Lanzarote: Montaña Blanca

Montaña Blanca will be a familiar sight to most visitors to Lanzarote, even if they don't know its name. Situated in front of you as you leave the airport, it's the first volcano you see when you arrive on the island and is distinctive for the huge swirling pattern eroded into one of its flanks by the prevailing winds. It shouldn't be mixed up with Caldera Blanca, a completely different mountain in the Parque Natural de los Volcanes, which is sometimes confusingly referred to online as Montaña Blanca - if you're interested in that popular hike, we walked it last year and you can read about our experiences here.

Montaña Blanca from Arrecife.

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Lanzarote: Montana del Cuervo

With the majority of Lanzarote's Timanfaya National Park being completely out of bounds to the public*, Montaña del Cuervo (Mountain of the Raven) provides a rare opportunity to venture out into the badlands just outside the park boundary - and in doing so visit one of the island's most significant volcanoes on foot. In effect, you are still guided on this short walk because the route around the caldera is clearly marked and leaving the path is strictly forbidden but you're also free to do it at your own pace and at a time of your own choosing.

Montaña del Cuervo from the start point.

Its modest elevation (1263 feet) belies the important part this volcano played in Lanzarote's history. Over a period of six years, the island was devastated by a series of continuous eruptions that destroyed nine villages and almost 80 square miles of fertile land - and this is where it all began, between 9 and 10 in the evening on 1st September 1730.

When the side of the volcano eventually collapsed, the magma lake within it was unleashed and flowed northwards towards Mancha Blanca, one of many waves of lava that would become a vast sea of volcanic rock. The bulk of the volcanoes that erupted during over this six year period became known collectively as Las Montañas del Fuego, the Mountains of Fire, and they now form the heart of the national park.

Las Montañas del Fuego

We'd walked through some of these badlands previously, when we hiked Caldera Blanca in 2019, but the lava fields there seemed quite different - an expanse of shattered, black rock as far as the eye could see, leavened occasionally by a bright green shrub or pale lichens. Here, though, the wind had shaped drifts of volcanic sand around the rock, creating a softer landscape of varied hues and shadows. It was really beautiful and - sorry, I know it's a cliché when talking about Lanzarote - quite otherworldly.

As you near the base of the volcano, you get a close up view of the two different types of rock that have formed the cone. Around its flanks there lies an accumulation of pyroclasts, individual particles that built up in layers, resulting in a slope so neat you could almost imagine someone comes out to tidy it every morning with a brush and rake. Above this, spatter - rock that was still molten and sticky when it landed -  has flowed and melded together to create a contrasting rampart of twisted lumps and sharp edges around the top of the cone.

You've got two choices at this point: turn right to head directly to the crater interior or turn left to walk the circumference of the volcano. Although the information board advises going anti-clockwise, I'd recommend taking the path to the left if you intend to do the circular route and saving the crater until the end. It's not a long route by any means but the walk back to this point might seem a bit of an anti-climax if you visit the inside of the caldera first.

As you come round the southern part of the path, it's a surprise to see that the mountainside is far more extensive here than you'd expect from the initial approach. If you've been to Lanzarote you'll know it's quite a breezy place, the Trade Winds providing a prevailing NE to SW air current across the island. At Montaña del Cuervo, these winds blew the lightweight pyroclasts to the southwest of the volcano and created another summit on its leeward side.

The original caldera on the right and the "mountain" of pyroclasts on the left.

One of the benefits of Montaña del Cuervo's relatively isolated position in this ocean of lava is that you get extensive views from all the way around its base, both into the national park and in other directions, such as over towards Montaña Guardilama which we had hiked the previous year.

Across the horizon (l to r): Caldera Gaida, Montaña Guardilama and Montaña Diama.

Montaña de Selaño and Pico Partido.

Montaña los Rodeos.

As you make your way back northwest around Montaña del Cuervo, you pass below a saddle between the original caldera and the shadow mountain created by the winds. On your left, the lava fields stretch out all the way to the Mountains of Fire on the horizon.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the crater, as I'd only done minimal research ahead of this walk. When I saw the crag that marks the entrance to the crater ahead of me, however, I was pretty sure I was approaching something quite special.

And so I was. For a start, it's much bigger than you'd expect from the rather squat cone that you see when you're standing in the car park - the floor of the crater is almost as far below you at this entrance as the edges of the caldera are above you. It's worth noting that there's a short, somewhat steep descent on loose ground at this point, so the interior might not be easily accessible to everyone, depending on their mobility.

