Who got a Garmin for Christmas?
If you are one of the many who found a Garmin GPS in their Christmas stocking, this post is for you.
Get your hands on a free sample ‘real-time’ map and see your Garmin come to life. You can choose a sample map of Graciosa ( off Lanzarote, Canary Islands) or Sierra de Aracena (Andalucia, Spain).
What you’ll get is a highly detailed real-time Tour & Trail digital download map, which you can save on your hard drive, transfer to your Garmin GPS CustomMap memory or onto a micro-SD card; you can also use the maps in Garmin Basecamp and Google Earth.
CANARY ISLANDS
Sample segment, Gran Canaria.
Gran Canaria
Tenerife
La Palma
La Gomera
Lanzarote
Fuerteventura
MAINLAND SPAIN
Alpujarras (Sierra Nevada, Andalucia, southern Spain)
Costa Blanca Mountains (Alicante, southern Spain)
Axarquia (Andalucia, southern Spain)
Sierra de Aracena (Helva province, southern Spain)
BALEARIC ISLANDS
Mallorca
Menorca
Formentera
Ibiza
PORTUGUESE ISLANDS
Madeira
For more information about Tour & Trail Maps take a look HERE.
Lanzarote; rains bring the desert to colourful life!
Barranco del Malpaso, Lanzarote
Residents on the Island of Lanzarote tell us that more visitors than usual have been enjoying the great outdoors on this unique island during November and December this year. The dramatic volcanic landscape is unforgettable, though is usually desert-dry with little natural green to see.
It doesn’t rain much (or often) on this arid Canary Island, so recent falls have been most welcome, bringing colour and plant life back to otherwise arid areas.
Helechos, Lanzarote
What a great time to visit! Warm days and sunshine (average of six hours per day in December, even more in January), plus the chance to see the colourful green swathes and flower carpets that happen for only a few weeks each year. Walk, hire a bike or car, or jump on a bus.
La Geria, Lanzarote
There’s plenty of interesting information about the island on the Lanzarote Information website; use the link below.
Take a look at the really useful Lanzarote Information website.
For more on this fascinating and often surprising island, including printed and digital mapping and walking information, take a look here:-
Montaňa Corona, Lanzarote
Walking Newsletter Now Available
Take a look at Discovery Walking Guides latest newsletter; topics include Menorca, Lanzarote, free digital maps and Walk! books and more. Click the link to read all about it.
Lanzarote – walking the Caldera Blanca
Wow! The interior of the crater, Walk 39, Lanzarote.
Our thanks to Robert and Penny, recently returned from walking on Lanzarote. Here’s what they told us:-
Standing on the volcanic crater rim of Caldera Blanca, Lanzarote.
We have just returned from 10 days walking in Lanzarote. Your book was a great help as there is little in the way of signs or clear path markers. Without your book we would have frequently got on the wrong
route.
One comment, on walk 39, Caldera Blanca, We agree this was a
fantastic walk and the view from the crater rim were fantastic.
However, if we were to do this walk again we would have gone round the
other way (anti clockwise). The decent from the top was much steeper
and the path was full of small stones which required great care to
safely negotiate. We would have been much happier going up that way.
We walked in La Palma a few years ago and again found the guide great.
Thanks again for a great guide.
Robert and Jenny P
Walk! Lanzarote :- Updates and Notes
Los Cocoteros to Costa Teguise – best views on route
Our thanks go to Howard and Penny who recently returned from a walking holiday on the Canary Island of Lanzarote and have sent us these useful notes and updates for those who walk after them.
For more information about the book and map they used, see http://www.dwgwalking.co.uk/lanz.htm
Dear David and Ros,We have just returned from 2 weeks in Lanzarote guided by your excellent version 3 of Walk! Lanzarote. (We visited in 2008 with version 1)
We had a wonderful time and really had no issues at all in finding our way though a few little changes have arisen which we suspect arose after your visit. We particularly enjoyed some of the new routes.
