To the Canary Islands & Azores - Arrecife, Lanzarote page

Thursday 19th April. Up at 7, as going on the Fire Mountains trip. We were already in port then, some way out of Arrecife, a town that did not look too promising.

The bus took us round it & up through the obviously volcanic hills behind it & on to the National Park, which is a carefully preserved volcanic environment from the 1730-36 eruptions & looks like it. We stopped at a restaurant which had outside it, 'features'. First, a local dug up some volcanic ash, only a few inches down & puts some in our hands. It was decidedly hot. Then, they put some straw down a somewhat bigger hole & it burst into flames. Lastly, they poured water down a pipe into the ground & created an artificial geyser, and how!

Straw in a shallow hole.

An artificial geyser.

We were driven round the park to see many different features. It was a huge inundation of lava which increased the size of Lanzarote by 30%. As it was a fissure eruption, there is an obvious line of hills over the fracture.

Part of the line of hill over the fissure...		...and the end one.
Harder features between the ash.	A volcanic bomb.	Tunnels used by molten lava.
Flower-like lava crystals.	The line from the East side.	Big crater.
Struggling vegetation.	A side crater.	Lichens break down the lava.

Then, we stopped for camel rides, two of us slung either side of a camel's hump. They were very well behaved camels, perhaps glad of a job these days & took us for a twenty-minute ride over the volcanic ash, for which their two huge toes were ideal. The baskets we were in, were not ideal & hammered one in the back. Riding one all day would require a better basket & a lot of practice.

Portrait of a Camel.

A camel train.

Author & wife ©a Moroccan peasant.

After this, we went to a point on the coast where the lava had tumbled in & it was clear how the land area had been extended there.

Where the lava hit the sea.

A steep bay.

The other side.

On the way back, we stopped at a bodega to test the local wine, more like paint stripper in my opinion. In order to deal with the low rainfall, the vines are surrounded by a crescent of stones to collect dew & they dig down through the lava ash to get to the previous soil to put the roots in. Lava makes very fertile soil but only when it has been broken down by the lichen.

Bodega la Geria.

Dry stone walls round vines.

Lots of vines & little walls.

The trip took over five hours & we were lucky to get back in time for a late lunch. After this, I edited the photos for my slide show, then showed it to Avis. There was a brisk wind in the harbour, which made going outside rather chilly: not enough to sabotage the sailing away party on the quarter deck, as we left early but nearly so.

Then dinner & yet another show by the show team, who work very hard. This was theoretically, "Blues brothers, Soul sisters" but I did not get it. This was followed by a competent cabaret by some of the crew in the Neptune Lounge, finishing with them all singing, "You'll never walk alone", which always cuts me up by reminding me of the Hillsborough Disaster.