Europe – Page 15

Walking Lanzarote in the Canary Islands

December 4, 2018

Certainly there are worse places to spend the month of November than Lanzarote in Spain’s Islas Canarias. Located about 80 miles off the Coast of Morocco, it is to a large extent defined by the series of volcanic eruptions in the 1730’s. Admittedly, my main purpose of renting an AirBnB apartment overlooking the Atlantic in Puerto del Carmen was to enjoy the (relatively) warm ocean. Nonetheless, I managed several interesting hikes/walks that encompassed some of the most interesting landscapes on the island. Check out the photos below. . .

An Old Town harbor garden in *Pueto del Carmen*, near the beginning of my local coast walk.

Looking towards *Puerto del Carmen* from the coast path. I did this coastal hike (from my door) 6-8 times during this past month.

View along the path around the outside of *Caldera Blanca*. Here it doesn’t look much different from southwest Utah.

View of the *Caldera Blanca* from along its rim, with the west coast of Lanzarote and the ocean in the background. Amazing views make this one of the most popular hikes on the island.

A view towards the *Montana Caldereta* from the rim of the *Caldera Blanca*. A recent lava field surrounds the caldereta. The white line in the background is a village.

Femes village, the trailhead for one of my hikes in the southeast of the island. Typical Lanzarotan architecture is seen here. Unlike other Canary Islands, Lanzarote has largely been spared unsightly development.

A ridge view near *Pico Redondo* towards *Playa Blanca* at the south end of Lanzarote. The island of Fuerteventura is on the left in the background. A 45 minute ferry runs several times a day from *Playa Blanca* to Fuerteventura and back.

A ridge view on *Lomo del Pozo* towards *Puerto del Carmen*

A coastal view back towards *El Golfo* on the west coast of the island. This land was created in the 1730’s through a series of eruptions.

Typical plants surviving in the tough west coast soil north of *El Golfo* in Timanfaya National Park

Further north on the west coast is the *Playa de Famara*. With favorable winds and good surf, this beach is popular with both surfers and wind surfers.

The southern end of *El Risco de Famara* (cliffs) just north of the *Playa de Famara*. The path ended near here.

The *Finca de Corona* at the trailhead to another Risco de Famara hike even further north. It happens to be for sale.

Finca lands growing something. Agriculture (and viniculture) is definitely a challenge in the poor volcanic soil.

View from the top of the *Risco de Famara.* The path goes down off to the left here.

One of the few plants I saw in flower on the *Risco de Famara*

View towards *Isla Graciosa* from near the bottom of the *Risco de Famara.* I didn’t make it over to this small island last month. Something for next time.

Dunes and the *Risco de Famara*. The path back to the top is near the center of the cliffs here.

View from my balcony late one day. The island of Fuerteventura is visible to the right in the distance.

Wishing my readers a wonderful holiday season, my next post will be towards the end of January from Chile following my attempted climb of Ojos del Salado, the world’s highest volcano.

The Vagabond Hiker

Back to the Balkans: Bosnia & Croatia

October 2, 2018

The second half of September found me returning to the Balkans after three weeks in the Dolomites of Italy. This time, while the priority was not so much hiking per se, Maggie and I did get to experience some very diverse landscapes in the mountains of Bosnia and along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. We interspersed the hikes with cultural touring in Mostar and Sarajevo in Bosnia and in Dubrovnik, Croatia, enjoying seafood and local wines throughout our journeys.

In Bosnia, we stayed for three nights at an authentic old farmhouse, which was our base for hiking in Sutjeska National Park. This park, established in 1962, is Bosnia’s oldest. It includes the country’s highest peak, Maglić (2,386 meters) on the border with Montenegro. The Strict Nature Reserve “Perućica”, one of the last two remaining primeval forests in Europe*, is also part of the park. The photos below are from the two very different hikes we took, a short wander in the Perućica reserve and a grueling round trip climb to the summit of Maglić.

*- The much larger Białowieża Forest in Poland and Belarus is the other.

A stream, Perućica Nature Reserve, Sutjeska National Park. Entry to the reserve is with a guide only. The host at our farmhouse accommodation just happened to be the park ranger in the reserve and invited us to hike there as his guests.

A colorful mushroom, perhaps dyer’s polypore, one of many we saw in Perućica.

