Author: travurple

Another easy week. 

We met Nic’s cousin, who was in Corralejo on holiday, and as we had the hire car we drove out to El Cotillo (on the north west coast), for lunch and ordered far too much food, including one salad that was so huge it could have probably fed all three of us without anything else.  

We hired bikes 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️, Nic got an electric one and Rog chose not to. We headed south down the coastal plan, starting off as a nice smooth tarmac path and then on to a dirt track. On the first hill the chain on Rog’s bike snapped ! No mobile phone signal ! Nic headed up out of the valley and managed to get a phone signal to ring to bike hire shop, so within 15 mins they had arrived with another bike. We set off again and after a few more hills, Rog was knackered and decided to turn around, meanwhile Nic was really enjoying the electric bike, whizzing ahead and waiting at the top of hills.

On Saturday we watched the England v Ireland 6 Nations rugby match, a ‘good’ game despite England having a player sent off after only 82 seconds, the fastest sending off in international rugby history 😩. 

Sunday  we had a walk down to the port for a last coffee and  some people watching, followed by packing as we fly back to the UK on Monday !

All this not working seems to take up lots of time 😀. This week we have:

Sunbathed;

Been out for one evening for a couple of drinks (Nic had cocktails! ) and then a Chinese meal at the local “centro commercial”, which includes a supermarket, about four bars, including the obligatory Irish one, and a selection of restaurants Chinese, Indian and pizza;

Sunbathed some more;

Walked, most days;

Been to the cinema to see the new Batman film, in English with Spanish sub-titles; and

Done a load of research and booking for our travels later this year – watch this space to find out where we are going!

They say picture speaks a thousand words, and given the above is very short, here are some pictures 

Monday was the final full day of our friend’s visit, so Rog helped out with some IT and travel support, including completing  a UK passenger locator form and an Isle of Man entry permit. Also booking a few flights and trains – it’s all part of the service 😀. 

Tuesday afternoon we did the airport run, it is not far from the villa, so pretty easy. The airport is really quiet and the parking is right outside the terminal and is really cheap, we strolled to the terminal to see our friend off, walked back to the car and the car parking cost 10cents (€), yes, no typo, 10 cents, that’s about 8p (GBP) – take note UK airports!!

Wednesday, we had a storm, thunder and rain, obviously nothing compared to the recent flurry of storms the UK has had, but we did have a little storm, not the weather we ordered 😒 . It brought down a layer of red dust with the rain, onto the sunbeds, luckily we had no washing out!

Thursday – we drove the mountain road to Ajuy (no, we haven’t worked out how to pronounce it either), on the west coast, walked to some interesting caves, marvelling at the geology., and the lack of health and safety on the cliff path! Then we had lunch in a local restaurant.  We shared the fish platter, it was nice, but we are currently both over ordering the fish platter – it’s tasty but very fiddley. 

Saturday, we managed to watch the England v Wales rugby.  A good result, but England were lucky. 

Sunday, was a cloudy day so we decided to drive through the mountains to the village of Betancuria, established in 1404, the old capital of the Canary Islands and Fuerteventura. It is very pretty, and appeared to be full of cafes and restaurants for the tourists. We then drove up “Morro de la Cruz” to a viewing point overlooking the central plane of Fuerteventura, where we watched a stream of tourists drive up, spend 30 seconds looking at the view, then drive off again. 

Monday, a day of travel, packed up and driving back down the mountain, 1 ½ hr down to the coast. Nic needed some new trainers and luckily ‘Asics’, Nic’s choice of trainer, have a outlet store in Gran Canaria, so purchased a replacement set of trainers. 

Got to the airport early for our flight to Fuerteventura, a large airport, but very reminiscent of Isle of Man flights, being at the last gate in the airport, and obviously a local flight, people knowing each other, a small plane, loading from the back.

We managed to spot the our next AirBnB  home from the plane, landed in Fuerteventura,  and the bags were really quick coming through, the car hire pick up was also easy. Still can’t believe we managed to get car for less than £10 per day. 

The AirBnB  Villa is only a few miles from the airport,  we got checked in and met the host. Then we had to ‘hit’ Mercadona (the local supermarket) for supplies. Valentine’s day so a lateish supper of steak and chips for us after that.

Tuesday, a good friend arrived to spend a week with us.

We have had a few days of good weather, with a little bit of rain (nothing serious). 

Saturday we drove to the north of the island, ‘Corralejo’, a large town with a lot more tourists than in ‘Castillo Caleta de Fuste’ where we are staying. Had lunch in ‘Mi Casa’ restaurant, then a drive along the north  coast ‘road’. When we say road, it was on the map, other people were driving along it, but it was a dirt track, and  an interesting dirt track. 