We spent a good while here admiring the fascinating rock formations and the different colours created by centuries of lichen growth. We probably could have spent longer and we both took loads of pictures. Heading into the crater really was a "wow" moment - I'll only put a few photos on here as a taster, so as not to spoil the element of surprise.

Climbing back out of the caldera, all that remained was for us to retrace our steps to the car park, making a note of the volcanoes dotted around for future possible hikes. There's a fine view of the iconic Montaña Blanca from here, the first volcano that everyone sees when they arrive on the island at Arrecife Airport.

Montaña Blanca

The Walk! Lanzarote guide book says that seeing Montaña del Cuervo is a must for any visitors to the island who want to get a taste of what Lanzarote is all about and we'd definitely agree with that. If you can get to see it, you certainly won't be disappointed.

The only downside to this walk is that Montaña del Cuervo is in the middle of nowhere and isn't served by public transport. So, unless you book onto an excursion that includes it, you do need a car to get there. That said, we did encounter an intrepid young couple who were trying to hitchhike back to civilisation and they eventually succeeded in getting a ride from a passing motorist - not sure I'd like to take that chance though!


* Unless you book onto the Termersana ranger walk or one of the coach trips within its boundaries.

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CLICK HERE  for more walks on Lanzarote and other useful information.

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Date: January 2020

Walk length: 4 km 

Total ascent: 70 metres

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Chelmorton Circular Walk

Our last walk of 2019 was a White Peak one - we'd walked some of these paths earlier in the year and had been meaning to revisit the area for a while, not least to take a look at the chambered cairn high on the hills above the Wye Valley. The route predominantly made use of the old, walled tracks that you often find in the Derbyshire Dales, although there were some fields to cross on public footpaths as well.

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Sierra Nevada: Los Cahorros de Monachil

This was the first of two hikes we did when we visited Granada in the summer of 2019. For both walks, we relied upon the excellent website Trek Sierra Nevada. It provides detailed hiking routes that you can search by length, by location or by season, as well as several pages of invaluable supporting information for anyone visiting the region. We didn't hire a car while we were in the city and picked the routes we did because they were accessible by public transport. In the event, we were in Andalucía just after the European heatwave of 2019 so we took taxis out of the city early in the morning to ensure we'd either be finished or near the end of our walks by the time the day was at its hottest in the mid-afternoon.

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The Other Side of Shining Tor: Jenkin Chapel, Todd Brook Valley and Lamaload Reservoir

The Goyt Valley is understandably popular with dedicated walkers and casual visitors alike: it has woodland and rivers, hills and moors, even a picturesque ruined hall - and if you time it right you might come across the welcome sight of an ice cream van in one of the car parks by Errwood Reservoir. Shining Tor, the official highest point of modern Cheshire stands over the Goyt Valley at 1834 feet above sea level. There are expansive views from here across the Cheshire Plain into Wales, over towards Manchester and the Western Pennines, and - more immediately - down into the large, natural basin of heath and farmland that forms the Todd Brook Valley on its western side.

Cats Tor (right)

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A Staffordshire Ramble: Grindon, Milk Hill and the Manifold Way

I've been inspired to do my walks by lots of things - photos, blogs and articles, wanting to explore distant hills I've seen on the horizon - but this is the first time I've planned a route around winning a pizza stone in a raffle.

We'd visited the Christmas Fair in Butterton the previous weekend and were struck by how lovely the countryside around that part of the Peak District was. So when we found out we had to return to the area to collect our prize, it seemed the perfect opportunity to do some exploring at the same time.

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Kinder East and the Vale of Edale

We've been trying to vary some of our regular walking routes recently by exploring footpaths and trails that we haven't ventured along before. When I thought about our local "mountain", Kinder Scout,  I realised I've become quite the creature of habit, relying on the same routes up and down and paying scant attention to the other paths that flow on and around the plateau like streams. This walk was the first "varied" route we did and the novelties (for us) were the path that branches off from the Pennine Way up onto Broadlee-Bank Tor and the public rights of way that run along the Vale of Edale below the south eastern edge of the Kinder plateau.

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Baslow Edge and Birchen Edge

On its north-eastern side, a long chain of gritstone escarpments stands watch over the Derwent Valley like a series of natural ramparts. Their reach extends from the tracts of moorland at the heart of the Dark Peak to the cultivated landscapes of Chatsworth in the White Peak. I've walked the northern edges many a time but I'd never ventured south of Curbar Edge so a visit to that area had been overdue for a long time.

Heading onto Baslow Edge.

In mid-March 2018* there was a relatively mild and dry interlude between the waves of snow and ice that had washed over Derbyshire that winter, and this seemed the perfect opportunity for heading over that way to explore.

