For years I’ve taken bus-loads of tourists to the viewpoint at San Bartolome and every time I’d see the signpost for the “Mirador de la somada alta” (Viewpoint of the High Lookout) on the other side of the main road, pointing up a steep track. On Thursday I took a day off writing and finally went. Did I mention that it looked steep? It didn’t feel any less steep walking…
I finally got to see the comet! The plan was to go to El Llano del Jable, but I found cars parked solidly along the roadside for a kilometre or more before the viewpoint itself, so I settled for what I could get. Unfotunately I’d had to leave in a hurry and I found that I’d brought the wrong tripod. This one wouldn’t connect with the camera, so I wedged…
I’ve had another good walk. The path up to Las Barandas viewpoint starts from the back of Los Tilos visitor centre. It’s seriously steep; you climb 300 m (about the height of the Eiffel tower) in just 1.3 km. In other words, it’s almost a staircase. I’m rather proud of myself for making it, and I feel I’m cloesr to being able to do the volcanoes walk by the…
I’ve just spent a lovely week in Garafía with my friend Petra. The plan was for her to walk a lot and for me to walk a bit and write a lot, and that’s pretty much what we did. After 30 years on La Palma, I still occasionally discover new places, and this holiday was no exception. The photo above is the Fagundo ravine, from the viewpoint at Las Calzadas….
One good thing about being unemployed is that I have time to get fitter. I’ve had a step counter for a few years. Over the winter I was working so much that I struggled to reach 6,000 steps per day. Now 8,000 steps is a bad day. During the strict lockdown I used to walk 18 steps from the door to the street to the door to the balcony, backwards…
I took a mini-break to stay at my friend Alison’s new B&B in the Caldera. It was marvelous. How could any writer now be inspired by a spot like this? Rivendell is a good name. It’s “a perfect house, whether you like food or sleep or story-telling or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all.” And here’s the view: I arrived later than…