Time flies when you’re having fun … Four weeks have passed since we returned to Ester from a visit to Israel and then to Ruth and Avi.The four weeks were packed with experiences, many hikes, some playing with the sails, some mooring in a bay, meeting new friends, gaining new insights about boat life, being somewhat detached from children, family and old friends, and also from the trouble brewing in this wirld.First I shall disclose, for my faithful readers, the “surprise” I mentioned at the end of the previous post.

A day before we packed our belongings at Ruth’s house, at the top of a 6,000 stair path (see previous post), before we dove into a deep canyon and disconnected from cell phone reception, we received a phone call from Gili. It was one of her Friday morning, weekly phone calls, when we usually discussed events of the past days. Gili told us that over the coming week she would be on “holiday” from work and studies, after an intensive and challenging period. She really needs some rest and recreation, so without missing a beat, I wove a fantasy for her – come for a vacation with Mom and Dad, we promise to spoil you and refresh your spirit. Gili has not left Israel since the beginning of the Corona, which messed up world order. Gili smiled, said she was not sure, that she really doesn’t have the time. I urged her – there’s not much time for deliberations, if you want to come and have a great week, make a quick decision. Udi checked out flight possibilities, and Ohad (Gili’s partner) was recruited to the task of kicking Gili overseas into the arms of her parents. Gili said she needed to think, and she has to complete something. I ended up not too optimistic about this happening. On Saturday morning we woke up to the phone ringing (which is a miracle in Ruth’s house, with weak reception), Gili said she was starting her trip that evening, and would arrive next noon!! Our excitement and happiness knew no bounds, wich were immediately transformed to action. Since Gili had not left Israel since the Corona started, she needed to catch up on paperwork, Covid testing and son. These were not clear to her (not to us, who are Corona Frequent Fliers), she need to start packing right away, and we tried to understand the paperwork needed and the technical details. To make a long story short, based on a combined cross-continent effort and massive support by Ohad, our girl is on time, on her flight, with all the required paperwork. Her happiness and relief are visible in the picture she sent …

 

In parallel with Gili’s leaving Israel, we made our way from Valencia to Ester. We arrived in the evening to the boat, which has been closed for three weeks, and immediately started organizing it to be as comfortable as possible for the soon-to-arrive guest. We cleaned up, vacated the guest cabin, bought groceries, etc. etc.

Gili has arrived! 

On her way from the airport to the boat Gili expressed her wish for a hiking trip of several days + sleeping arrangement along the way. That has been my fantasy for the last few years. It always seems too complicate to arrange, building a trip starting at a bus stop, picking a path of reasonable difficulty and length, reaching a point where lodging can be found. Planning several such days end-to-end, and finally reaching a bus which can take us back to our boat. That is really complicated, but my girl asked for this, and Dad immediately put himself to the task. (“when I ask that’s not enough”? asks the Polish mother hidden deep inside). That afternoon and evening were dedicated to putting it all together, making reservations for lodgings, packing small packs for the way, and next morning we were on the bus, on our way to a “trek”.

In the meantime Gili did not waste a moment, and bonded with young people in a boat across the quay from us, who sang and played especially beautifully, in various languages. These are exactly the situations where Gili is at her best, she bonds easily, impresses with her singing voice, her communication skills, and her incredible charm and talent (do take into account that I am her mother, but anyone who knows her knows that this is 100% true!).

A few words now about how Udi managed to put together such a trip, maybe they can help other to do the same. To put last things first, later on we had two more such treks, which are now called “Gili treks”. This is a great touring format, which gives a different and richer perspective on the location in which we travel, beyond views and sunsets, adding the hiking experience and nice meetings with locals.

Udi’s words …

The first step is finding out an interesting travel area. Wouldn’t you know, there is an app for that. The app is named Outdoor Active, where you can see suggestions for trips based on other people’s experiences. You can zoom in on the area of your interest and check it out.

The next step is to connect routes through villages which offer lodgings. Google Maps is rather up-to-date in such matters. Then you locate a bus line which reaches the starting point, and ask the application to put together a route from the starting point to a night’s lodging. The app provides accurate information on distance, and height of ascent and descent along the route. You can download the route, so you can use it with just GPS, even with no cellular reception. You know where you are along the route, and you can “consult” the app when you reach a path crossroad and need advice which path to take. Continue planning for the next nights until the end point’ chosen by bus lines and schedules. In Gran Canaria public transportation covers the island well, and there is a bus to every tiny hamlet. The app appears set up for anywhere in the world, and we hope to continue using it in our travels. For us, sailing without local hiking is just half the fun. The last stage is making reservations for lodgings. That is not always easy at the last moment’ some places have few openings left. This may impose constraints on the chosen routes. We use well-known applications such as Booking, AirBnB, and Agoda, but we have also had an experience where a lone lodging appeared only on Google, so don’t give up!

