Walking on Gran Canaria

Walking on Gran Canaria

Introduction

Most keen walkers from the U.K. or northern Europe get a bit fed up with the cold damp winter, muddy paths, miserable picnics and daylight fading during the afternoon. Well everyone deserves some winter sunshine and a walking holiday on Gran Canaria is the perfect antedote to the northern European winter blues!

Paths through ancient terraces

Towards Roque Nublo....

Where it is and Climate

Situated approx 150 Km (90 miles) off the west coast of Africa (Morocco / Western Sahara) and 1350 Km (840 miles) south of Europe; Gran Canaria sits well out into the Atlantic and thus has a cooler more temperate climate than mainland Africa. Throughout the year, the average daytime temperature varies from 20 degrees in winter to 26 degrees in summer.  So it is an ideal venue for year round walking. However November to February are the months with the highest rainfall with between 3 and 5 days of rain per month. Having previously visited both Morocco and southern Spain for walking holidays, I shall be returning back to Gran Canaria for my winter “fix” of sunshine in early March where I expect to walk during warm days with plenty of sunshine! Take a look at my holiday.

What is the walking is like?

Sometimes described as ‘a continent in miniature’, Gran Canaria has a variety of landscapes: forests, hillsides covered in pink almond blossom, rocky paths and slopes, almost lunar (volcanic) landscapes, and lush green valleys.  Although there are coastal walks, the best hiking routes are to be found in the centre of the island, where the scenery is varied and often dramatic.

Well signed paths!

Most of Gran Canaria is hilly and mountainous so don’t expect a week of flat easy walking. That said, even in the mountains, there are some shorter and easier walks described by the local walking expert Rambling Roger. Expect a combination of mountain (rocky) paths, forest paths, old mule tracks and driveable dirt track roads. Rambling Roger has published a series of walks throughout the Island, which can be purchased online.  He also is able to send GPX files of the routes if you want to use a GPS device to aid your navigation.

Where to stay

This is a difficult one with no easy answer. Travelling around Gran Canaria even using a car can be a bit slow.  We have even found roads closed for repair with no advanced warning on more than one occasion!

Tejeda

Puerto de Mogan

The greatest concentration of walks are in the centre of the Island.  However in the cooler months the centre of the Island is the coolest place so you might prefer to stay on the coast and drive for an hour (scenic drive) to get to your walk. There is also plenty of cheap (for mass tourism) accommodation down on the coast at Maspolomas. It is the road from Maspolomas that you would take to get inland towards most walks.

If you are more likely to have shorter walks combined with touring and want to stay somewhere with more character on the coast, then a harbour front cottage in Puerto de Mogan is the place to stay.

If you don’t mind it being a little cooler and want to stay in the mountains then take a look at the pretty village of Tejeda, which is where we will be based this coming winter.  From Tejeda both short and long walks can be had straight from your accommodation.

Useful Resources

Rambling Roger is the definitive source of information about walking on the Island.

Maps. To accompany Rambling Roger’s walks, Discovery Walking Guides have produced a 1:50 000 scale map of Gran Canaria which is available from Stanfords.

Mountain HouseHolidays organise a week’s walking holiday at the beginning of March each yearbased in Tejeda.

Roque Nublo

Mountain House Holidays is owned by Jane Livingstone and Michael Hunt, both qualified International Mountain Leaders.  All of the walks they lead during the holiday have been walked beforehand and researched.

Disability Awareness for Mountain Leaders

Mike and Jane facilitated a course on behalf of the Mountain Leader Training Association to help Mountain Leaders understand what is involved in supporting people with a disability in the mountains. The course involved a classroom session helping delegates to understand disability, followed by 3 hours walking with 6 people from Glossop, with whom Mike and the Peak Park Rangers walk,

At the end of the day, everyone seemed to have learn't a lot, including us!

A grand day out on Kinder

Saturday 28th February with mist, cloud and a bit of rain saw another Mountain House Intermediate Navigation Course up on Kinder Scout. Deanna, Mark, Craig, Richard. John, and x met up with Mike and Jane from Mountain House at Barber Booth for a 9.30am start.

We walked to Upper Booth and ascended Crowden Brook to the “Edge Path.” Here we put on waterproofs as it started to rain. We then commenced several legs of micro navigation relying on compass and pacing in the limited visibility. Our micro navigation took us to two aircraft wrecks and on to Crowden Head 631m. It had stopped raining by the time we reached the 2nd aircraft wreck so we had a brief lunch stop.

From Crowden Head we switched to “Macro” navigation techniques, locating gullies that would take us to the River Kinder and on towards Kinder Gates. We practised timing our walking between Kinder Gates and Kinder Downfall confirming that we were walking at 4Km per hour. The mist was now clearing and we had good views from this point onwards.

For the next leg we were looking for another aircraft wreck. The nearest easily definable point en route was Red Brook. We used our timing skills to confirm that we were there and proved it by taking a back bearing on The Mermaids Pool. We paced from Red Brook and found our objective, the wreck of Handley Page Hampden Mk.I AE381 which claimed the lives of 4 airman in 1942.

