Corralejo -> Gatwick -> home

We set the alarm quite early in order to be out the door by about 8am. We did the last bit of cleaning and packing, had a quick cuppa, made some sandwiches with the food left over, and left the door open for Paula to deal with.

We walked down the hill and back to Maxorata Beach apartments. The bus was late, but thankfully it was a small minibus, and there were only two pick-ups after us.

We journeyed to the airport through a fresh collection of rainbows, and arrived with no problems. It was early, and bag drop hadn't opened yet. So we sat in a cafe and Christian had a coffee. I ate one of my sandwiches. The counter finally opened, and we'd managed to miss the beginning of the queue, so we had quite a wait. While edging up the queue, Christian weighed the bag, and discovered it was too heavy, and so we transferred a few things to my backpack.

Having dropped our bags off, we went through security, and had a look in the shops. I wish now that I'd bought some volcanic stone earrings, but never mind. We sat for a while so our gate could be called, eating sweets from our drive, and then went to our gate.

The flight boarded early and we found our seats. The flight was fairly comfortable. We ordered hot drinks and soup - the soup made my other sandwich much more palatable. Christian had a croque monsieur.

Another smooth landing in Gatwick, and after a painless trip through baggage and passport control, we got our car back easily, stopped for fuel, and drove through moderate to heavy traffic on the M25.

And then we were home.

This was a great trip because it allowed both of us to really stop and relax. The weather was a bit disappointing, but we managed to do pretty much all of what we wanted to do.

Paella, walking, and last La Casita

The morning was mostly taken over by the fact that it rained heavily in the night, and the ceiling of the apartment was leaking in a moderately alarming way. We emailed Manuel, and he got Paula to look in on the damage, but we all agreed that there was little that could be done about it on a Saturday.

It took us a while to decide what to do this morning, as we still had the car for another day. After debating over breakfast, we decided to take the car back, as we'd seen all that we were likely to see by car. We got fuel at the fuel station across the road, carefully got a receipt as requested, and drove into the underground car park.

Upon arriving at the Avis office, we found that it was closed. So we dropped the key in the box (but not the fuel receipt), went back down to the car, took photos, and wandered down to the restaurant strip in search of paella for lunch.

We were harassed by a number of spruiking restauranteurs, and gave in to one of them on the main beachside strip. It was a pretty ordinary looking place, but the paella was reasonable, and cheap. We ate way too much of it, and then had an ice cream at the nearby shop. We hung around the jetty for a while watching people feeding the absolutely crapload of small fish schooling below.

We'd decided to have a walk, and so we followed the coast around past Waikiki beach. Not too far along, I needed the toilet, and so we paid our friends at Atlantis another visit. We kept all the way around the coast to Parque Natural, and sat watching the kite surfers again. The sand was blasting us mercilessly, so we headed back to the apartment via the road. We stopped in a nice shopping centre in search of cash (but failed), and then stopped again at the Botanic Gardens. It was built as a largish mound, which we'd passed a number of times but never identified. We walked up around the spiral path, leaping puddles all the way, and took in the view of the area for the last time, in the dying golden rays.

Back at the apartment, we relaxed and drank some sangria. Then we cleaned the place as best we could, showered, got ready, and went out for our final meal at La Casita. It was cool, but we chose to sit outside again. The restaurant was almost deserted, which made no sense to me for a Saturday evening.

We ordered champagne sangria again (small this time), and I ordered oven-baked baby goat. The waiter couldn't recommend it highly enough, so I was looking forward to it lots. Christian ordered a steak.

The goat was spectacular. I felt quite bad about eating a very small animal, but I probably eat them frequently without realising. Christian was a bit disappointed with his steak. It was OK, but not sizzling and amazing. He had a dessert, but I didn't. We got our customary liqueur with the bill, said our final goodbyes, and headed back to the apartment for our last night.

South to Morro Jable

The weather was pretty dire this day, and I didn't feel like going anywhere. We bought a few groceries at the supermarket that we finally found in Oasis Dunas, ummed and aahed some more, and finally decided to go and do the drive to the south of the island as planned.