We parked up at Curbar Gap and walked back down the lane to where a gate gives access to Baslow Edge. A broad track leads due south from the gate but there is an "unofficial" path, not marked on the map, that closely follows the rocky edge, affording better views and more interesting terrain.

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Lanzarote: Montaña Guardilama and Montaña Tinasoria

Our second hike in Lanzarote took us to La Geria, the island's primary wine-producing region. The start and end point was the village of Uga, a 40 minute bus journey from Arrecife, and we arrived there under cloudless blue skies to find it was as quiet as Blancha Mancha had been a couple of days earlier. Houses gleamed white under the morning sunshine as we headed to the outskirts of the village and set off up a track through farmland. A farmer was working in one of the fields to the side, the first person we'd seen since leaving the bus, and I gave him a cheery wave as we walked by - he seemed a bit startled but he smiled, waved back and shouted, "Holá!"

Looking back down to Uga.

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Lanzarote: Caldera Blanca

I'm sure I must have walked over a fair amount of volcanic rock in my time on the hills of England and Wales but none of it displayed its origins as obviously as the terrain we hiked in Lanzarote earlier this month. This was our first visit to the Spanish island just off the north west coast of Africa and we were determined to make the most of our week there, alternating hiking days with days exploring the local culture and history.

The choice of Caldera Blanca as our first walk of the holiday was pretty much made for us - almost every website we visited (including the Happy Hiker's excellent pages about Lanzarote) said this volcanic cone was a must-do. We were staying in Arrecife so it was easy enough to set the alarm for an early start and jump on the bus to Mancha Blanca*, a village just a few miles away from this dormant volcano.

Caldera Blanca from Mancha Blanca.

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Kinder Scout: the River Kinder and Kinder Gates

Intrepid explorers walking the length of the world's great rivers has become something of a cultural phenomenon in recent years - think Ed Stafford trekking along the course of the Amazon for almost two-and-a-half years or Levison Wood hiking the Nile from its origin in the Nyungwe Forest, Rwanda to the Egyptian shores of the Mediterranean.

With adventures like these in mind it's little wonder that we became suddenly inspired to walk the River Kinder a couple of weeks ago, from its source deep in the Peak District plateau to... Well, only as far as the Downfall actually, because we wanted a nice circular route that didn't involve traipsing downhill and back up again. And we didn't quite walk it from its source, to be honest, because - rather like the Nile - there are several indistinct points at which its waters bubble up from the ground and start their journey to the sea. If we'd put more time and effort in to complete the River Kinder's entire three-mile course, no doubt I'd have a book deal and probably my own TV show by now but we didn't so you'll have to make do with another verbose blog post and some occasionally over-exposed photos.

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High Wheeldon and Pilsbury Castle

Two significant Peak District rivers have their sources on the Axe Edge watershed - the Manifold and the Dove. Over millennia, their meandering journeys south-east carved out deep gorges in the bedrock, resulting in limestone tors and caves that have long drawn sightseers to the area (including William and Dorothy Wordsworth).

If you're in the White Peak, the breathtaking scenery of Dove Dale and the Manifold Valley should definitely be on your list of places to visit but you shouldn't underestimate the countryside north of these tourist hotspots. Here a generous network of footpaths weaves quieter routes through broad valleys or over rounded hills and provides plentiful options for short walks, be it a half-day excursion or a summer evening ramble of an hour or so.

Looking south-east from Axe Edge Moor, source of the River Dove and the River Manifold.

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The Western Carneddau

The day after we walked Pen Llithrig y Wrach on the eastern fringe of the Carneddau mountains I set off on my own to explore some of the peaks on the western side of the range. There was one major summit that I hadn't visited - Yr Elen - and I was hoping to do this via its north eastern ridge before having a more gentle wander back down over the hills to the north. I'd seen this ridge on a traverse of the Carneddau last year and it looked like a fantastic airy route onto the tops.

Yr Elen's north east ridge from a previous walk in the Carneddau.

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Pen Llithrig y Wrach and Pen yr Helgi Du

Although I've done several walks in the Carneddau mountains over the past couple of years, Pen Llithrig y Wrach has somehow always eluded me - either by not fitting conveniently into a route or by making the hike unfeasibly long for my short legs. Its profile is a striking one from various viewpoints, not least if you're looking at it from the south: from that angle it rises proudly between the extended ridge (Y Braich) that leads to Pen Yr Helgi Du in the west and the jumble of crags that make up Creigiau Gleision in the east. This makes for an inviting and striking prominence that is satisfyingly pointy. It's been suggested that the resemblance of Pen Llithrig y Wrach's profile to a witch's hat lies behind its colourful name, which translates into English as "Slippery Peak of the Witch", but no-one seems to know for sure if that's the case.