Today, Sunday, we drove to the south end of the island to ‘Morro Jable’ a small tourist town, predominately used by German tourists, as evidenced by menus written with German as their first language. It had a lovely sandy beach.  Had ice-cream Sundaes for lunch. Drove back via ‘Gran Tarajal’ a much more local town, which was nice to see rather than all the tourist settlements. 

We are currently sitting writing this blog, whist it is raining outside ! but nothing like the storms that have hit the UK this week – we hope all our readers are safe!

We know …. another delayed blog !  it’s a good job you are not sitting around waiting for us to publish this blog, just so you can curse us about being away in the sun in February!

So week 4 in Gran Canaria, and our second week in our cave, and more doing not a lot, but taking all day to do it !

We have had a couple of glorious sunny days, when we sat on the patio reading. We have managed another couple of walks from the cave, into the next valley surrounding the cave, all walks start and end either up or down hill!  It is still really peaceful, hardly anyone else in the surrounding caves or out and about walking. 

Had another drive to Tejeda, to replenish the supplies, and have lunch in the same restaurant. We know it might seem slightly odd going back to the same restaurant, but it definitely looked like the best in town. 

Thursday the gas for the double burner cooker ran out ! So the owner, god bless him, dropped everything bought more gas and drove the 1hr & half to the cave to deliver the gas, so all sorted and not problem, it ran out when trying to make tea at 4pm in the afternoon, so we had to have a beer instead.

Started the packing process, as we move to Fuerteventura on Monday (14 Feb).

A quiet week as planned, in the mountains, in a cave ! We are at 1,200 meters, nearly 4,000 ft in old money, and for the Manxies that is almost twice the height of Snaefell.

We have been relaxing and not doing very much, a shopping to trip into Tejeda only 14km away but because of the roads takes 30mins to drive. The roads are stunning and newly tarmaced, just relatively narrow and very windy (in both senses of the word – bloody English language! (Rog))

The general grocery shopping option was the small local Spar, but thankfully it had everything we needed.  Then had a nice lunch out in a restaurant called “ La Casa d’Almendras“, they also had a pastry counter, so it would have been rude not to buy a pastry or two for the rest of the week!

We have also managed a couple of walks, one down the valley and up the other side on the path, we can see from the cave, and one around the block, which sounds easy until you remember we are staying in a hole in the side of a cliff, therefore the walk was literally around the block of rock/mountain, therefore it was down the valley again and keep turning right until we got back home, about 7km of mainly steep (up or down) gravel and rock footpath. But worth the effort a stunning walk,  especially through the blossom covered Almond trees in the gorge.  The only people we saw were a group of 5, all of a certain age, wearing a lot of bright new shiny walking gear, we hope they know what they are doing and where they are going. They  each had a GPS tracker with them, if they know how to use them. 

Some more quiet days relaxing in and near the apartment. Continuing the running/walking training, along the costal path, nicely paved underfoot but a little undulating. 

Went to Garden Marquesa, a privately owned botanical garden, that is obviously the place for your wedding reception in Gran Canaria, as there is a large structure in the grounds surrounded by trees, and places staged for the “perfect” wedding photos.(benches, little bridges -all a little bit twee).

Visited Las Palmas cathedral and the covered Market.

Lunched at the local cookery/hospitality school restaurant, run by the students. 3 course meal including a drink for 9 euro (£7.50) plus the entertainment of the students working, you can’t go wrong. 

On Saturday, we took Nic’s parents back to the airport to fly home, we had had a lovely two weeks with them. 

At the airport, Rog was accosted by an elderly UK couple trying to deal with the UK Passenger Locator Forms (PLF), they had already missed one easyjet flight home, and had been trying to get a Ryanair flight, family in the UK had completed the UK PLF, but they were struggling with the technology and not able to get the form onto their phone. Rog sorted that out, but by then the Ryanair flight had closed and they were unable to buy a ticket for that, so they planned to get a hotel for the night and try again in the morning, hopefully they will have got themselves sorted ! 

Sunday, we packed up, loaded the car and drove to Maspalomas for lunch, and to collect the keys for our next place in the mountains. 

Maspalomas – what an eye opener! a cross between las Vegas and Blackpool in the Sun,  some strange buildings including s shopping centre with copies of the leaning tower of Piza the Eiffel tower, the Brandenburg gates etc etc …. Quite amazingly tacky.  However the sand dunes were impressive. 

