La Gomera Our second visit to the Holiday Property Bond resort on La Gomera. This time we were accompanying my parents, who were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
Ferry Friday - Having stayed at the interesting Bloc Hotel at Gatwick on Thursday night, we were up obscenely early for a 6am flight to Tenerife. We got a coach transfer to the ferry terminal at Los Cristianos.Here's my dad watching the ferry unload.
Other Ferry This time we were on the high-speed Fred Olsen ferry, which meant that we got a nice view of the slightly more leisurely Armas ferry as we overtook it.
San Sebastian This was the view of La Gomera's capital "city", San Sebastian, as we approached the harbour on the ferry.
San Sebastian We got off the ferry and back onto the coach. There was a nice view of San Sebiastian as the coach wound its way up into the mountains. Tenerife was just visible through the clouds in the far distance.
Villa At the Holiday Property Bond resort we checked in and got the keys to our villa, which you can see the back of in the photo. It was really rather spacious.
Villa And this was the villa from the garden side, with its own private, heated pool. Lovely.
Jardin Tecina From the side of our villa there was a nice view across to the Jardin Tecina resort. Again, Tenerife was just visible in the distance.It had been a very, very long day. Time for bed.
Paella Saturday - Paella lunch and we got to see it being made in this giant pan, which must have been about four feet in diameter.
Cliffs After lunch Judith and I headed off to La Gomera airport to pick up our hire car. Usually they would deliver it to the resort, but because this was a public holiday weekend in Spain, they were apparently unable to do that. However, as the airport was only about a mile from the resort, we thought we'd be as well to just go and get it. So we set off along the cliff-top path.
Cliffs There were some nice views on the cliff-top path.
Sitting Judith sitting outside a building on the cliff-top path.
Cliffs Me on the cliff-top path.
Cemetery The path went past this very unusual cemetery, which is like cemetery apartments. They were very well tended though, with lots and lots of fresh flowers, which must take some looking after in this climate.
Airport We arrived at La Gomera airport, which is hilarious. It's a lovely building and they have two flights a day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Unfortunately we'd arrived a bit early so there was no one at the hire car desk. Fortunately the cafe was open, so we bought some icecreams and settled down to wait.
Airport Here's Judith waiting.
Airport 360 Here's a picture of me in the deserted airport, taken with my Ricoh Theta S 360 degree camera.Anyway, after a period of time we got our car and drove back to the resort.
Pool The sun had been out all day so the pool was lovely and warm. Time for a dip.
Pool Here we all are in the pool. It was quite challenging setting the timer on my camera and then jumping into the pool before the shutter went.
Pool Mum in the pool.
Jerdune Sunday - I'd decided to go for a walk. So I got up early, then risked my life by waking Judith up so that she could drive me up into the mountains, from where I could walk back to the resort.It was lovely and sunny when we set off, but as we got higher it got cloudier and by the time we reached Jerdune it was pouring with rain and blowing a gale!I nearly bottled, but I had full waterproof kit with me, so I changed into that in the back of the car and set off regardless. When I left the car my thermometer was showing 10C!
Valley Turns out my optimism was well founded as it stopped raining after about ten minutes and the weather started to clear slightly, which improced the views somewhat.The first couple of miles of the trail on a very narrow trail clinging to the side of the valley.
Trail After a while the terrain flattens out.
Sunshine! After I'd been walking for about 90 minutes I got my first view of my shadow, so I thought I'd be as well to take a photo of it.
View The trail was a bit up and down at the start, but once I was out of the valley it was steadily downhill. As I descended it got warmer and warmer. After about three hours of walking it was 28C, a significant improvement on the 10C when I set off.
Farmhouse I passed the old abandoned farmhouse.
Playa Santiago This was the view down to Playa Santiago as I climbed up the final few hundred yards to the resort.
Playa Santiago Having had a bit of a rest and a dip in the pool, I headed back into Playa Santiago with my parents for a look around. This was the view of Playa Santiago from the end of the pier.
Harbour Here's my parents by the harbour.
Harbour Another harbour view.
Playa Santiago Back at the resort my mum and I went for a short walk along the cliff-top path before dinner. This was the view of the harbour at Playa Santiago from the path.
Fishing Boat There always seemed to be a few fishing boats around. Time for dinner.
La Laja Monday - We'd decided to go for a bit of a drive around the island. At the top of the island, at the view point looking down to La Laja, it was cold, windy and rather cloudy.
Arure We drove to the west end of the island. At Arure there's this awesome view point down to the town of Taguluche.
Arure Great view from the view point.
Arure Here's me at the view point at Arure, as taken by my mum.
Arure My parents on the trail from the view point back to the car.
Valle Gran Rey We decided to head to Valle Gran Rey for lunch. This was one of our first views of Valle Gran Rey in the distance as the road wound down the side of the valley.
Seafront Here's my parents on the seafront at Valle Gran Rey.
Valley View After lunch we headed back into the mountains. Here's a mini panorama of the whole valley leading down to Valle Gran Rey.
View Point My mum at a view point.
Monument Not sure what this is.
Valle Gran Rey View Another view down the valley to Vall Gran Rey.
Road
Mirador Cesar Enrique A bit further up the valley is what used to the the posh restaurant Mirador Cesar Enrique. On the left you can see the windows that look out onto the valley. It's been closed for a couple of years (at least) and I'm not sure why because you'd think this should be an awesome spot for a restaurant.
Mirador Cesar Enrique That would be an excellent view to have with your lunch/dinner.
Flowers Higher up on La Gomera there are loads and loads and loads of flowers. Very pretty.