Pen Llithrig y Wrach (left), viewed from Moel Siabod in 2015.

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Wardlow Hay Cop and Cressbrook Dale

Cressbrook Dale is a beautiful limestone valley just north west of Bakewell. It's one of my favourite spots in the White Peak and there's no better time of year to visit it than spring, when its wildflowers put on a breathtaking display. If you walk the full length of the dale, you'll find yourself in ash woodland at the southern end and here in May the air is rich with the aroma of wild garlic. We've done a circuit that takes in those woods and the beautiful expanse of ramson flowers that spreads below their canopy, which you can read about here.

Wild garlic in Cressbrook Dale in May 2015.

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Causey Pike

Even before I first climbed it several years ago Causey Pike was one of my favourite Lake District fells, its distinctive profile a familiar sight from walks in the area and one that always prompted me to get the camera out.

Causey Pike from the Newlands Valley a couple of years ago.

We'd originally planned to walk the high ground hidden away behind Skiddaw and Blencathra last weekend but as we crossed Aughertree Fell on the way to our start point we could see that those rolling hills were hidden in low cloud.

It showed no signs of shifting and we began to question whether wandering around in limited visibility was the best use of our time - especially given how long the journey there and back is from Derbyshire. Driving from our hotel in Cockermouth we'd noted that the north-western fells were cloud-free so, after some discussion, we settled on heading back there instead  - a welcome return to Causey Pike for me and an entirely new experience for Rich.

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A Circular Walk from Peak Forest to Castleton

As I type this opening paragraph, the sun is streaming through the window, the skies are the most beautiful shade of blue and I'm being informed on a regular basis by Facebook and Twitter users alike that today is the vernal equinox. It certainly didn't feel like the first day of spring was only hours away when I ventured out on a walk above the Hope Valley yesterday. It's true that Mam Tor did stand resplendently green in the sunshine above Castleton - but that was because the unrelenting and bitter wind of the past few days had blown all the snow off its exposed slopes and not because of a seasonal thaw.

The wind's handiwork was apparent as I set off up a farm lane from Peak Forest, where huge drifts of powdery snow had formed along the wall. The pristine white whorls and curves and cornices in miniature were fascinating to look at, almost like works of art, and these were the first of many I was to encounter that day.

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Crimpiau, Creigiau Gleision and Llyn Cowlyd

At the eastern end of the Ogwen Valley, above Capel Curig, the sweeping curves of the High Carneddau give way to an untidy jumble of peaks - Crimpiau, Craig Wen and Creigiau Gleision. Of these, only the latter surpasses the 2000 feet threshold to earn itself the status of mountain in Britain but - by way of compensation - you do get two summits above this height along its craggy (and often boggy) ridge.

Pen Llithrig y Wrach, Crimpiau, Craig Wen and Creigiau Gleision just showing in the background.
(Picture from a climb of Moel Siabod a couple of years ago.)

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Stanton Moor and Oaker Hill

We'd originally planned to go to Wales overnight last weekend, lured by the forecast of fine weather, but car trouble put a stop to that. Assured the repairs would be complete by Saturday lunchtime, we scouted around for a short walk locally and settled on Stanton Moor, which we'd never visited before. I plotted a circular route from Rowsley which would take us up and over the moor, with an easy flat return journey along the Derwent Valley - although I couldn't resist tagging on another little hill at the far end before we'd begin the walk back.

Crossing the Wye.

As you travel along the A6 from Bakewell to Rowsley, there's a side road on the right, just after the Grouse and Claret, which gives you access to a free car park. Seemingly managed by the council, it doesn't appear on the OS Map or Google Maps but it's very handy, a decent size and well-worth making a note of if you're planning a walk in the area. We parked here and set off back along the main road, before taking a left turn opposite The Peacock, a handsome old inn that was originally a seventeenth century manor house. Walking past the village school and Caudwell's Mill, we crossed the River Wye and finally found ourselves on a lane surrounded by farmland.

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Combs Reservoir

There's something magical about waking to blue skies and a scintillating blanket of snow. You sense the transformation of the world outdoors even before you've drawn back the curtain or pulled up the blind. The light that steals below and around the edges has a quite different quality, brighter with a bluish tinge.

The snow we got at the start of December had been drifting down on-and-off for several days before Monday morning burst into cloudless, sun-shining life for us. It had fallen from wind-wracked, iron-skies over the weekend though, making house lights a necessity throughout the day and not just at its margins. It wasn't the sort of weather to tempt you outside, even if you weren't nursing a cold and sore throat, as I had been.

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