First we had a cold lunch in the apartment, and set off at about 2pm. The wind was pretty bad, and sand was blowing furiously across the road in Parque Natural. We made a stop in Caleta de Fusta, and had a wander around a lovely outdoor bar and restaurant area with a great view into the beach, and then around to a sea lion enclosure (poor beasts), and a lot of abandoned pleasure craft. Finally, we walked through a large resort to have a look at the castillo, and headed back to the car.

We kept driving, intending to stop off where interesting things presented themselves, but didn't make many stops - only Tarajalejo, where we'd taken a wrong turn, to look at the black beach, and Costa Calma, where the densely planted palm trees went some way to stopping the incessant wind. There was a strange section of very shiny motorway road here, but the rest was either two-way traffic or ordinary dual carriageway (with roadworks thrown in).

Eventually we arrived at Morro Jable (about 5.15). It was a big holiday town, with a lot of resorts scattered around. Again, we got the feeling of abandoned building projects, and unfinished roads. We parked, and wandered along the main street in search of something to eat. We found it in a bakery. A quick toilet stop, and we were ready to head off. I wanted some sweets, so walked uphill a little way to a supermarket sign, only to find it boarded up.

Back on the road, Christian followed a services sign, with the aim of finding sweets, but we just went around in a big circle. It got dark after a little while, and so we just kept driving. We stopped at a real services for sweets, then took an internal road through Tuineje to Antigua. That was something of a mistake, because we were on this narrow, meandering road for a long time, and I wondered more than once whether we were going the right way.

Tuineje was a tiny town, and Antigua was fairly uninteresting in the dark. We headed for Corralejo, getting back after 8pm. We had a quiet dinner and some TV before going to bed.

El Cotillo, La Oliva, Puerto del Rosario

Today was the day that we'd hired the car for, but we were in no particular hurry to get started. We had breakfast and got ready, and headed out on foot to the Avis car rental place, which google told us was up on the main road behind the apartment. We walked, and asked, and walked and asked, and finally we were told that Avis had moved back into Las Palmeras - the shopping centre closest to the apartment. So we walked back. Grrrr.

In Las Palmeras, we found Avis on the top floor and the woman there talked us through all of the things. Finally we got the keys, and went down into the underground car park to drive away. It was a small black Skoda, and did the job. We drove back to the apartment, parking across the road outside Oasis Dunas.

We packed up the things we'd need, planned a basic route, and headed out. I'd found a road that led to the nearest volcanoes, and I navigated us to the beginning of that road, in the north west of Corralejo. Turns out it was a dirt road. So we turned around and went the other way that would get us to the volcanoes. It wasn't a road at all. From that point, I stopped trusting google's representations of roads. So we took the main road straight across to El Cotillo, where the Easy Riders guy had recommended a seafood restaurant.

We went through Lajares to get there, which was a small town of little note. El Cotillo is a much more charming seaside town than Corralejo, but with a very grand approach through El Roque.

We parked in a small side street, and went in search of the La Vaca Azul restaurant. It wasn't difficult to find. We got a table outside (it was only just after 12pm), and studied the menu. El Cotillo centres around a rocky bay, which on this occasion was being buffeted by furious surf. And the tide was coming in. And dark clouds were threatening.

As we sat, the day's fish was delivered to the side door of the restaurant, and someone lovingly laid it out in a display case. We decided against a starter, and ordered mixed grilled fish for two. They brought out an extra table to put beside us, laying it with special knives, and giving us bread and dips. That's when I knew this was going to be a special meal.

When it came out, the fish were whole, and quite small. The waiter deftly took the heads off, separated the meat from the bones, and presented the fillets on our plates. A wonderful experience and one that I won't forget in a hurry. The fish was served with Canarian potatoes and the two famous dips. The fish itself was wonderful, though you did have to be quite careful with bones.

We had desserts - Christian had crema catalana, which was streets ahead of the creme brulee I'd had at La Casita, and I had sorbet, which was tasty. It was a wonderful meal.

After the meal, we wandered around the rest of El Cotillo, taking pictures. From the top of the opposite cliff, we could see the harbour and the castillo, and went to investigate the harbour. There wasn't an enormous amount to see, but it would be a much gentler alternative to Corralejo as a base.

