The weather and the walking really came together today. We drove right to the centre of the island, which took well over an hour, and parked next to the Degollada de Becerra viewpoint. Although it was bright sunshine, it started off quite chilly as were were over 1500 metres high.
The views from the start were just magnificent. There are many rocky outcrops, with the most famous being the Roque Nublo, which is in many ways the emblem of Gran Canaria.
The first part of the walk took us round the edge an ancient caldera, or volcanic crater.
After crossing the dam of a reservoir we climbed up to another viewpoint where we had some lunch.
From there we approached Roque Nublo, and joined the many others who do this short walk, the most popular walk on the island. We chose a slightly longer route, round the back of the rock before going right up to it.
We could very clearly see Mount Teide on the neighbouring island of Tenerife.
Roque Nublo towers about 60 metres above a flat rocky plain and is very impressive.
Back at the start of the Roque Nublo path we got an ice cream from the kiosk there. Our route then left the busy area and took us to the valley floor far below the rock, through pine forest and passing some old formerly inhabited caves.
There were some almond trees with blossom.
At the bottom of the valley is the village of La Culata, which has a couple of busy bars in the main street.
We then of course had to go steeply up the other side of the valley, partly on steps, partly on roads, and also some zigzagging up tracks.
It was very hot going uphill, but eventually we made it back to the car. The walk was 15 km in total, with about 850 metres of ascent.
On the way back we stopped in the village of Tejeda for a drink.
The drive home was about 90 minutes of winding mountain roads down to the coast. Back at the bungalow, we did a bit of packing and tidying before our journey home tomorrow.
We later had pizza for dinner.
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