Groundhog Day again – we’re at the wrong quay and the Germans have pole position. Last Thursday Meinn Shiff 1 beat us, today AidaCosmos has the best location near the car hire, we have to walk all the way round the port to get our car.
It’s just like the infamous sunlounger scrum, and by the time we get there the queue is horrendous. However we wait patiently, and are eventually rewarded with the keys to an Astra.
Our first stop is the top of the island where it is just five miles away from Lanzarote. In front of us, after we’ve walked through the local tip to get there, our entire walk is visible – we’re going to climb one side of Volcanes de Bayuyo, cross the rim and return down the other. It’s not that high, just 257m above sea level, but from below it looks big enough.
From the trig-point we have stunning views, unfortunately it’s very hazy so Gran Canaria isn’t visible to the south. The island of Lanzarote and it’s volcano we visited last Friday are very clear. It was quite a surprise to be greeted by a chipmonk, begging for food, we didn’t know about these, proper name barbary squirel. Two pets were accidentlly released over fifty years ago and the island now has a lot of these unwanted rodents.
Our descent is equally rewarding, it’s quite a relief when we’re back on terra firma.
Then we head south through numerous little towns but mostly just a sand-coloured wilderness. The terrain is rolling hills that are volcanic, with little vegetation to see. We start to climb up and find a great viewpoint just before our next stop.
The town of Betancouria is historically significant, where the Norman conquerors in 1404 chose to live, and for many centuries the capital of the island and islands. Now it’s just a real cute tourist-trap, but worthy of a visit. We have a lovely lunch of tuna & walnut salad and grilled cheeses – just perfect!
Our final destination is one of the coastal tourist areas, formed around a castle and port, now a mixture of large hotel, which seems to have taken over half the town, and a collection of other hotels, apartments and shops. The beach is very golden coloured, one can see why it’s a popular tourist destination. Other enclaves in the area form more resort-type hotels.
We return the car, and walk back round the port to Azura, before settling on our sun-kissed balcony for the sailaway, when we head back towards home.
At Planets we see notice we’re driving between the islands, just past where we climbed earlier. My Kyrö gin is good!
Back to Epicurean for the last time, we note there’s a different menu so abandon our previously considered options and choose crab & langoustine cocktail and scallop tartare to start, the former being the very clear winner. Then we share our two mains, rib-eye and rack of lamb, both of which are very very good. A lolly-pop palate cleanser is unexpected but lovely, and then we revisit the good old days of cruising, and both enjoy Crêpes Suzette – perhaps not as good as the ‘old days’ in QE2’s Queen’s Grill but the theatre of table-side flambé is wonderful, and they are lovely nevertheless.
The turn is second showing of Four Harps, their set is probably better that their first one, and a great way to end the day.
