Gran Canaria... a trip that wasn't exactly thrilling (page 2 of 6)

That’s funny, I don’t quite feel like I visited the same island you described in your travel journal! ;)

You went to places I didn’t, and vice versa.

There’ll probably be a few "must-sees" we both hit 😎

Wednesday, March 25: Still checking the weather sites first thing in the morning 😊: it’s the northwest that seems the clearest. Heading to the Tamadaba forest for a short hike around Pico de la Bandera.

A quick stop on the way in Santa Cruz de Tejeda: quick because it’s 7°C with wind strong enough to knock the horns off a bull—we didn’t linger!



The (steady) climb up to Pico de la Bandera is a straight shot and takes about half an hour.





But the view up there is pretty disappointing: Teide is still shrouded in clouds, and the trees block much of the view of Gran Canaria’s north coast.

The rest is easy: a simple descent and a return via a pleasant, sunny balcony trail that offers some lovely views at times.



Given the rain of the past few days, the trails are surprisingly walkable (that won’t always be the case), except for a few little streams that sometimes flood the path. Strangely, there are very few flowers, and we barely hear any birds.

A quick stop on the way back at Mirador Pinos de Gáldar:



Then at Mirador Pico de la Gora:



To recover from our efforts (even if they were moderate 😏), we decide to try a cake made with the local specialty, *bienmesabe* (a kind of paste made from sugar and almonds, among other things): not bad... but *very* sweet!



Almonds are actually the specialty of the area: you’ll find them in (almost) every dessert, and in February, there’s the almond blossom festival (it must be beautiful to see).

Funny I was there too from 03/21 to 03/28 considering the state of the roads The owner of my place in Tejeda was surprised I made it

For sure, the roads were really affected by the storm !

Ahhh! Now that I recognize!😊

It's true that the pastries in Tejeda are very sweet. But they still had a little *je ne sais quoi* that made you want more.😋

That’s totally true... in fact, we ended up going back almost every day we stayed there. 😏

Hi Muriel, I’ll be following your travel journal closely, even if the title isn’t very inviting (and to be honest, I wasn’t exactly tempted by it either...). On the other hand, we’re also heading to Puglia for a week after you! Jacques

Hi Jacques

If you're heading to the Canary Islands (at least from what I know), you're better off going to Tenerife!

On the other hand, we're also heading to Puglia for a week after you..

Looks like VF members are following each other at the start of the year 😉

For me, it'll be tuna on the plancha, Canarian potatoes, and almond cream.

I think I would’ve ordered the same thing... 🙂 Is the almond cream served with the tuna, or as dessert?

I’ve often thought that one day, one of our trips would *go wrong* for whatever reason! It’s never happened yet, but yours is proof that it’s possible.... 😕

Looking forward to the rest of the story.

...

Hi Alain

Is the almond cream with the tuna, or for dessert?

It was a dessert (homemade) 😉... but in this area, it’s not uncommon to find dishes with almonds—they’re pretty much everywhere.

"Disaster" is a bit of a strong word (especially since the weather *is* going to improve... a little), but yeah, it wasn’t the best trip!

Thursday 26/03: The sky is completely gray, with big black clouds hanging over the mountains. Why not go for a hike from here? Off we go for "the Tejeda loop," a roughly 9 km circuit with 350m of elevation gain.

First, we climb up to the cross overlooking the village.



Sure, the weather isn’t great, but at least it’s not raining (that’s something!) and splashes of yellow brighten up the grayness a little.







The sometimes steep descent leads us to the famous giant "cesta" (a traditional basket used for harvesting fruit).



A photo is a must 😄



From there, the hike gets tricky: we’re supposed to cross a stream by wading... uh, apart from taking off our shoes (and even then), I don’t see how. The water must be freezing, and on top of that, we don’t have a towel! We look for an alternative... just like a German couple with a Rother guidebook, whom we’ll run into three times on this part of the hike 😄) So, we cross a fenced field (as many others seem to have done, judging by the tracks in the grass), but we miss the turnoff just at the exit... and end up facing the river a little further on. About-turn! This time, we take the right path, which climbs and climbs... until it disappears under a landslide (darn! We were almost at the top!) Go through? Not go through? (The Germans turned back.)



It looks pretty risky between the mud where footprints sink more than 20 cm deep and the precariously balanced rocks and stones... and who knows if we won’t come across another landslide further on?

Alright, that’s enough for today 😡, about-turn, we head back down and return via the road (closed to cars but not to pedestrians) !

I missed this basket!