 

We have had three “Gili Treks” in Gran Canaria. I shall list them with maps, pictures and anecdotes. In between we had city days, three days in a bay between Las Palmas and Puerto Mogan. 

Our walking tracks

Apparently we covered a good part of the Island

 

Three day trek with Gili 

 The first day start with a serious climb to one of the island’s most-toured sites, Roque Nublo. This is one of the most beautiful viewpoints on the islands, with giant red rock columns which rise to a height of 80 meters. The entire island is volcanic, and has not has time to experience much erosion, so the landscape is very dramatic and cliff-like. The mountains are colorful, depending on their mineral content, rocky with a variety of shapes following lave vents and cooling. In short, very impressive! The surroundings are green and flowering. Over the following two nights we had many ascents and descents, saw much flowering, and a local mix of cacti’ ferns’ fruit trees, palms, and Canary pines …we suffered a strong wind that sometimes challenged us. there were big changes between day and nice.

       Atacan- Roque Nublo - La Culata - Artenara - Junacocillo

Cave houses

Each has it’s own small field for growing fruit trees and vegetables.

One of them is dedicated to grandma:

“La casa de la abuela”

A typical Canarian church 
A week with plenty of Gili time flowed by, fun and intimate, of a sort that are rare with your children, especially the more they grow. After an astounding trip, we needed a good rest on Ester, being spoiled with good food and outings together to Las Palmas. This week filled us all with good vibes. Thank you to Gili, for showing true spontaneity and for her precious time which she chose to share with us. Our gain!

Gili went on her way, and the boat felt emptied of her spirit, singing evenings with her friends from the neighboring boat, and guitar singing with her father and mother. We are sad to have her leave, and thankful for the time we had. One week later Gili directed a show as part of her studies, a mid-year mid-project show. We missed the live show (this is hard to get used to). We had a preview on a video she took during rehearsals. All who saw were impressed by her unfathomable creativity. She is always interesting, different, dealing with interesting life issues and fascinating. She blends the variety of talents she was blessed with. The show will be performed again at the year’s end, when it is fully formed. The support she receives from friends and colleagues encourage her to continue on the complicated course he has chosen, to fulfil her artistic desires without giving up her special spirit. As her very proud parents we are happy that she is fulfilling herself and reaping rewards. If only there was slightly more support of artists, so they could create and live, even if modestly. What Europe knows, our small “startup struck” nation has not yet learned. With all due respect, I believe there is a place for art and spirit in order to have a healthy society.

 

Our next “Gili trek” also lasted three days, with ascents and descents and two very special night stays. One – a room in a cave in one of the canyons next to a giant restaurant built of spaces jutting into the mountains. The food was not bad considering Canarian cuisine. People come from afar for the special experience of this restaurant. Regarding the second night I won’t tell … you have to see the pictures to believe …

A few words on the Canarian vegetation…

The vegetation is very varied and around 40% are endemic species, which means plants that are specific to the islands. Some of the area is covered by the Canarian Pines, which later spread to other places around the world, and there are also ancient forests of Bay laurel. Since the islands are insulated and many old and special plant species have been conserved, some call the Canarian islands “the botanic Galapagos” and say that if Darwin would have stopped here on the way to Galapagos (he wasn’t allowed to because of Cholera on his ship) maybe he would develop his theory on the Origin of The Species here. 

The Lichen that  cover the trees means that the air is clean

Two hours later clouds covered the view but gave a special atmosphere. The high humidity of the clouds made the pine needles collect drops of water which later drip on the ground. This process is important for the local vegetation because real rain is scarce. 

Vegetable gardens for each household. They have learned before Covid about the importance of independent food supply and organic farming.

Our first night’s stay:

a small apartment in a cave. The view is of the mountain we’ll climb the next morning.

Inside the restaurant within the cave. Above Udi’s head is a map of the cave (in blue) with the table numbers. Very special but also claustrophobic and detached from the amazing view outside.





