We picked up a small Seat back on the 25^th, and shot off down the east coast freeway from Las Palmas.  It's the islands main highway and runs from the top where we are moored, towards the many holiday resorts which abound on the southern east, southern and south west coast.

The island is basically a huge volcanic eruption, so most of the coast is pretty steep to.  The high dark cliffs tend to overlook craggy indentations where villages and holiday complexes have developed over the years.

Most of these holiday developments looked pretty awful, with a majority built in the 80's as big angular blocks up the mountainsides to cater fot the millions of sun seeking winter toursits.  Only a recent few are nicely styled.  It would appear that their guests all pour out daytime to pack out the many tourist bars and jam up the very few beaches available.

Like pink colourful seals really.

The natural sand here is vocanic rock broken down - so it's black, and whilst interesting, it's not so attractive and more to the point, it's HOT underfoot. 

So to try and make the main beaches more appealing, the authorities have shipped in millions of tons of Sahara sand to spread over the surfaceof the major beaches.  Innovative eh?  And it works - they look great.

But it’s not all tourist la-la land around the island. 

Puerto Morgan and Puerto Rico were only two of the pretty towns we visited, and a real surprise came when we turned and wound our way up the narrow mountain roads into the centre of the island.

The volcanic cliffs faces are barren, but there is a starkness about them we found attractive.  At a certain level, guess maybe 1,500 metres, it begins to change into maybe not what you’d call lush, but definitely greener and more forested landscape.  The views across and down the valleys and canyons are stunning anyway, but some of the locations we found truly surprising.

Off the road from Morgan (on south coast) to Ayacata (middle of isalnd) we came upon some big lakes set high amid pine forests, with meadows running down to the waters edge.  What with goats clanking around with their bells and the clear mountain air you could easily think you are in the Alps.  Or look down the mountains and maybe think you're on the set of a cowboy movie.

Looking at a map one can see many more lakes dotted about, each apparently set up for visitors with tables, seats, and wood fired BBQ bits all built from lava rocks.  But they appear to be only used by the locals.  Strange that.

We drove onward and upwards, and towards midday got a chance to climb to the top of one peak (1,800 metres) named Roque Nublo.  It's the phallic shaped thingy in front of Sue in this picture.

The view from the other side of this rock over Gran Canaria itself, and also out over to another of the Canary Islands Tenerife, was superb. 

As you can see,  Tenerife’s 3,000 metre high peak some 50 miles away was poking up way above the cloud line. 

Apparently one can see all of the islands on a clear day from that mountaintop.  But for us to see it like this, almost floating on the clouds, was special.  And there was hardly a sole about.

Strange when you think about it.  Thousands all jammed onto beaches with crap views, and here 10 miles inland and with views to die for, it’s devoid of visitors.......

The winding drive back down heading north saw us back in the traffic at Las Palmas almost dead on rush hour.  Not good timing, driver, but at least after what we'd experienced, we’ll not leave thinking Gran Canaria is just the concrete and traffic.  It's clearly worth coming back someday and just walking the mountains.

We’ve also continued to prep Swagman, buying up big in the local chandlery.  I now feel I might own shares in it.

One great add on was a wifi booster antenna we purchased from the USA via the web.  Took ten days to arrive and clear customs etc, but fixed as high as possibly upon the radar pole it now allows us to pick up wifi facilities up to 2 miles away.  Should prove really useful and cost effective when we hit the Caribbean and can make use of close by facilities without having to go ashore and sit in the café………if you've an interest check out the 'your wifi guy' store on ebay.

Even now, we can see 13 different wifi set ups from the boat – and am using one FOC to post this blog.  So it works.

More and more ARC boats are arriving daily, so we’re beginning to feel more of a buzz around the marina, and meeting more new pals every evening.  It's good.

We’ve found it worthwhile to take a temporary membership of the Club Maritimo de Varedero.  Its a yacht club only 50 metres away from our pontoon and complete with plusher bars, restaurants, superb salt water pool, and shower facilities.  So whilst we should be feeling bored being in one place so long, it's actually all coming together OK, and we're enjoying our daily routine.

Gerry and Sara arrive from the UK in just over a week.  They are staying in a really luxy local hotel for ten days simply having a break before Sara flies back to the UK, and we three finish off the few days before the ARC starts on 25^th November. 

I’m sure I’ll be able to update you with more before then as we're considering slipping over to Tenerife by ferry - and maybe taking a photo looking back from the mountaintop shown above over to Gran Canaria!

OhhYah. 

Cheers

JOHN