The Canary Islands is one of the more random places we have found ourselves in. After roadtripping through Italy and ending in Malta with the intention of working there through the summer, we somehow found ourselves on a plane, as you do.
We had quickly got bored in Malta. So with a little money left in the bank we figured a change of scenery was in order. We booked the cheapest flights to the sunniest place we could get to. Canary Islands off Africa, via Barcelona. The idea of working was pushed to the back and we told ourselves we would find work there. Anyway, had a great time in Barcelona and flew south to Gran Canaria.
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| Maspalomas, Gran Canaria. Hot sun, old lighthouse, big dunes and a few nudists. Nice. |
It was amazing. Out in the Atlantic Ocean off the Moroccan coast. Beautiful waters and huge dunes blown across the ocean from the Sahara make Gran Canaria a hugely popular Spanish outpost. Gran Canaria itself has dunes in the desert south with forests in the middle and mountains in the north, it is often described as a mini continent.
This is where we got dropped off from the bus. The bus driver lady said it would be a short walk to the hotel where we were staying. From the short walk it was over two hours of walking through the busy traffic, one hour of it uphill with our backpacks and of course burning sun. We were always thinking that it can't be that far, but it was a funny U shape, long, long street with access only from the one side, so we had to walk all the way to those palm trees you can see on the picture and then down again. We said never again, but we didn't know what our crazy heads would do the next day .
We are usually not making any plans, whatever we feel like in the morning we just go for it.
So we found a shorter way from our hotel and headed down for our dunes adventure. Before we entered the natural Dune Reserve we got offered ride a by camel across the dunes. That was our chance we didn't take.
We walked across the bloody dunes for hours, with burning feet and burning skin. I though the beach looked a lot closer. We felt like we had spent months in the desert by the time we reached the cool water. Should have taken a camel!
A little bit of green scenery we saw were those big cactus bushes, we had to watch out for. You wouldn't want to tumble down a dune into one of them! Otherwise they were really pretty and made us think that we were closer to the oasis. 
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| In the background of this picture you can see the town where we walked from. What an idea... |
In front of the dunes are magnificent beaches, so we felt like we were in different part of the world.We couldn't wait to get to the beach and cool down in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
From the Maspalomas Lighthouse to Playa del Ingles is a nice walk along the beach. Beats trekking through the dunes.
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| Perfect for cooling your hot feet down. |
Next day obviously I hadn't had enough, so I challenged one of the highest dunes I could probably pick to claim.
Crazy hot sand and strong wind were pushing me back all the time. And really maybe if I would have some shoes ( not thongs! ) would make it much easier. But how can you be prepared and be ready for random things ???
I slipped and rolled down few times but I made it.