Back in the car, we drove south to La Oliva. I expected it to be a bigger city than Corralejo, as it is the administrative centre of the north of the island. I was wrong. It was a fairly small town. We stopped at Casa de Los Coroneles, which is a grand house used by both military and civilian law keepers over the years. It is architecturally significant for the island, but we didn't pay to go inside. We took some photos of the surroundings, though, as the rock formations in the mountains were amazing.

We drove on, taking the long way to Puerto del Rosario. On the approach to the town, a brilliant rainbow appeared beside us. We stopped to take photos, but most of the vividness had faded. I'd never seen anything like it, particularly one that you could see going to ground.

We found a spot to park near the port, and had a wander. There was a giant cruise ship docked, and the foreshore had been nicely decorated with sculptures and statues. The sun was shining, and so it was a pleasant detour.

We drove back to Corralejo, and had an evening in with some tortilla wraps I'd bought, then some pasta because they weren't enough, some wine, and some telly.

Lobos Island on wheels

The boat to Lobos left from the port at 9.30, so we got up relatively early, made some sandwiches to take with us, had a quick breakfast, packed our stuff, and cycled down to the port.

We got there fairly early, and bought our tickets. Christian got a coffee and we sat down to wait for the boat.

When the time came, we ambled over to the boat, showed our tickets, and the crew hefted our bikes over the bow and stowed them not very securely against the rail. We took seats next to them. The boat filled up until it was almost full to bursting, and, after a couple came running after we'd cast off and were let on, we set off to Lobos.

The journey was short and comfortable, if a little chilly. We went towards the little port, and pulled up beside a huge concrete jetty. The way to get off was by stepping onto some steps carved into the concrete. The boat was tossing quite a lot, and a few people struggled to make it. We got people and bikes off, and I made a toilet stop, before starting our adventure.

We decided to head to the left (north-west), and set off riding. Following signs to the salt pans, we dismounted and had a wander. It's a large series of drying pans that doesn't look like it's been used for years. We headed on north-wards to the caldera, via a minor path. This was a mistake, as it was very rocky, and I couldn't handle the terrain. We backtracked, getting back onto the main track. This was equally problematic as it got very muddy, and I skidded and ended up knee/hand first in the sludgy orange mud. Nice.

We left our bikes where they were and walked the rest of the distance to the caldera. The walk up was fairly hard work, though the terrain was fine. The view was excellent, and there weren't many other people there. We took some photos, had a snack and headed back down.

Picking up our bikes again, we kept going north through the middle of the island, and the path got more and more sandy, which was just as difficult to negotiate. After a long downhill coast, we were at the lighthouse at the northern tip of the island (Punta Martino), and left our bikes at the bottom to go and explore. There wasn't a great deal there apart from lots of concrete, a lighthouse, nice beaches, and a great view of Lanzarote.

We turned back and headed back down the length of the island to the lagoon (Playa de la Concha) to do some snorkelling. The wind was pretty strong, and I wasn't totally keen, but it was sunny, and the beach was very nice. We found a spot in a rocky shelter and had a little rest and some lunch, and got our wetsuits on. Christian led the charge into the water (unsurprisingly), and I followed at a leisurely pace. The water was cold, but I persevered, and stayed in for about half an hour. There were plenty of fish, some very big and interesting. Another guy was snorkelling near us, but without a wetsuit. He'd seen us go in, and had taken courage from that. He must have been frozen.

After getting stuck in a slightly scary current, and deciding to head in, we took some silly Go-Pro photos and went to dry off. We ate some more lunch, basked a little in the sun, and got ready to move on.

We went on to the south-east corner in search of a little town and a cafe. Just before the little town, there was another muddy patch, so we walked our bikes through it. To my dismay, our nearly clean-again bikes were muddier than before.

The town wasn't much, but we left our bikes half in the sea, and got some drinks. There was a little harbour here, and it would have made for much more interesting snorkelling, but the boat activity may have made it difficult. We walked on the jetty and took some photos before moving on.

It was a short journey back to the port, and I found that the toilets I'd used were closed up. Handy. There were quite a few people waiting for the 4pm ferry, and we took our place, tried to clean as much mud off the bikes as we could, and took some photos.

The boat arrived, and the conditions were worse than before. The crew had to basically manhandle people onto the ferry, and goodness knows how the bikes got on there. We pushed off, and then some people came running for the boat. As it was the last boat of the day we had to go back for them, and there was cheering as they got on the wildly bobbing boat.

