David Penney leads us down from the beautiful heights of Lanzarote to the old town of Teguise.
We met at the car park of the Mirador de los Helechos, the restaurant that overlooks the valley of Haría on the LZ 10, and left two cars there after buying some drinks and displaying the receipts on the dashboard.
We started the walk by crossing the road to pick up the track of the GR131, the 73-km trekking trail that stretches from Órzola in the north to Playa Blanca in the south.
The first part of the route is fairly easy – a relatively flat track following the burgundy markers. It was a shame to see many of the farmers had not planted out due to the lack of rain, even though so many of the fields had been cleared of weeds and stones. Normally the clouds disperse their moisture into the higher ground, making better growing conditions, but the ground has been too dry and hard to get started this year.
We walk past the military radar station on our right and continue until the farmers’ fields come to an end on the right, we now head over to the ridge to witness the spectacular view down to the village and beach of Famara and the ocean.
We were very fortunate, as it was a very clear sky with excellent visibility, and after capturing several good photos we followed the track along the ridge up to the church. This lonely church, La Ermita de Las Nieves, is rarely open to the public but we chose this as a place to take a break.
We re-join the track making our way down passing the military antennas on our right, as the track drops further down, we arrive at a signpost which clearly indicates another track heading over the hill to our right.
At this point we have two options, you can continue down the main track as it sweeps left and right around the bends, which certainly is much easier and shorter, or you can take the rough track down into the valley.
We took the more challenging route down into the valley. Here you need to watch every step as it is easy to slip on the screen and dry terrain. We zig-zagged down and when we arrived at the bottom, we stopped to admire the sun passing behind the clouds from the viewpoint called Mirador Calle Gadifer de la Salle.
The last leg of our trek was now to walk along the flat and take the easy track through the base of the valley. There are three tracks which lead you out, one of which is called Calle Gadifer de la Salle.
This valley has lots of established plots of maize, onions, potatoes, pumpkin, aloe vera, sweet potatoes etc, because some of the farmers have chosen to pay for irrigation and increase their yield from the land.
After a good hike we arrive at the sports stadium and school on the outskirts of Teguise and walked a little further into town and enjoyed a cold beer and chat.
WALK INFORMATION
This is a linear 9.6km walk which should take you approximately 3 and a half hours to complete. The terrain is easy to start with but there is a fairly challenging descent.
Unfortunately, there is no public transport which will take you to the starting point, so you’ll have to use a car.
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