Walk 13 The path from wp13 to wp17 has now been bulldozed out as part of the Orzola to Playa Blanca formal route so is now very easy to follow
Walk 22 This has now been upgraded into a defined path with illustrative notice boards and you are advised that stepping off the path is punishable. The English version of the notices are written in best Brussels Eurocrat speak so it is quite entertaining but the beauty of the place is not lost.
Walk 36 After the quite treacherous drop down to wp6 it was clear we were not wanted on the stone wall so we made a direct line for the extreme right end of the wall where we picked up the path. Looking at the footsteps we were not alone.
Walk 33 We set off up the path from the Recycling Bins at the start only for a lady from one of the houses to shout across to say we were on the wrong path. Clearly we were not the first walkers she had re-routed. The bins have been moved ca 75m up the road. The route begins from the path by the bus stop. How you got to wp 4 in 29 minutes amazed us, we were fairly close to your timings throughout the island but it took us close to an hour for this part of the route. We also struggled from wp 4-6 turning left far too early, it would have been clearer if wp5 had not been detailed and the route was described simply as aiming from wp 4 to the right hand side of the saddle where the track is clear at wp6.
Walking in the Haria region
Walk 39 Wonderful.
For those with restricted time we would combine walks 29 and 30 starting at wp1 in Haria and going directly to wp13 (a quick trip up to wp12 is well worth while) then continue to wp17 where you join walk 29 at wp4 and complete walk 29 from there.
Finally we wondered if anyone else had the same experience as us in Ye (walk 36). We were met at the church by two delightful small dogs who befriended us for the day, sticking with us all the way round. Sitting with us when we stopped to eat and then on return trotted off. They seemed to treat us as their dog walkers for the day. Has anyone else performed this service?
We see you are planning Fuerteventura, we have not been there so look forward to you guiding us around that island soon. One request though, please can you publish this with a ring bound spine, they are so much easier to work with.
Many thanks again
Howard and Penny
PS. Note for David, there is a new roundabout on the LZ30 where the LZ402 joins from Famara – a Cartologists work is never done.
Lanzarote Report (and what’s a thingy?) – thanks, John and José
Manrique’s Monument to the Campesino Thingy
John and Jose sent this great email after their walking holiday on Lanzarote. Their comments about the Lanzarote ‘Thingys’ raised a smile!
5 April 2014
Hi there,
We just like to say how helpful the walking guide for Lanzarote (Walk! Lanzarote) has been to us.
We’re just back from this gorgeous island and `did lots of walks from the guide.
Lobster Traffic Island Thingy
At times that we lost our way or got confused, it was always our own fault, misreading or misinterpreting the directions. In hindside we’d say: “it was actually in the guide!” and “Yes, they did warn us it might be confusing”.
We also enjoyed the humour in the guide. It was like having the writers winking at us, giving us encouragement.
We had some trouble with the name ‘Thingy’ for all the sculptural-roundabout-objects, but could not come up with a better name either, so
Lanzarote Toast Rack Thingy
Thingy it will be now for us too 😉
Best of luck with future guides, we will definitely look for one again on our next walking
holiday.
Kind regards, John and José (Wicklow, Ireland)
7 Hours of sun a day in February? That’s Lanzarote For You
The Haria region, Lanzarote
It’s little wonder that Lazarote, part of Spain’s Canary Islands, is so popular as a winter escape. Even in February, there’s an average of seven hours of sunshine a day.
The image (right) was taken on a walking route in Haria, in the island’s north.This region receives the lion’s share of rainfall which, added to the rich volcanic soil, makes for an area rich in wild and endemic plant life.
Want to see a sample route? Click here for a pdf download of http://www.dwgwalking.co.uk/lanzsamplewalk26.pdf
Walk! Lanzarote as a pdf download.
And if you like that, there’s an entire book-full of 39 walks complete with full descriptions, maps and images for £4.99 to download http://www.dwgwalking.co.uk/lanzWalkSpec.htm
Lanzarote – important update – Tabayesco circular walk
Another update from Neil C, for the start (and end) of Walk 33 Tabayesco circular in Walk!