The journey back was pretty rough, but we were fine. After docking in the shelter of Corralejo harbour, we got off, waited for our bikes to be handed off the boat, and cycled back via the busiest parts of town to Grandes Playas (via a drop off at the apartment) to return the bikes. We had a short wait until they opened, but the man there logged the bikes back in, and thankfully didn't have a problem with all the mud.

We walked back to the apartment, and relaxed for a while before having a shower and getting dressed to go out. We went back to La Casita because it had been so good. We took the same table we'd had the night before, and ordered some champagne sangria, which was ridiculously good. It was raining a little, and so we moved the table further under the shelter, closer to another couple (who didn't mind). I don't think we had starters on this occasion, and for mains we ordered a mixed meat grill for two. It came out sizzling like crazy - it had pork, chicken, steak, lamb and ribs. It was all delicious, apart from the lamb, which was a bit gristly.

We hadn't got very far into it when the rain came down properly. We scooted indoors, and one waiter helped us in with everything in a haphazard kind of way. The inside was nice enough, but it was noisy, and very dark in comparison. I didn't like it nearly as much.

For dessert, Christian had the chocolate cake I'd had the night before, and I had creme brulee. The creme brulee turned out to be suspiciously like crema catalana. It was delicious, though. Huge, but delicious.

Once again, we waddled back to the apartment and went to bed.

Diving/walking

This morning was Christian's dive, and so he got up relatively early, followed by me some time later, and he headed back to Waikiki beach. I pottered a bit, then got ready and went out. It was much sunnier and warmer than it had been

I walked up the main street, investigating the things I'd wanted to look at, like jewellery in the shops (uninteresting), and to call in to ask Easy Riders about what they could offer (the man in the shop on the main street didn't speak very good English, but it turned out that he couldn't help me with excursions - only with hire). I walked to the left at the end of the main street, and found the part of town that is less touristy and more set up for the locals, with travel agents, laundrettes, bus stops, and fruit shops. I went as far as the interesting shops, but didn't go all the way to the port end.

I headed back to the main street via the beach side, then followed the signs to the main Easy Riders office to the east. Turns out it was right near the Atlantis resort that our bus from the airport had stopped off at. After a long walk, I found it, and spoke to a nice man there who said the weather was definitely going to deteriorate, and that the boat to Lobos might not run the next day. Then the owner got off the phone, and spouted a stack of rubbish at me, though I did get the salient details. Essentially, we needn't pay for a guided bike tour - guiding ourselves around the north coast, to the volcanoes, or even to Lobos was easy.

I headed back into town, bought some more groceries, and took them back to the apartment. Then I got changed into my swimmers, and went to meet Christian post-dive. I got there as he was dekitting. I sat and waited as the day got less warm. We sat for a bit, and I decided that I didn't really want to go for a swim after all, and neither did Christian.

We headed back to the apartment yet again, and I made lunch from the mezze plate ingredients that I'd bought. It was nice. We took it easy for a while, and then, as Christian had decided that my idea of hiring bikes was a good one, and his preference was for Lobos, we walked all the way back to Easy Riders.

I hadn't been able to translate the scribble on the leaflet that the silly man had given me, but it became clear what he had been trying to communicate when we got to the shop and it was closed. Oh. We decided to go into the Atlantis resort and get a drink while we waited for it to open again at 5. This plan went well until we got to the bar queue and saw that no one was paying for their drinks. I tried to explain to the man that we weren't staying there, and he seemed to say that that was OK. So Christian asked for a beer, and I wanted to ask about cocktails. He showed me a menu and said that some were inclusive and some weren't. I thought I understood and so asked for one of the non-inclusive ones. Confusion took over, and we finally got the man to understand that we weren't staying there. He went away. The woman behind us said that we'd have to pay at reception and go back. The man came back and said the same thing. We walked nonchalantly off, with no intention of returning. We took ourselves on a self-guided tour of the resort, decided it was very nice and that we would never want to spend that much money on it, and then went back to the bike shop.

We sat for a little while as the man opened everything up. We booked the bike hire, and passage for the bikes on the boat, with the actual boat tickets for us to be bought on the boat. So we got to do Lobos and mountain biking in the same activity. The guy I'd been emailing about bike excursions wanted a lot more money than that, and was only to the volcanoes.