A VERY large example of *Sparassis crispa,* or cauliflower mushroom, in Perućica Reserve.

Trail heading to Lake Trnovacko from Prijevor, Sutjeska NP. The route we took to the summit of Mount Maglić was about 14 miles and had more than 3,500 ft of elevation gain.

Montenegrin border post at Lake Trnovačko. Fortunately, my driver’s license was sufficient for the guard/park ranger. Most of the hike was actually in Montenegro.

Mount Maglić (l) from Lake Trnovačko (Trnovačko Jezero).

After a stiff climb from the lake, a flattish plateau area brought us to Maglić’s summit block, which required a short scramble.

With Maggie on Mount Maglić’s summit (2386 meters)

The heart-shaped Lake Trnovačko from Maglić’s summit. Our climbing route was from the left side of the lake here.

Another view of Lake Trnovačko with clouds, on our descent

After Bosnia, we returned to the Dubrovnik area of Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. While the lovely walled city is teeming with tourists, we found two hikes to the north that were not so overrun: the walled town of Ston and the island of Lopud. Both made for interesting day trips from our apartment a few kilometers north of Dubrovnik.

Village of Ston with salt pans, seen from one of the walls. The walls of Ston are longer than Dubrovnik, and claimed to be the longest walled fortification in Europe.

The walls extend to the nearby town of Mali Ston (Mali means “little”)

Our hike was a loop that involved some bush-whacking on the return to Ston. Here is a portion of the Ston walls that we saw on our return. Only part of the fortifications are currently open to the public.

A short ferry from Dubrovnik to The island of Lopud is only a short ferry ride from Dubrovnik. Vehicle-free (except golf carts), there are many hiking trails that enabled us to more or less circumambulate the island. Here are some Bougainvillea above the town of Lopud.

Vista from Sutvrač Fort towards Sipan. Although not quite two square miles in area, Lopud is the second largest island of the Elaphiti islands (after Sipan). It is located less than 10 kilometers NW of Dubrovnik.

Vista point on the Northwest corner of Lopud. The peacefulness of the island was a dramatic change from the crowds of tourists a few miles away in Dubrovnik.

Tomorrow I leave for New Delhi to begin a three week trekking trip to the Garwhal Himalaya. Our group will be trekking in the region of Kumaon, Uttarakhand, just West of Nepal and bordering Tibet to the North. On my return to the UK later this month I will post my next blog from my first trip to India.

Until then, enjoy the outdoors,

The Vagabond Hiker

Walks and Ferratas among the High Peaks of the Dolomites

September 15, 2018

Early morning a few hours before my flight to Dubrovnik Croatia, and I hastily dash off another blog post. During the past three weeks I have done some easier hiking in the meadows and woods of the Dolomites as well as some adrenaline-pumping climbs on expert level via ferratas (VF), again with OnTop Mountaineering out of Canmore, Alberta. First the easier hikes and walks…

Cencenighe Agordino. A late August morning view from my apartment after snowfall the night before.

View of Lago Alleghe. The giro di Alleghe was a pleasant one hour stroll around the lake.

View of part of the Civetta Massif from the Pian de Pelsa, following a 900m ascent on a gondola from the town of Alleghe.

Rigugio Coldai on Civetta. This hike was along the northwest flank of this mighty mountain.

Detail of Common Monkshood seen above Rifugio Coldai

Lago Coldai on Civetta’s Northwest flank

Willow-leaved Gentian seen on the descent through the woods from Civetta’s northwest flank

Lago Alleghe from the descent to Masare from Civetta’s northwest flank. The town of Alleghe is partially seen on the right side of the lake.

Meadow Saffron (aka Autumn Crocus) above Cencenighe. There were fields of these flowers in bloom.

Civetta in clouds from its eastern side during my circuit of Monte Pelmo hike. This day was the only one I was caught out in the rain.

Cencenighe Agordino, behind my apartment. This road becomes the path that traverses high above the Cordevole Valley up to Lago Alleghe

Interesting mushroom on the path above the Cordevole valley

A typical view along the high level path above the Cordevole valley. It was wonderful finding such a lovely walk right out my back door.

And now the ferratas. All the photos with me in them were taken by another client, Ron, who was our unofficial photographer. My thanks to him for sharing these with me so quickly.