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 end of the year. (That starts with a 450 m climb and it’s much longer.)
You can continue onwards to the campsite at La Laguna, just outside Barlovento, (about 6 km) although it’s much less steep. I didn’t.
It wasn’t all that hot, but it was very humid and soon I was dripping with sweat. I started to wish that I’d carried more water. Did I mention that this path is seriously steep, even by La Palma’s standards.
Although the car parks had been packed, I didn’t see anyone else at all. It gave me lots of time to think about writing and how to improve my baddie. A good long walk by myself cleared my head wonderfully. La Palma’s scenery is extrememly varied and I like it all, but laurel forest is my favourite. It’s what I most missed during lockdown. I love the smell and the way so many tree stumps look almost like animals. I love the fungi.
Eventually I made it to the viewpoint, which is on the lip of the ravine. Hallelujah, there was shade and a water tap. Even picnic tables and benches, so I could sit down comfortably. And of course the view over the valley was amazing (see top photo.)
A little bird came along and asked politely if I could spare a little bit of my energy bar. Of course I could.
A big blue dragonfly zoomed around. It was incredibly hard to get a photo because it wouldn’t settle at all, but one of the ten or so photos isn’t too bad. And then, of course, I had a very steep walk back down which I had to take slowly and carefully.
This week I should hand over the Spanish 3rd edition of A Breathtaking Window on the Universe for layout. After working on these updates for almost two years, it will probably feel strange to finish. But it does mean that I can get back to killing people!