The second night’s stay, outside the village of St. Lucia. Looks innocent from the outside, but within adult content. Don’t worry - Ayelet had a headache…

 After two in-depth hikes, and quite some city time, we went on another shopping round to improve comfort on Ester (decorative hangers, a vacuum cleaner, and gewgaws for the kitchen), and we spent two days of boat work – I dismantled my toilet completely in order to reseal it. Not everything was pleasant in this, but it was very educational. We also fulfilled another touristic duty and visited the Columbus museum. I’d say that is not an absolute must-see. The building is nice, there is a nice exhibition accompanied by reasonable audio guidance and two gorgeous free-roaming parakeets in an inner courtyard. They made a big deal of an “esoteric” visit by Columbus in town, as part of his world-discovery travels. He probably slept in this building, so there’s a reason to make it a museum …

We are excited to embark on a day’s sailing which as you may have realized is not very frequent in this part of the world. We try to use the sailing periods to learn more about the different sails we have on Ester, and accumulate ocean-going experience. This time we decided to try one of the happier sails on board. It is an enormous sail of thin material that serves in very specific conditions of light winds from the stern. They say it is very useful when crossing an ocean, when stern winds sometimes fade away and you may be almost completely immobile, unless you are equipped with such a sail, nicknamed balloon, or spinnaker in sailor-speak. Our sail was patented into a trick sleeve, so that when everything goes fine, you pull the sleeve up towards the sail head to spread it, and pull the sleeve down when you want to furl it. In the few times we tried it in the Mediterranean we did not do very well. The sail is fragile, and may tear. This time we opened it out and spread it on the quay beforehand to study it from the inside out, and we spent three hours playing with it until we thought we got the hang of it.The next day we had perfect wind to open the spinnaker while sailing south, with a stern wind of 12 knots. We set up the relevant rigging, connected to a line to raise to the top of the mast and … success! The sail spread! At the end of the sailing, when the wind started rising, the sail furled into its sleeve. The real test will be what happens next time we raise it. Will it stick inside its sleeve, or have we finally understood this? Until then, enjoy! We had a 12 knot wind at our back and sailed at a record pace of more than 9 knots! That is really great use of wind.

After the wonderful sail we anchored in a reasonable looking bay, if you ignore a cement factory (we note it was quiet) at the end of the quay. The bay provided relatively good protection from waves and wind – you can’t ask for more. One can jump in the water and go for a swim, meeting giant stingrays and eaglerays. Udi set out every day kayaking in the red kayak, and found us a new pair of friends. A nice Swiss couple, who came to visit the following day, and in the evening invited us for a sunset drink which turned into a good meal. In all we spent 8 hours together that day. She is a scuba aficionado who dove in many worldwide locations, so we had an important subject to discuss and share experiences. 

The Swiss couple that Udi met

The next day, after the nights of bobbing on the waves and a lower-than-average sleep experience, we decided to enter the Port Mogan marina. This is a tiny village, very touristy, but nevertheless pleasant and pretty. This is not a continuum of hotels on the beach, but a village which was prettified (a little too much in my opinion), with a small and cute marina, and the weather in comparison to the north of the island is significantly more warm and stable. There are some sailors who have made it their home port and live there for a great part of the year.

Puerto Mogan

 

Now that we are at the south-west of the island, we are closer to good hiking areas in this part of the island. After two days of rest we took up staff and pack and went out for two more days of scenery, cliffs and adventure.

 

Cruz Grande - Soria - On the Road to Mogan 

The valley and village of Soria. We stayed at a farm house and the owner supplied us with olives, eggs and wonderful avocado from his garden. The village is above a huge dam that creates a small lake. It is unclear why they bothered to build it so big

Close to the end of the trail my knee couldn’t handle the steep walk and we had to catch a ride to the end. As usual, hitchhiking presents interesting encounters. This time we were taken by a couple of spanish police officers on vacation. She is charming and has reasonably good English, he didn’t say much and can’t speak English, a stereotype of a macho policeman. They insisted on taking us all the way to the boat, and on the way we stopped in a good local restaurant which even had live music!  

 

Back to Ester, tomorrow we will have a weather window with good weather for crossing to Tenerife (at least that is what the forecast is now). Tomorrow we plan to say goodbye to this island, which we did not expect to surprise us so pleasantly. One of the problems with receiving opinions from sailors is that most experience the coastline and don’t really travel inland. Their loss!

The next post – Tenerife.