We collected the keys and headed into the mountains, on an amazing road – lots of climbing, lots of switchbacks,  a narrow road in places, with lots of cyclists and motorbikes coming the other way, neither of us can remember driving such an impressive mountain road before, it ended with a single track road to our home for the next two weeks … a cave.   “Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with ends of worms and an ozzy smell, nor yet a dry bare sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.” – Sorry Rog is reading The Hobbit again ! 

Given most of our followers are in the UK, and it is currently January, we are probably now going to irritate most of you, with tales of good weather, Sorry!

This week started so windy, that the air was full of sand blown in from the Sahara Desert, it was not pleasant sitting out on the balcony, (“what a shame” we hear you all say!)  however, the temperature has been OK, especially when compared to the UK, as we are nearly 2,000 miles south of Pocklington. 

We will not revert to documenting our daily travel as we did with the narrow boat and motorhome last year, as the days here are not that different from each other, which is sort of the plan, to chill out and relax. We will however document some “highlights”. 

Wednesday, we drove up to the Gran Canaria ‘national’ botanical gardens, which was well done, showcasing the different habitats around the island, pine forest, scrub land, and no surprise that the gardens were up the side of a steep ravine, so much so that to get to the restaurant on at the top, we actually went back to the car and drove around.

We have both been trying to run or walk most days, in an attempt to get little fitter. Rog has signed up for the Parish Walk in June. For those of you who have not heard of the Parish Walk, it is a walk to every Parish church on the Isle of Man, a mere 85 miles which must be completed in 24 hours… Rog is planning on starting the Parish Walk with no intention of finishing it, he will probably do the 32 miles from Douglas to Peel. 

Saturday, we booked a ½ day boat trip, with Blue M Boat, out of Puerto de Mogan (in the south of the island).  Thankfully the weather has turned, it is now less windy and the sea is calm. We managed to see a large number of Striped Dolphins, with lots of mothers and calves. 

The south of the island is a very different landscape from the north west, where the apartment is, the south is a lot hillier and less developed, due to the more challenging terrain. Illustrated by the main road to the south, which appeared to be either tunnel or bridge!Sunday, the best weather so far, we sat on the balcony in the sun, reading and watching the planes go overhead (we are 7 km from the airport), the boats and people swimming in the sea. We both managed 3.5 / 4 mile walk today.

Sorry Readers, we missed another week last week, just a whirlwind of family, which has been lovely. We have not spent this long in Pocklington since we left for our respective Universities. 

This week we have a bit more to talk about:

Rog celebrated a birthday all week, starting with an meal out a week early, and involved lots of cake.

We pack-up the AirBnB and stashed all our stuff back in our parent’s garage and loft space. 

We know we will not get any sympathy, but we have also had to deal with the hassle of “paper” work to enable international travel, our third version of flights to Gran Canaria actually happened, (but until we got on the flight I was still awaiting a fourth cancellation)! 

The “paper’ work included: 

UK Travel Covid Passes – easy 

Spanish Health forms – can only be completed online, no more that 48 hrs before travel, and they were a bit of a pain!

Online check-in – should be easy, but thanks to the Tui computer system we could not manage it!

Travel Insurance and Car Hire excess insurance. (Unlike most people, Rog actually reads the Policies !!!).

We had not flown for just less than two years, it felt like a long time compared with all the flights we used to regularly take from the Isle of Man. We were flying from Doncaster Airport (Robin Hood ? no idea why it is called that), there were only three flights departing on Saturday, so check-in was easy, there was no queue at security, and a half empty plane.

Landed in Gran Canaria, had the passport scanned on the electronic gates, then the passport stamped by a man, then our Spanish health form checked, then had to show a nurse our UK Covid passes, she was on the phone and didn’t seem that interested.  Then the wait for the luggage, which eventually turned up. The Car hire next –  we found the Budget desk, which was closed, thankfully it had a sign stapled to the door directing us to the small office in the Car hire car park. So all turned out OK. A short drive to the apartment in the dark. Met by the owner, a very nice apartment. 

You may have noticed that we did not publish a blog last week, as it was Christmas we decided to have a week off.

So, this blog is covering the last two weeks, however it will still be very short, as the last two weeks can be summed up by … Festivities, Friends, Family, Food & Drink (or to stay with the alliteration “falling down juice”). 

We are still in Pocklington in an AirBnB, but planning for our next adventure, subject to Covid restrictions, a couple of months on the Canary Islands. We have already had one flight cancelled (thanks EasyJet) and re-booked with TUI/Ryanair.

In the next two weeks, we just need to re-organise and pack-up everything we got out of storage.

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas and wish everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year