This is the track you follow at the start of the walk.
Lanzarote guidebook. Thanks Neil!
“We parked for Tabayesco circular (33) at the recycle bins (noting they were perhaps 70 or 80 metres from the bus stop).
There was a very clear unmapped track leading away from the bins in the direction shown on the map – I wasn’t entirely happy that it was the correct track which seemed to be mapped nearer the road junction, but we set off anyway (a car came down the track [shows how major it was] from nearby houses and the driver waved a friendly greeting to us).
After about 200 metres of walking and surprised not to have found the jeep track on the left, we were shouted at from a house garden above by an English voice: “You are going the wrong way!”. “Sorry?” I said, not quite clear how someone could know where we were going.
“This is the wrong way! Are you doing the Tabayesco Circular walk?”
“Yes”
“Then this is the wrong way. The recycle bins have moved since the book was printed – you want to go back to the bus stop and the track that leads up towards the broad ridge over there”
“Thanks”.
We returned to the bins and beyond them to the bus stop and found the real track correctly mapped.
Future walkers (until the book is re-published) should note that the walk starts from the bus stop and you walk on the coast side of it to access the first track mentioned. Thanks for a great time in Lanzarote – the book and map are invaluable!”
Neil C
If you’re doing Walk 33, note that the walk also ends at the bus shelter (where it starts). Disregard references to the bins at the start and the end of the route description.
Lanzarote – thanks Neil for this update
Walk! Lanzarote – thank you Neil for this feedback for Walk 26 (Uga to La Geria) and Walk 33 (Tabayesco Circular)
On 27 January 2014 Neil C wrote:
“We have just returned from nearly two weeks in Lanzarote, walking every day using the 3rd edition you kindly sent us.
It had to happen eventually! We walked 26 (Uga to La Geria) in reverse (because we had walked part of it the recommended way on a previous trip) and saw a group approaching us down the road from La Asomada, one of whom was carrying a blue walk booklet exactly the same as I was!
We exchanged notes and continued. I thought you’d be amused to learn of this. However, I will not do 33 that way round again! As well as having long steep ascents, the wind was blowing a gale into our faces on both the main upward sections making forward movement next to impossible.
I will e-mail you shortly with a few observations about the new edition’s contents, but meanwhile I will mention a wry smile that I had when I read that you said “there were four or five wet days when you surveyed for the book”. We had rain or drizzle almost every day! Also, when we did walk 33 and were about 1/4 way up the unpathed ridge, the sun went in, the strong wind grew even stronger and was then accompanied by very heavy, virtually horizontal rain: even our boots clogged with the mud from the ground! We arrived very cold and bedraggled at Los Helechos restaurante, and although I agree with your scathing comments, it was a haven of warmth and dryness for us that day!
More feedback shortly.
Regards
Neil
PS Greatly enthused by your new Majorca book which we’ll order ASAP and are even now planning when in 2015 we’ll go to try it!”
Thank you, Mr & Mrs H, for your kind comments
People say the nicest things. Here’s the latest:-
On 21 January 2014 B H wrote:
“Just to complement you on the excellent guide and map for Lanzarote. Having walked all over the world as well as in the UK we certainly agree that these are the clearest and most helpful guides we have found. We stayed outside Haria and this proved an ideal centre for all parts of the island – we did have a car. The map on its own would have been fine, but your personal comments and recommendations were greatly appreciated, as was the ability to link up the walks.
As is to be expected there were one or two places where new buildings had been erected or the trail was obscure, but we never got lost. By the way, the restaurant / bar La Tegala in the cultural centre in Haria is great for local food and very reasonable, as is the Stop Bar in Yaiza. The one you describe in Ye wasn’t open while we were there, but maybe they don’t get much custom in January?
Best wishes; we will be buying more of your guides and recommending them to our friends. We only wish we had found them earlier.”
Regards, B and T H (Somerset)
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