Villa Stephanie Lanzarote Part3

Took my bike out on Monday thinking about having a crack at the lower peaks near 'the big one'. On the track to nowhere a signpost is vital.

On the track to nowhere there is a manned checkpoint in the middle of it. Cars are stopped as they enter the natural park, but not bikes. Don't know what they are looking for. Maybe people are smuggling dust in.

This is 'the big one' Hecha Grande, that dominates the view from Playa Blanca, not to be confused with 'Macho Grande', because I know I'll never get over Macho Grande.

The lower peaks to the left of Hacha Grande are 'Los Morros de Hacha Chica ' Couldn't see a way up but this looked as good as any.

And up.

The top of 'Los Morros'.

Looking from the top of 'Los Morros de Hacha Chica' it now becomes evident that they are not on the same ridge as 'Hacha Grande' and any idiot who wanted to summit the big one would have to get around the coastal end of 'Los Morros'. Decided not to be that idiot today.

You can just see the trusty green Llama waiting for me at the bottom of the mountains.

Headed back to the coast and joined it in the 'El Papagayo' area where there are some beautiful underused beaches.

As I rode out on Tuesday in the vague direction of the mountains it slowly dawned on me that I was probably going to be that idiot. The track around the costal end of the 'Morros' is remarkably like the 'road of bones' as shown in 'The Long Way Round'. Here someone has used a couple of planks to get some sort of vehicle hopefully fitted with VTOL over the landslip. About half the track is cyclable and it descends into three ravines and up the other side. It was a long hard trip to the foot of Macho Grande (sorry, Hecha).

It was already afternoon when I set foot on HG and I thought maybe just look over the first false peak which is what this is.

Well maybe the second false peak.

Not sure what number false peak this was and in the full knowledge that I ought to turn back, summit fever had set in.

There were some great views.

And another.

And

Looking towards the coast.

The summit ridge.

The Plain.

Summit Marker.

Found out that I'd been beaten to the top. Little lizardy fella, botom left. Getting late so no more photos, headed down, ran out of water on the way down and it was a hard slog after that back down the road of bones. Decided that I needed to phone home when I got to the Marina, but my phone was dead, so was in trouble when I got back, only a big postre saved the day.

The beaches betweenPlaya Mujeres and Playa del Pozo are not accessible by car and are a bit of a hike, hence they look like this most of the day.

And this.

Went snorkelling here on the last two days and got some snaps in quite shallow water. Parrot and a Zebra Bream.

Parrot and white Bream

Parrot

Parrot in flight

More Parrots

Gold-Lined Bream, more striking to the naked eye than the camera.

More GL Bream

The male Parrot fish is dull grey

Lizardfish.

So that's it, off home today, booo. I think we'll be back though was really good.