Where are the Canaries, and where is La Gomera?

The Canaries are off the coast of Africa, only 50 miles from Morocco at their nearest point.

For us, the Canaries were 4 hours in a plane from Exeter airport. The journey is about 1800 miles almost directly south. Hooray - much warmer down there!

La Gomera is just to the west of Tenerife. We caught the plane to Tenerife and then took the ferry to La Gomera, which took about 1½ hours.

The Islands are wetter to the west and drier to the east. We went to Fuerteventura a few years ago, and it was extremely dry. This time the landscape was much greener and wetter.

We were staying in Playa de Santiago on the south side of the island. Our apartment was very close to the rocky beach, and you could here the waves all the time. You could also here the locals whizzing around on their motorbikes most of the time. Actually it was a small and quiet place.

We walked up this gorge on the first day we were there, but not getting up onto the ridges- they are over 1000m high!

At the head of the valley is the impressive ‘Roque de Agando’ at 1250m. It was impossible to climb up, and in fact is within the national park, so is probably prohibited.

We caught a bus up the ridge, and then walked along behind the rock. The roads on the island run along the ridges, not the valleys, and they all converge at the top. It’s often misty up there - it was on about half the days we were there.

Slightly further to the north is the Garajonay rainforest. It’s perched on the plateau on the top of the island, and is in mist most of the year. We went to the highest point on the island, (Alto de Garajonay, 1487m), and saw...nothing. Because it was in thick fog. In fact the cloud cleared for a few brief moments, and we had great views down to the steep sided, dry, mountainous valleys below.

It is bizarre that both the flatness and vegetation increase the higher altitude you are!

Here’s a picture of our balcony. It was a nice place to sit and listen to the waves and motorbikes.

The paths were generally good. This was on our longest walk - about 10miles from the plateau down to the capital of Gomera, San Sebastian. Once there, we caught the bus back home again.

Hot and sweaty in the jungle. This was about a 2 hour walk up the valley from where we were staying.

If it weren’t for the vegetation, you could be fooled into thinking you were in a Scottish glen.

It was generally a nice temperature for walking. Definitely warm when the sun came out, but not too hot.