{"id":4766,"date":"2024-04-18T18:47:28","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4766"},"modified":"2024-04-18T18:47:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T18:47:28","slug":"6-lanzarote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/?p=4766","title":{"rendered":"6. LANZAROTE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lanzarote, the Windy Island and, apparently,\u00a0 the oldest of the island group.\u00a0 The most recent islands are in the South-West.\u00a0 \u00a0The older ones are drifting slowly to the North-East.\u00a0 But the volcanoes, although really old (like 200 million years old) they aren’t as cool and dormant as they look!<\/p>\n

The last eruption on Lanzarote took place in 1824, forming the volcanoes Tinguat\u00f3n, Tao and Volc\u00e1n del Fuego. The last eruption of the Timanfaya Volcano was in 1730 and lasted for more than 2000 days.\u00a0 And Timanfaya is where we are going today.\u00a0 And we were well on time this morning!\u00a0 Pretty early, really!<\/p>\n

At the visitor centre there are four demonstrations of the latent power in these big hills.\u00a0 Firstly, an oppo digs about 50 – 100 cms into the granular lava and passes round samples of the dusty, gravelly earth.\u00a0 Surprisingly hot.\u00a0 Not scorchingly hot, but distinctly hot to the touch.<\/p>\n

Next, some flammable brushwood was poked a bit deeper (maybe 2 -3 m) into an adjacent hole.\u00a0 The heat at that level.in enough to turn the brush into a bonfire!<\/p>\n

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The third demo of geothermal energy was made by the geyser geezer.\u00a0 He poured a small amount of water into a tube.\u00a0 Waited a minute or two, the chucked a bucket load in and stood back!\u00a0 Yellostone, eat your heart out!<\/p>\n

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The fourth demonstration was a slow BBQ!<\/p>\n

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For your average tourist arriving by car, that’s about the height of it.\u00a0 Four demos and maybe a visit to the loos, a swift cappuccino and a panoramic photo.\u00a0 Then back in the car and away.\u00a0 For this they pay good money and queue for up to four hours to get a space in the carpark…<\/p>\n

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… while the perishing tour buses blast pass them on the way to the very front of the queue!\u00a0 And then they (with us on board!) have the audacity and the privilege of being able to tour the park.\u00a0 Leaving the visitor centre, the private road goes past volcanic craters, lava fields, and mountains covered in volcanic ash.<\/p>\n

The route is almost nine miles long.\u00a0 It took us about 30 minutes to complete. Along the way, there are several stops where we got panoramic views of the Monta\u00f1a Rajada, the Corazoncillo caldera…<\/p>\n

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… and the Nuevo del Fuego volcanic vent.<\/p>\n

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Another spectacular tour.\u00a0 Glad we didn’t miss the bus today!<\/p>\n

Before heading back towards Arrecife and our ship, we detoured to the village of El Golfo with its black volcanic sandy beach …<\/p>\n

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… and a climb to the mirador to get a view of El Carco Verde – the green lagoon – in the next bay.<\/p>\n

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And mighty green it was too!\u00a0 Algae and sunshine create an amazingly bright green colour – reminiscent of some zucchini, spinach and basil soup I made a few weeks ago which had a very similar hue!\u00a0 But that’s another story altogether!<\/p>\n

The final stop.of the day was back in a wine growing area.\u00a0 Every single vine was partly surrounded by a low stone wall.\u00a0 First thoughts were that these were to retain rainwater – but it hardly ever rains here.\u00a0 After all, they boast of having 380 days of sunshine every year!\u00a0 So not water, but wind.\u00a0 Little, individual, mini windbreaks!<\/p>\n

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What a palaver.\u00a0 Hundreds of acres of this stuff.\u00a0 Plenty of jobs here.\u00a0 We did wonder what everyone living in the little white villages around here …<\/p>\n

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… did for a living.\u00a0 Now we know.\u00a0 They build little walls!..Well, the Bodega which hosted this part of the excursion got away with murder concerning the wine tasting.\u00a0 Two microscopic portions of (allegedly) their wines.\u00a0 But their loos were very helpful!<\/p>\n

And so back to home, dinner…<\/p>\n

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… and off to Africa!<\/p>\n

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See you there!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lanzarote, the Windy Island and, apparently,\u00a0 the oldest of the island group.\u00a0 The most recent islands are in the South-West.\u00a0 \u00a0The older ones are drifting slowly to the North-East.\u00a0 But the volcanoes, although really old (like 200 million years old)… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regent-seven-seas-cruise-travels-in-2024","category-travels-in-2024"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4766"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4791,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4766\/revisions\/4791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappstravels.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}