From the wreck we used more general macro navigation to get us to Kinder Low trig point and Noe Stool. Our objective from Noe Stool was another aircraft wreck. Following the edge path to a certain stream we then descended to a point where there was a widening in the contours and picked up the 550m contour, “contouring” around to the wreck. Spot on!

It was only another 100m to the next wreck which we found by compass bearing and pacing.

We descended the Cloughs steeply to the bottom of the Jacob's Ladder path and followed the road track back to our cars. Just over 7 hours from start to finish.

One of the best features of a hard day in the hills is the camaraderie which is usually further cemented by going for a couple of beers afterwards. This day was no exception and we made our way to The Rambler’s Inn at Edale for a final debrief. A grand day out!

Aircraft Wrecks on Kinder Scout

Mike had been suffering from and Achilles Tendon injury for a couple of months and we decided to see if he was recovered enough to lead a navigation course in a weeks time. We run six "intermediate" navigation courses a year up on Kinder Scout. To make the day more interesting we set the group looking a task of locating various aircraft wrecks in on an otherwise fairly featureless plateau.

We set out from Barber Booth car park at 8.30am and ascended up onto Kinder via Crowden Brook. Crowden Brook offers a fine scramble at its top though care needs to be exercised if the stream is in spate or the rocks icy. We followed the edge path eastwards to where we located ourselves at a stream junction which became our "hand rail" to locate the first aircraft wreck. (SK 10111 87854). Our bearing brought us directly over the wreckage of the Avro Anson.

The weather forecasts had been a bit optimistic and instead of the predicted cloud free tops we were walking in cloud and a strong North Easterly wind that got stronger as the day progressed.

From the first wreck we had a long stretch following the compass to locate the next one. Jane worked the compass whilst Mike counted the paces. Interestingly, because the mist was so thick, we couldn't see or take any easier terrain options so followed the bearing as near accurate as possible. The mist cleared as we finished our pacing, over 500m, to reveal that we were less than 10m away from our objective, (SK 10158 88241) a Dragon Rapide.

With two objectives found in the mist, "we were on a roll" and kept to the system of Jane walking the bearing and Mike counting the pacing. Our next objective was Crowden Head (632m asl), before dropping into the River Kinder and on to Kinder Gates (SK 08800 88684) where we had a hot drink and some much needed food. The wind was becoming stronger so our break was cut short. We came out of the mist shortly before Kinder Downfall, though because of the wind we did not linger to take in the view as the River Kinder drops impressively down a rocky waterfall. Instead we picked up the edge path and headed south towards our next objective, the wreck of Hampden AE381 that lies hidden though only 10m from the path. (SK 07803 87494).

The NE wind was now very strong, and although behind us was getting unpleasant. We decided to head directly to the Jacobs Ladder path (via Kinder Low Trig. point) for our descent. We arrived back at the car 5 hours after we started. A pint or two of Butcombe Gold was then consumed in the Rambler's Inn at Edale.

Friday Ramblers

For the past 2 years, Mike has been supporting a group of people with a learning disability to 'walk with a ranger' each Thursday afternoon. The group not only developed a love of walking, but grew in confidence, and achieved the John Muir Award and helped a number of the Peak Park Rangers to understand more about people with a learning disability. Some members of the group decided they would like to try something a little more taxing, so on Friday 31st October,
the Mountain House Team launched a new Friday Peak District Ramblers group. We try to pick routes that are suitable for people with awkward or limited mobility (avoiding high stiles or ladder stiles). On Friday 31st October we started from Tideswell Dale car park and walked a circuit via Litton Mill and Litton.

A long walk home! - Spain's highest Mountains

It's June 2006, we have toiled up the final pull to reach Puerto de Trevelez on our high level journey amongst the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the second highest of Western Europe's moutain ranges. We looked eastward, and think we really should explore those lower peaks, which though lower appear just as impressive and imposing. We then continue on our route to the west.

The following winter, we were looking again at the map and Mike said "what do you want to do for your summer holidays?" How about walking the entire ridge I said. You can drive to 2000 metres; why don't we do that, then walk the whole way back!

We had had a number of forrays amongst the high mountains, sometimes on our own, others with friends and paying clients. However there was still much to explore and a few bits that kept getting missed. We looked again at the map and started to plot our route which we thought would need 6 or 7 days.

June is the ideal time for walking in Spain's highest mountains. Although there are likely to still be patches of snow, this also means plenty of water and some beautiful alpine flowers which are at their best following the snow melt.

There are only 2 hotel style refuges in the Sierra Nevada (neither of which would be on our intended route), so we would need to carry food and a tent just in case of bad weather or for the days when it was too far between the many bivoac shelters.

So the seeds were set for our latest journey, which was to prove the hardest, but best among these facinating mountains of which we just don't seem to tire.