El Hierro - A Different Rhythm Of Life - Day 1

I actually didn’t set any resolutions for 2021. If I have learned one thing last year is that everything can change quickly and random deadlines don’t work for me. I just would like to have more days like those you can find in today’s post.

Because of Corona no major trips were possible, that’s why we decided to discover more the Canary Islands with our Lennytheoverlander. As more than 10 years living on Gran Canaria, we would like to show that the Canary Islands not only offer the well-known all-inclusive-vacations, but they are also ideal for camping or overlanding trips.

As some of you already know, we are proud owners of a Toyota Land Cruiser's HD 80 for more than a year now, which led us to buy a roof tent pretty quickly. Because since our New Zealand camper-van-trip, we just love this freedom that this kind of travel brings.

Of course, we were already on various islands for work and vacation, but El Hierro was until now the island that we liked the most. Because this Island is still very untouched , has little infrastructure and tourism. This small Island has excellent camping opportunities, especially for off-road enthusiasts there are many steep paths and off-road tracks to explore, paired with fantastic views of the valley of El Golfo and the Atlantic Ocean.

We started our 5-day trip on Monday on Gran Canaria, as we are based on that Island. We went by ferry from Las Palmas first to Tenerife and from there we went to El Hierro with one of the most famous shipping companies in Spain, Naviera Armas.

Since the ferry unfortunately didn't go directly to Los Cristianos (south of Tenerife), but only stoped in Santa Cruz (north of Tenerife), we still had to drive after we reached Santa Cruz almost 1 hour to Los Cristianos, where the next ferry was going to to El Hierro.

As you can imagine now, including the time on the ferries during the crossings, all the waiting time before boarding at the ferries and the drive from Santa Cruz to Los Cristianos, we needed a whole day to finally arrive El Hierro in the evening around 20:30. 

Luckily we were able to leave the ferry with our Land Cruiser pretty fast. Since it was already starting to get dark we wanted to drive quickly to our campsite, which was from the harbour an about 20-30 minutes drive.

But as always, we needed longer, because we had to stopp few times on the way to the campsite to already capture the first impressions with the camera. Since during the drive it went immediately pretty steeply uphill, we had reached quite fast a considerable height and thus also a beautiful view of the port of Valverde. Driving a little bit further, we suddenly had clouds next to us. Quite unusual, we thought to ourselves, since we had not yet reached such a height to be in the clouds. But this experience we will make here again.

Dark as night and after about more than half an hour we have reached our campsite. This site we have simply picked out via Google Maps isn’t an official campsite but only a gravel road, which we simply drove along until it went no further. As every Canary Islands have very few official campsites we normally do wild camping, which is not allowed, but if you stay only for one night and make sure that no one feels disturbed and nothing is soiled, it’s tolerated. In any case, we were not the only campers on that Island.

While we drove along this gravel road with the one or other bump hole at night, without knowing what to expect, the track became smaller and ended as a footpath. Luckily shortly before we found a small bay, probably for turning, where we stopped for parking. After we had checked out the area we perceived the turning bay as a good alternative place to stay for night, so we let our dog out of the car. After that we had to align the Land Cruiser, so that we don’t stand inclined. Since we don't have special wedges for the wheels yet, we took four boulders of volcanic rock. Works just as well as the professional wedges. After we have set up quickly our roof tent and our bed, we just ate a little snack. Up in the tent we fall asleep quite fast. The only thing I thought, during falling asleep was that certainly no one else will be park here tonight, so it might be ok if we use this turning bay as tonight’s campsite, especially since we want to leave tomorrow early in the morning.

Tiered from the whole travel day with plenty of swell on the ferry, we slept very well until it started to get a little windier before sunrise. As it was still dark, we turned around again in our sleeping bags but shorty afterwards we got up with the first sun rays.

Yesterday's arrival in the darkness didn’t allow us to see how our surrounding looks like. Therefore we were pleasantly surprised when we came out of our tent looking directly to a bay and by the rising sunlight it opened us a very beautiful view of the rough Atlantic. Down from the tent we noticed that we actually weren’t alone on that spot. Apparently a fisherman had parked here as well before daybreak. I guess, to take the footpath to the rough rocky coast for fishing. May some fishes hooked!!

This was also the reason why we packed everything quickly, because we didn’t know how many fisherman’s would still come. We decided to drive to our first point we would like to visit, which was the Charco Manso, to have breakfast there.

The “Charcos”, which you gonna find to numerous on El Hierro, are natural pools in the rocks on the coastline formed by washouts of the rough ocean. The Charco Manso is the closest charco from our campsite, where you can also discover a rock arch.

After 20 minutes of serpentines down towards the coast on the other side of the hill, we joined some other campers who had spent the night at the small parking lot of the Charco Manso. 

We quickly set up table, chairs and gas stove to first cook some coffee and to toast some bred over the gas stove for breakfast.

After breakfast we wanted to check out the Charco Manso, which was quite difficult to reach due to the waves and high tide. Unfortunately we couldn’t swim in this Charco at this time of day because the waves were breaking into the pool due to the high water level and the big swell. Therefore we climbed a bit over the rocks and our curiosity was rewarded. We discovered not only the rock arch but also a kind of cave or grotto that was located in such a way that the waves didn’t reach it yet, as it was shielded by big rocks. The cave, although quite deep, was reachable with a little climbing. Inside was a beautiful rock pool with incredibly clear water. So after all we were able to swim, but not in a normal pool, a natural pool located inside a rock grotto, which was a really exited and a great experience. After some time we slowly had to get out of the cave, because the waves starting to came over the rocks into the pool, as the tide was still rising. So you should make sure that you don't visit the charcos at high tide. Because that puts the swimming and snorkeling in the Charcos a spoke in your wheel.

