In the beginning of April we had planned a small overland trip to La Palma. After we had prepared our Toyota Land Cruiser 80 with roof top tent for a 6 day trip, we took the Fred Olsen ferry from Las Palmas to Tenerife South on Saturday at 14:00. The ferry takes only 1 hour and 20 minutes, so we drove around 15:30 down from the ferry and we went directly, after a small pee-round for Lotta on the highway to the port of Tenerife North. Since we needed from south to north a little bit more than one hour, we reached the port around 17:00. But we still needed to wait two hours, which we bridged with a late lunch. Because the next ferry crossing from Tenerife North to La Palma went only at 19:00. At home I had already prepared a potato salad, which we ate with self-made burger-patties. After the meal we already could drive up on the ferry, which left punctually at 19:00. The crossing took us another 2.5 hours. That means we reached Santa Cruz de La Palma at 21:30. Since it was already late and dark, we drove directly to our campsite, which we already had picked out in advance. Luckily Daniell knows quite well this Island, because he had worked a few times on La Palma.

Our pitch was only 20 minutes away from the harbor and we chose the runway of the old airport, what is now an overgrown field. Once arrived, we looked for a small spot off the beaten track and after we ate the leftovers from lunch we had a walk with Lotta. We went to bed without setting up the roof top tent in the inside of our Land Cruiser. Quite exhausted from the long travel day we fell asleep immediately.

For the next day we had set the alarm clock, because we wanted to leave early for our first hike in the rainforest of La Palma. We wanted to escape the heat and the crowds due to a Kalima and Semana Santa.

To the a breathtaking sunrise we had a freshly cooked coffee and then we headed north-east to the "Cubo de La Galga".

It was a circular trail of low difficulty, which is about 11 km long and takes about four hours. On this hike you will see the green laurel trees of the island while walking through cool shady and rainforest-like terrain. Early in the morning it was actually still quite chilly and I was glad to have brought a warm jacket. While it was an easy hike, it was a scenically spectacular one that allowed us to admire a green world of the rainforest. Although the shady laurel trees make this hike a pleasure even on warm summer days, after a while the sun was sneaking through the foliage and made it a little warmer and created a beautiful light falling through the trees. Dani took advantage of this beautiful light to take some nice photos of the surroundings.

After we reached half the way we had breakfast at a small picnic place in the woods during the hike. I had quickly prepared some sandwiches before we left our campsite and we also have taken some fruits and of course enough water.

The hike was also a nice experience for Lotta. At the beginning she was still a bit hesitant but from time to time she became more courageous and she discovered the surroundings. We were able to let her run freely for the most of the time, since there were only few hikers on the track at these early morning hours and if any hiker passed us, we just leashed her. After the 11 kilometers she were quite tired. But back in the car she had time to sleep during the ride.

Our round hike ended directly at the road where we started the hike, and where “Lenny The Overlander” was parked. We had set up our solar panel before we started the hike to take advantage of the sun that shone directly on our car a while after our arrival, which we have to uninstalled and stowed away. Then we drove further in direction north to Barlovento where we wanted to get into the Baranco de Gallego. We found out there should be an off-road track that leads to a refugio at over 1200m. But before we had to pass several green overgrown valleys and old stone tunnels on a small country road. It felt like we were driving through a tropical jungle mixed with an Irish landscape, so green and old was the track. Since the route was little traveled, we could stop briefly in the tunnel to take a photo of me.

From this beautiful country road, the off-road track started towards the refugio de Gallega. This off-road track was even more breathtaking because we often drove next to the slopes of the valley and we passed mountain ridges. At 1273 meters of altitude we came directly to a small white hut, which should be our campsite for the next night.

Luckily the hut wasn’t used by other hikers that day so we could park in front of the hut to use the installation. Since it was still very warm in the afternoon because of the Kalima, we put our table and chairs under the canopy of the hut, so we could use the shade of the cool stone walls of the hut. We had a fireplace inside the hut, which we used for our dinner. I had taken pizza dough, pizza sauce, fresh tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese ta prepare a classic Margarita pizza and baked on the fireplace. Since it got dark quickly in April, we ate dinner quite early. Later, it got a bit cooler at this altitude, so we put on our long pants and beanies. We used the beautiful light at sunset to take some pictures. It’s nice when Dani has captured those beautiful moments. How often do I look at those photos of our trips again and again and I’m thankful and glad about them as a good memory.

As you can see we had a beautiful sunset and a great view down the valley to the ocean. So after some quick photos we enjoyed just the moment with doing nothing.

So the first day on La Palma was great and how the next morning went and more about this wonderful place I will share in my next post.

Love,

Katy

Pics by Daniell Bohnhof

Text by Katrin Bohnhof