On coming in to land at the airport in Fuerteventura, I found the landscape most uninspiring, with many little boxy holiday homes plonked on the stark hillsides.
However as we drove further north, the moon-like surroundings began to grow on me.....lava studded hiilsides, distant extinct volcanoes, good roads with separate cycle tracks stretching in a long dark ribbon to the horizon, white-washed villages and hamlets and best of all sunshine.
All over the island we saw the aloe vera plants, dotted across the countryside.
I was astonished to think of the work it would take to clear any area for building, though it was most gratifying to see that neat dividing walls were built from the volcanic rock, bordering roads,
gardens and "fields."
The verges were edged with wild flowers especially in the higher villages
(more later.)
It is a rather windy island (hence the name) and there are quite a few windmills around.
This one is on the outskirts of Antigua.
This is the village of Lajares where we stayed.....quite a trendy place, lots of young (and old) surfing dudes, surfing shops, great restaurants, friendly waiters, a good supermarket and individual shops.
We drove to the mountains for the incredible views across the island.
We also discovered the amazing sand dunes on the north east coast.
The long sandy beaches here
were amazing.
It was a long walk from the road to the sea. It was too cold to swim and the red flags were out, but we enjoyed watching the kite surfing.
We found superb little eeyries to sunbathe out of the wind.
Goodness knows who built them or how long they have been there.
We just loved them.
The weather was good but we had a couple of cloudy days. In the evenings we had to wear warmer clothes but it wasn`t until our last evening that we met a couple who knew the island well. They told us that it was very unusual to be wearing so many layers at this time of the year!!
But we did get our tans so we were quite happy.
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