On our newfound hire bikes, we cycled back to the apartment, and stashed them on the balcony.

We fancied a cocktail by the beach (well, it was Christian's idea), so we got dressed up, and walked down to Waikiki beach again. We walked past the one that had no people sitting outside it, and went to the actual Waikiki bar/restaurant.

We found a table, stuck the legs in the sand better so that it wasn't wonky, and waited for someone to serve us. There was a bunch of British tourists taking selfies against the sunset. Christian went to the bar to buy drinks but the man told him it was table service and that they would come out. They didn't. So he went back in and managed to persuade them to let him order. He had a receipt. After another five or so minutes, a man came to take our order. He looked confused when we said we'd already paid and that we had a receipt. Our drinks came soon after. We'd decided on caipirinhas, and they were delicious.

Before long, all the people had gone, and it got dark. We were hungry, but weren't sure where to go. I hadn't managed to look up any of the restaurants I'd seen recommended online, so we had to decide on the Waikiki restaurant, which Christian liked the look of, or the nice-looking restaurant near the apartment. I chose the one near the apartment.

We strolled back there, and got a table outside near a heater. The menu was incredibly diverse. I decided on melon and prosciutto as a starter, with grilled king prawns for main. Christian had mussels for starter, and something for main that I can't remember. Meat of some kind, I imagine. It was extremely good food, and served with a friendly flourish. We had a bottle of bubbly with it.

We had dessert as well (I had a syrupy chocolate cake thing, and Christian had a creme caramel), which resulted in some very full bellies. We waddled back to the apartment and went to bed.

Exploring Corralejo

We had a very lazy morning, cooked bacon and eggs, and set off mid-morning for a walk through the town and up to the port. The end of town that we were staying in was quite tacky and British oriented, and that continued for some way down the main street, getting more touristy, but after a while, it changed. It got more Spanish, with more traditional restaurants and narrow lanes. Only at that point did I feel like we were in a place worth visiting.

We discovered the restaurant strip that followed the beach, which mostly retained the Spanish charm (apart from the Gordon Ramsay restaurant), and found our way onto Waikiki Beach. Paula had recommended Mar y Mas diving shop, and we went in to talk to them. She'd mentioned Roberto, but I hadn't remembered his name. We found ourselves talking to Roberto, and he explained the diving options. There was a discovery dive that I could do without a licence for €90, and more advanced dives that Christian could do for much less. We took the information, and went to think about it.

We walked up to the port, being exposed to the worst of the wind coming from the north-west. You can clearly see Lanzarote to the north, and Lobos Island to the north-east. We walked around the top of the breakwall.

There was an Armas car ferry that went to Lanzarote, and a Fred Olsen fast cat that also went to Lanzarote. Various small boats went to Lobos. We spoke to a couple of people about prices for going to both places and they were reasonable, but without knowing what our other plans were, we couldn't really book anything. The kayaking/snorkelling people had got back to say that conditions would make the excursion we'd booked impossible, which was a real shame as I'd been looking forward to it.

We were hungry by now, and on our stroll back to the restaurants, allowed ourselves to get talked into tapas at the first restaurant after the fish co-op (which smelt amazing but didn't have a wonderful menu - and there was only outdoor seating). We got a sheltered table, and ordered some sangria, and about six tapas dishes. The menu was comprehensive and inventive. The food was even better. It was a great meal.

We discussed diving, and I said that I wasn't very confident doing anything very deep or ambitious, and so we decided that Christian would do the more advanced dives the next morning and I would find something else to do. I was keen for him to get some diving done. So we walked back to Mar y Mas and he signed up for the next day. He would have to do a medical in order to go ahead, and a doctor was coming in that morning.

While there, we decided to hire some kayaks and pootle around the bay for the afternoon, so we went back to the apartment, got our wetsuits on, packed our snorkelling gear, and headed back to Waikiki beach.

Roberto got the kayaks ready for us, and we tied on the dry bag with our gear in it, and set off into the wind. The conditions weren't great, but we made good progress. As we got a fair way out, Christian decided to tether his kayak to mine and do a bit of snorkelling. This wasn't ideal, as there was a kayak in the way of where I wanted to paddle, and I was getting a bit seasick looking down. He had a quick look around, then gave up and reclaimed his kayak. We paddled all the way into the main Corralejo bay, and beached the kayaks. We both had a snorkel there. There wasn't much to see, but there were a few small silver fish.

