Costa Teguise; Thursday, 25 November, 2021

I was able to have a bit of a lie in this morning as the tour I was booked onto was picking up last from Costa Teguise, especially as it wasn’t really a tour, but more a shuttle bus taking us up to the northern most part of Lanzarote to pick up the ferry up to the next island – La Graciosa.

As we were one of the last pickup points the bus was quite late and a couple of other people waiting were actually on the phone to the tour company when the bus swung into view. It was a relatively short journey up to the port at Órzola where the ferry was waiting for us to make the 25 minute journey across to La Graciosa.

The package I’d booked was just the shuttle and the ferry with nothing else provided in La Graciosa, so I had about 5 hours to kill on a small volcanic island. Thankfully, shortly after arriving I found that there are several 4x4 jeep tours that operate from the harbour side out to the main points of interest on the island, so I hopped onto one of those for my own 90 minute private tour of the island.

First stop was the small settlement of Casas de Pedro Barba which is a small village of holiday lets around a natural shallow harbour that has no full time population, but from it stunning views back across the channel to Lanzarote. From there it was a cross island drive, along roads that made it very clear why only 4x4s are on the island, to the beach at Playa de las Conchas on the Western side of the island. Here there is a stretch of tropical white sand beach, with the deep turquoise sea and views across to three neighbouring small islets. It was then a short drive up to the northern most beach on the island at Playa Lambra and from there another short drive to the Mirador Baja de las Majapalomas. This view point is on the edge of a former volcano that has been all but washed away by the sea, with just some small parts of the crater remaining – but impressively these include a basalt bridge that spans over the crashing waves below.

From the Mirador Baja de las Majapalomas it was back in the Jeep and back across the washboard and rutted roads of La Graciosa to the harbour, where I stopped for a late lunch overlooking the small beach in the centre of the main settlement (it’s too small to really call it a village, let alone a town) of Caleta del Sebo.

After lunch I went for a wander, south down the island up over the dunes and down to the beach at Playa Francesa. From here there are great views across the channel to Lanzarote and the town of Caleta de Famara – the furthest place I managed to get to on my previous failed trip to Lanzarote.

I headed back to Caleta del Sebo and arrived a few minutes before the ferry was due to leave, and more importantly was able to get on board in the dry a couple of minutes before the rain clouds that had been stalking me up from Playa Francesa opened up and absolutely chucked it down. It led to quite a lively trip back across the channel to Lanzarote, including having to wait outside the harbour for a few minutes so that the captain could line up the entrance correctly with the waves.

From the harbour it was a short walk back to the coaches and then back to the hotels where I retreated to my room to dry off a little before waiting out the rain and heading down for a late dinner.