This walk looks really nice despite the weather and the water obstacle. 🙂

In good weather and without any obstacles preventing you from doing the whole thing, yeah, it must be nice :)

Friday 03/27: It’s our last day in Tejeda and therefore our last chance to visit the famous Roque Nublo. I checked the website yesterday—all the time slots were fully booked.

I had asked Agnès if this hike was worth it, and she said yes... and she was absolutely right 🙂. She confirmed that it was possible to go without a reservation before 9 AM or after 6 PM (I’d read that, but it didn’t seem very clear).

So we’ll go before the ticket office opens to take the trail without having booked. It’s cold this morning, but the sky is clear. On the way, the "watch out for black ice" warning pops up on the dashboard !!!

In the end, the thermometer reads 6°C when we park at the official Cruz de los Llanos parking lot, where we head to the Roque Nublo trail access (which we can see in the distance).



The plan is to arrive around 9 AM at the control booth, but at the only intersection without signs, we take the wrong path twice, adding over 1 km to the trip (though, to be fair, the right path—meaning straight ahead !)—is flooded by a stream (darn Thérèse! )).

Plus, the trail is far from flat, even though Roque Nublo initially seems barely higher than the parking lot. A looong descent to the dam:

... followed by a looong climb up to the booth. Anyway, it’s nearly 9:30 AM when we reach the booth. Phew, it’s still closed. Great! So we take the famous 1.6 km trail leading to Roque Nublo.



While the trail starts off pretty wide, it later becomes very narrow at times, so it’s a good thing they limited visitors to 60 per hour. It offers beautiful views of the valley:



Finally, we’re near the goal 🙂

Here we are now on the plateau:





You can go around the rock... but the view is less pretty:



One last photo before heading back the same way.



As we descended back toward the guardhouse, I realized we’d probably crossed paths with a maximum of 15 people on this trail. Strange, since the time slots were marked as fully booked between the 10 AM and 11 AM ones—should’ve been nearly 120 people! The guardhouse was still closed, but the police were issuing tickets to cars parked in the few spots nearby. One of the officers informed us that today, the trail was closed (now it all makes sense!) and that we were in violation. We had seen some police tape at the entrance, but with no signs or notices, we thought it was just because the guardhouse wasn’t open yet . I still checked the booking site when I got back—no info there either! The officer finally told us it was okay, no ticket this time 😎.

Without a doubt, our best day in Tejeda—and on Gran Canaria: a gorgeous hike (though more tiring than I expected—definitely deserves a bienmesabe cake when we get back 😛) in ideal conditions (great weather and very few people, even if the latter wasn’t intentional).

Our stay in Tejeda is coming to an end. We found this village really charming, with a few (not many) people during the day when visitors from the south come to explore, but overall very peaceful, at least at this time of year. Too bad about the weather: located at just over 1000m altitude, when the sun wasn’t out (which was often 😕), it was cold.

The storm caused numerous landslides and road closures, significantly lengthening some of our trips and discouraging us from doing everything we’d planned. For example, Artenara and Roque Bentayga, theoretically just 15 minutes away by road, ended up being 45 minutes and an hour away, respectively. Driving an hour (with constant twists and turns) to reach Roque Bentayga, which is normally less than 7 km away—I’ll admit, I gave up. Little side note about the roads: like on the other Canary Islands we’ve visited, they’re in excellent condition... though sometimes a bit narrow.

For hikes, we use Maps.me, which works offline. I found that the directions aren’t very clear in many countries, so it helps avoid getting lost.

We were still in T-shirts at the end of this hike. There was no wind, the calm before the storm...🤪

I also often use Maps.me... but this time, it couldn't locate us... Honestly, I didn’t check much before leaving. I thought 5km x 2 (we actually did 13, and it’s not that easy) would be fine; it’s a super well-known hike, everything would be well-marked, and there’d be people around (well, no 😏).

I get the feeling most people take the bus to start right where the staff member is.

We ran into some people in the parking lot-official start area only at the beginning. After that, people branched off elsewhere.

We were alone on the way back.

At the bus stop, though, there were quite a few people.

I had the impression there were more cyclists than hikers on this island. I take my hat off to them because going from Maspalomas to Pico de Las Nieves is still 2,067 meters of positive elevation gain for just 209 meters of negative. 🤪 Not to mention the way back! !

I think, unlike us, the shuttles knew the trail was closed because we didn’t see any. I agree with you: we came across few hikers but lots of cyclists (and motorbikes on the weekend too)... and I’d be totally incapable of doing even a tenth of what they do!

Hi Muriel,

Just read about your first few days in Gran Canaria... almost all your photos have a beautiful blue sky 😊 but where’s this bad weather? 🤨 😄