Igualero My parents outside the church at Igualero.
Igualero There's a nice view of the plateau at Fortaleza from Igualero. I was hoping to walk/climb to the top of that later during the week.
Roque Agando On our way past here earlier in the day visibility was about 50 yards and there was no Roque to be seen. Visibility had improved very much so we thought we'd be as well to stop and take some photos. What the photo hasn't captured is that it was still blowing a gale.
Agando Panorama A panorama at Roque Agando.
Sangria Back at the resort and my mum decided to have a small glass of sangria with dinner.
Fortaleza Tuesday - I got up early and headed for Fortaleza. This was the view approaching Fortaleza.
Fortaleza On the ascent and you can just about make out the trail across the rocks on the left side of the photo. Most of the trail was like walking up steep stairs.
The Chimney This bit of the trail is called The Chimney and it is well steep. More like climbing up a ladder than walking up stairs.
Fortaleza View Approaching the top there were some fabulous views.
The Top The top was pretty much what you'd expect of a plateau - flat.
Fortaleza View There were some good views from the edges of the plateau though.
Fortaleza Trail A while later, back at the car, I got quite a nice view of the final bit of the trail that ascends to the top of the plateau.
St Isidore Chapel As the walk to Fortaleza hadn't been as energetic as I was expecting, on the drive back to the resort I stopped near Alajero to do the short walk up to the St Isidore Chapel.Here's our Astra in the car park at the start of the trail.
St Isidore Chapel It was only a short walk and it wasn't long before I got my first view of the chapel.
St Isidore Chapel The chapel is quite tiny.
Chapel View There were some nice views from the chapel.
Club Laurel Back at the resort I met up with Judith and my parents and we headed into Playa Santiago for lunch at the Club Laurel.
Parents My parents on the seafront near the Club Laurel after lunch.
Golf Back at our resort we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.
Restaurant This is a photo of the resort's restaurant, where we had most of our evening meals during the week.
Airport Wednesday - We were out and about exploring the island again. As it was nearly time for the morning flight we thought we'd pop into the airport to watch it.Here's the passenger boarding the plane. "Would the passenger please go to gate, er, 1". Brilliant.
Mirador Vallehermoso Admiring the view at Mirador Vallehermoso.
Mirador Dinero I think this is the view from the Mirador Dinero.
Hermigua Heading north we arrived in Hermigua, which didn't seem to be making the most of its impressive seafront.We had an interesting lunch in Hermigua before heading back into the mountains.
Hermigua View Here's the view down to Hermigua from high in the mountains.
Landslide When we were here last year, the section of road that joins the island's two major roads - the GR-1 and GR-2 - was closed due to a landslide. The road was open again now, but approaching from the north it was very clear to see where the landslide had occured.
Roque Ojila I think this is a view of Roque Ojilo from a trail on the re-opened link road.
Mum Mum in the forest.
Jardin Tecina On the way back to our resort we stopped in to the Jardin Tecina hotel for a look.Here's my mum on their cliff-top view point.
Casas la Cantera Trail As we had a couple of hours to spare when we got back to the resort, I popped out to see how much of a short(ish) walk I could manage.My guidebook says the trail from Quise down to the Casas la Cantera (and back) should take about three hours. Allowing for driving time, I reckoned I had about 90 minutes.The first part of the trail is gently downhill and I made good progress here.
Cliffs The last bit of the trail is a fairly steep, zig-zagging path down to the beach, which you can see a bit of in the bottom of this photo. I made it about half way down before my phone beeped to remind me that I needed to turn around and head back. Doh! Another 20 minutes and I reckon I'd have made it all the way down to the beach.
Valley View There were nice views inland on the way back.
Astra There was a nice photo opportunity with our Astra when I got back to the car.Time to head back to the resort for dinner and a rest.
Garajonay Thusday - My parents were out on an island tour organised by the resort, so Judith and I headed for the top of the island at Garajonay. It's a relatively easy walk to the top for "younger" people, but you'd have to be a fairly fit seventy-something to get to the top.Here's Judith on the trail to the top. It started out rather cloudy...
Garajonay ...but soon cleared. There were loads and loads and loads of flowers.
Flower
Garajonay At the top there were periods where visibility was good and periods where is was not. I managed to get this photo moments before another bank of cloud blew over. You can just see it starting to encroach from the right.
Garajonay Panorama A few minutes later and there was hardly any cloud at all.
Plant Some sort of interesting plant.
Trail Judith on the trail again.
Butterfly There were lots of butterflies and bees around servicing the huge number of flowers.
Swift Directly above Judith you can just see swift. There were loads of these birds speeding past us on the trail, presumably feeding on the insects that were feeding on the flowers. We felt like we had a few near misses, but I'm sure the birds knew what they were doing.
AIrport Flower It was time to take our hire car back to the airport, which meant we had a short(ish) walk back to the resort.Here's a nice flower I saw along the way.
Playa Santiago Judith admiring the view of Playa Santiago on the way back to the resort.
Flower Another lovely flower.
Pool A nice view of the resort's infinity pool. It's not heated though so we didn't see many people in there at this time of year.
Resort View A nice resort view.
San Sebastian Friday - We were up very early again for a 6am transfer from the resort to San Sebastian to get the ferry back to Tenerife.I thought this photo came out rather well considering that it was taken in very low light through the window of a moving coach.
Sunrise This was taken at the port in San Sebastian a few minutes before the sun rose over Tenerife.
Tenerife There were some nice views of Tenerife from the plane as we left Tenerife.
Tenerife Another excellent trip to La Gomera. Can't wait to go back again.