour stopped and used the coach. Return 17:30pm
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Tuesday: Depart 09:10. "Roof of the Island". 6km, up 150m, down 300m. All at altitude of around 2426m.
This adventure was particularly exciting and involved a long coach journey up a very twisty windy road, via 423 hairpin bends, to the top of the main mountain of La Palma.
As the height increased the vegetation changes and gradually thinned out. We had a rest stop in the shade of a pine forest. Further up the views
opened out and eventually it was bare black and red lava rock in all directions, smooth slopes of fine lava gravel amongst hard jagged lava rocks, little changed
from when they had cooled. The high altitude and clear skies here have long attracted astronomers and the top of the mountain has many large telescope
observatories and is centre for major scientific research. All the telescopes are now remotely controlled from universities around the world.
Only recently was the last old telescope automated and the last astronomer sitting at the eyepiece made redundant by CCD digital camera techniques and
computer imaging. The guide for the walking tour today was able to tell us about all the telescopes and about the research being conducted remotely by
universities around the world. Good sun glasses are essential, preferably with side wrap arounds, to protect your eyes from the high intensity ultra-violet light at this altitude.
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Wednesday: Teneguia Volcano walking tour. 6km, 20m up and 700m down. 3.5 hours.
The coach took us to Fuencalientes Los Canarios, towards the southern end of La Palma. The route was essentially due south down to the coast via
recently created volcanic landscape, with open views to the east and west. After visiting the museum, the first volcano, a neat cone some 660m high, came
into view. It was called Volcan San Antonio, and was created in 1677. The walking guide Peter explained the story. The path down led through a
landscape of volcanic lavas and debris. We viewed a scary TV programme, seen before we left home, that suggested that part of the south west corner of
La Palma might suffer a landslip into the sea and cause a tsunami with would devastate the east coast of the USA. On seeing the island we concluded that this was only a possibility.
The hillside there looked quite stable and there was lower and less steep lande between the mountain and the sea. Even with volcanic activity and earthquakes only piece-meal and slow fragmentary rock slides
seem credible, causing no more that a few local waves. The great collapse idea involves heavy rain penetrating down into the mountain, the water warming and expanding and basically splitting the island in half,
along a north-south line. There is a crack somewhere, about 1m wide, where the split has supposedly started, with the west side dropping down a bit and moving away from the east side. It will be intersting to see any changes.
Some say the TV programme was a publicity stunt to drum up insurance business in Florida. The most recent new volcano was Volcan de Teneguia,
which was created in 1971 was further south, nearer the sea. There is a visitors centre with geological details, if you want to go there. Further
down we came to the Volcan de Teneguia, where then ground is warm and sulphur smells indicate the presence of lava not too far below. There is a path up
to the top but to preserve the landscape it is requested that people by-pass the peak.
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Saturday: Fishing Coast. Said to be 8km, 200m up and 659m down 4 hours. Actually 500m up and 1100m down, 6 hours.
Today our coach took us right across to the west of La Palma via the road tunnel and the town of Los Lianos de Aridane, where we stopped for 15 minutes.
The coach then took us across the giant gorge of Las Angustas, with Puerrto Tazacorte at the coast. We were told the gorge had been created by water
erosion over many years, but I wondered if liquid lava might also have been a factor as the whole gorge appeared to be the side opening of the main Caldera de
Taburiente volcano. After crossing this barranco the coach climbed up the other side to the look out point at Mirador el Time. A few km further on we
stopped at El Jesus where we started our guided walking tour. With the coast behind us we climbed upwards via cultivated small fields and terraces
towards Lomo de los Barreros. Here, at Torre del Time, at 1107m, we stopped for lunch on the ridge with views down into the Angustias valley. After
lunch was all downhill, first along the ridge to Mirador el Time, 550m, and then via a very steep zig-zag path down the cliff face to sea level to meet up with
beach holidaymakers, cups of tea and ice creams. The path down was quite safe, but hard work. You definitely need two sticks. We were pretty well
worn out and slept most of the way back. There were supposed to have been a boat trip, possibly to see the dolphins, but our trip guide, in English, was out of
date and this boat trip had been deleted more than a year ago from the actual Spanish version.
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If you fancy doing a walking holiday like this we would recommend that you arrange to stay at either Las Olas Hotel or Hacienda San Jorge apartments in Las Cancajos and book the group walking trips with www.natour.travel The large group hiking arrangements were good with well informed guides, wooden walking poles and even boots for hire if you needed them. Well done to the hardworking organisers who have put in a lot of effort. Thanks to all for good company.
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Page created 6 April 2008 Copyright Satellite Signals Limited all rights reserved. Amended 30 July 2023. |