It was pretty cold, and so we headed back to Waikiki beach to give the kayaks back within the hour, and did a few circles on the way to fill in time.

Back on the shore, we saw some people on paddle boards, and after some debate, we decided to hire one between us for another hour to have a go.

Christian went first, and did very well, apart from falling to his knees a couple of times. I was a bit afraid of being crap, but I managed to stand up too. The wind made it incredibly difficult to steer sensibly, and I nearly lost it a few times. A man on the shore was using my bad technique to advise Christian, and Christian then passed it on to me. He had another try, using man's improvements. I had another go too, using man's improvements, but I found that that made it more difficult.

Anyway, it was fun to try, and I'd like to have a go in calmer conditions. The sun came out during our exertions as well, which was nice. We got no photos, though, as we took no devices.

We took the board back before our hour was up, and headed back to the apartment.

From what I remember, we caught up on the internet, cooked and ate pasta, and watched TV that evening.

Gatwick to Fuerteventura

It was tough getting up with not enough sleep, but we dragged ourselves through the rain to the terminal, and joined the queue for bag drop. It moved pretty quickly, and we went through security pretty smartly. We didn't have time to stop for breakfast, but Christian went back from the gate to grab us some pastries to eat on the plane. We took off on time, and got tea/coffee on the flight. I dozed for a lot of it.

The landing in Fuerteventura was smooth, the sun was shining, and it was warm. What more could you want? We went through passport control, and waited a little while for our bag.

Resorthoppa texted me about the transfer, and we found our way to the right queue (the longest), and got our pass, and which bay to find the coach. It was very efficient, and the driver understood where we wanted to go. The landscape was very barren with stark volcanic mountains and dark sandy soil. Near the end of the journey the proper sand dunes started.

We tried to call Paula on the coach, but couldn't get through until we were almost in Corralejo. As we were driving around the hotels dropping people off, she told us on the phone to meet her at the Dunas Hotel. I had difficulty understanding her, and she clearly had difficulty understanding me. We got off, and asked about where to find the Dunas Hotel, including at the Maxorata Beach apartments which is the c/o address that Manuel had given us. There was no such thing, so we tried the Dunas Caleta Club, where no one had heard of Paula.

Before we tried the other Dunas hotel (Oasis Dunas) we called her again, and she agreed to meet us at the petrol station, which was right nearby. We met up with no problems. She'd been surfing and missed our calls.

She walked us to the apartment, which was actually part of the Oasis Royal complex (go figure), and across the road from Oasis Dunas. Grrr. Anyway, she settled us in, having cleaned the apartment for Manuel, and said we could call on her if we needed anything - she lived next door. Sweet lady.

We unpacked, and relaxed a little, before walking back to the main street to get some cash, have some lunch (Retro Bar and Grill - fairly ordinary - the woman who served me was British), and pick up some groceries. We needed drinking water as you can't drink the water from the taps, so bought a massive five litre bottle.

We'd bought a pizza without realising that there wasn't an oven in the apartment, and so attempted to cook it in a paella pan. It really didn't work, made a horrendous mess, and needed to go in the microwave. We opened the bottle of wine we'd bought, having a quiet night in watching the videos we'd brought with us.

To Gatwick!

Having sung in a CMTC concert in Chesham, and taken having separate cars, we journeyed back to Wycombe to finish packing the car and leave the Astra behind. We left home at around 11pm. We stopped for food for me, as I'd not had a proper dinner.

The journey to Gatwick was going well until the M25 threw its worst at us, closing down to one lane for roadworks, and adding about half an hour to our trip. Grrrr! Anyway, we made it to the right airport car park at something near 1am, checked in the car for valet parking with no fuss. It was a surprisingly short walk to the Premier Inn.

I'd checked in in advance, and when we walked into the foyer, a very smiley man welcomed us, and showed us how to use a very clever machine that spat out our keys. Amazing.

The room was surprisingly nice. We collapsed into bed and knew nothing until the alarm woke us at 5.30. Not enough sleep, but at least it was some.