Continuing along the coast we discovered the next Charcos. Although the water level was still quite high, we took a sunbath on one of the artificially built platforms of the Charcos de Los Sargos. Over the years, the people has built stairs, platforms and walkways around the Charcos to make it easier to reach and to stay. As we had quite high temperatures in the afternoon it was for us and our dog much more enjoyable in the shade between the rocks of the Charcos. After a while we were able to snorkel in a smaller charco, which was a bit more protected and we saw many small colorful fishes in the clear water. The small charco was even deep enough for us to jump in from the rocks.

After some jumps and a little snack we drove to the small and beautiful village Los Llanillos, because we had an appointment for a wine tasting in a local bodega. Before that, we took the opportunity to fill up some fuel at the gas station. We were quite surprised how expensive it is compared to Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Therefore, our advice, rather fill it up before on Tenerife or Gran Canaria.

A week before we started our trip I contacted Carmelo Padrón, the owner of the Bodega Soterana, to ask if he would show us his bodega accompanied by a wine tasting. The answer came back fast that he would be happy to show us everything and we should contact him as soon as we arrived on El Hierro.

After contacting him again yesterday, we arranged to meet Carmelo at the small village square in Los Llanillos. From there, he led us first to his vineyards, which are located at the foot of the El Golfo Valley. He showed and explained us about its vines which where planted almost 100 years ago from his great-grandfather. In the last century the inhabitants of El Hierro realized that the land in the El Golfo Valley could be used for agriculture the whole year. So from thereon they planted vines, fruits and vegetables for their own use. Carmelo told us that almost every family have their own vine and why the small plots of vineyards were separated with self-made volcanic stone walls. Because it’s still tradition that vineyards will divided fairly to all the children. He told us also that he wants to recover the traditional style typical of the island by following a special production method, choosing wines that contain a higher alcohol content than normal. We noticed how much knowledge, passion and enthusiasm he has. A man in his mid-40s who learned the tradition of viticulture from his father and carries it on with pride. He has been around the world a lot in his life, even in his younger ages he maintained its interests in viticulture and visited wine regions in South Africa and Germany. But he always came back to El Hierro, until he built a house with bodega here at the foot of the El Golfo valley and settled firmly to continue the bodega after his fathers death.

He brought us to his beautiful house, where the bodega is also located. The property offered us a beautiful view of the valley and coastline, before we entered the bodega.

Inside the bodega it was very cool because a new harvest was being fermented and for this the bodega had to be cooled down quite a lot. He let us taste all his white wines. From the youngest or newest wine that tasted like a federweisser to the almost 100 years old wine that his grandfather made, which tasted like sherry or brandy. It was very interesting and we liked all the wines. They were all very delicious. These wines are not comparable to wines you can buy in supermarkets. They are very special wines and we would like to take a few bottles, but he didn't has bottles, he leaves the wine in the barrels. Depending on how the harvest turns out each year, the wine will bottled only every 4-8 years. However, he has no big interest in selling the wine. He does it because it’s his passion and he enjoys showing and letting people know about it.

Later we were allowed to choose again a glass of our favorite wine and we went with it to his garden to enjoy the last glass of wine with the beautiful view in the evening light. He also served fresh cheese and hand dried figs from El Hierro. Having the last glass of white wine that Carmelo had prepared for us, right with the last rays of sunshine from all over Europe in the favorite corner of his estate, which is called El Matorral, was an unforgettable experience. It was such a nice atmosphere and we talked with Carmelo such a long time, so we stayed much longer than we wanted. In retrospect, we hope that we haven’t took him so much time. Because he didn't want to take money for the wine tasting either. Nice that people like him still exist.

On El Hierro the Corona incidents were very low. When we visited this island there were only 2 infected with Corona, as I remember. However, we always kept our distance during our visit and everyone had his mask by the hand, so that we could put it on if it was necessary.

At the end of the day we had to hurry to get to our campsite before darkness falls again. Luckily the island is not so big, so we needed only 20 minutes to get along the coastline to the beach called “Playa El Verodal”. This beach is located on the far west coast of El Hierro. We heard that this is one of the few red-colored beaches on El Hierro. Therefore, we wanted to spend the night next to the beach to enjoy the morning hours on that red beach, what I will show you in my next post about El Hierro.

I think for now it’s more than enough to leave you here with the pics of our first day. Maybe it calms your wanderlust a little or you feel like to travel to El Heirro.

If you feel encouraged to discover the unknown and the taste of new experiences that this island hides, which is the versatility of its landscapes, then you should definitely choose El Hierro.

Especially the island of El Hierro is one of the islands that is always on the list of every visitor or local who wants to appreciate and know a different and unique island.

Being lucky is a matter of attitude, and living on the Canary Islands is undoubtedly the greatest privilege my husband and me have. Who is living on an island knows that those people have a different rhythm of life. In half an hour you can be in the city, like in the mountains or on the beach. We have ocean, sun, sand and volcano rocks… maybe that's why we are so happy.

Have a nice day,

Katy!

Pics by Daniell Bohnhof

Text by Look2 Ocean