Gravel Culture: Travel Gravel – The lava fields of the Lanzarote
Posted By Gravel Union
On 15 March 2021
Emma packs her spare tyres, some high factor suntan lotion and a sense of adventure as she heads off on armchair adventure to the land of ‘cat litter’ gravel trails.
“Lanzagrotty?” “Isn’t that just where triathletes go?” “It’s just an empty ash tray of a place, there’s nothing there….”
Oh, come on, that’s a long gone attitude to the island. Have you ever really looked? Like really looked? I have, and I mean I really have. I’m not actually bothered about Strava except for three utterly pointless things - yearly total distance, yearly total ascent (see, I warned you, pointless) and Heatmaps. Heatmaps is the only thing I pay for, I use it for nothing more than the ridiculous challenge I set myself, which is to complete the Canaries. Each year I’ll try to get to at least two of the islands and collect more tracks, trails and roads. I’ve nearly finished Lanzarote - I have just 20-30km of track left to complete.
I’d finished riding all the tarmac on the island a few years ago. After a trip to Fuerteventura with my gravel bike and the old battered paper map that I use for big-thinking before route plotting, the trail-spotting bit of my brain suddenly unlocked and I realised that all those black lines marked on the map were gravel tracks and there was another island to be found.
I work in Lanzarote as a guide on a triathlon camp every year, only I’d been infected with gravel-love now and all I could see was tracks and trails leading off to places I’d not yet seen. Surely my 27mm Paris Roubaix tubs on my road bike would be ok? I began sneaking down a few, cautiously - not wanting to pop a tub, when I knew I had a week’s guiding duties still to perform.
Then, in February 2020, I returned, two bikes packed this time. I took spares of everything - Lanzarote can eat road bikes so it was bound to chew through all it could off-road. My poor tatty paper map was sellotaped back together, satellite images scanned, provisional rotes plotted into komoot. I had nearly a month of exploring to do.
The island has a wonderful explosive beauty and is the fourth largest of the archipelago. The more southerly end of the island has huge lava fields from the most recent eruptions in 1736 (that’s recent in geological terms). The wind whipping off the Sahara across the plains leaves Lanzarote looking sparse of vegetation, yet look closer and the most exquisite lichens and tiny plants make their home on the rolling jagged claws of the once molten landscape. The burnished landscape of fierce colours still burning bright. It’s almost as if the land has only just ‘set’ from liquid earth. The closer you look, the more colour you see - deep blues, reds, the sun beating down, glinting, making greens and purples blend into the vibrant orange.
Enough of me lost in lava, what’s the riding like you might ask? In a word, amazing! The loose lava of the vineyards spreading inland from Tias. Little curved horseshoe-shaped walls constructed to shield a scrubby vine in the base of each. It’s a bit like riding in cat litter although strangely grippy. Deeper into the lava fields, paths wind round the volcanoes, the skeleton of a camel, lichen already clinging to the bones. Most of the paths at this end of the island are sign posted - it’s a national park and they’re pretty strict about where you can go. Although the lava can eat tyres, it’s quite a delicate landscape and needs to be respected. In the distance you can see the highest peak of Timanfaya. This one it still smoldering and they’ll cook your lunch on the heat still emitting from its core. If you head more into the north of the island, towards the old capital of Teguise, you’ll find walled fields with single-track along their tops. It’s excellent fun - chasing and lacing your way through.
Lanzarote’s most famous dish surely must be the Papas Arrugadas. You can see the potatoes growing, bright green in the black ground, marching along in neat little rows. Before you know it, you’ll pop out, with the sea on the far side of the island visible again. You’d think it would make it easy to navigate, but the tracks and trails lace all over, I was glad of the pre-plotted routes blinking at me on my bars.
Teguise is beautiful. As untouched as it gets. Lava cobbles in the plazas, stocky white buildings all around. Lanzarote is lucky, its most famous son, Cesar Manrique, worked tirelessly to protect the landscape, the whole island has a restrictive covenant - only white houses and a two-rise policy. You’ll not find grotesque high rise 1960’s concrete monster hotels here. Manrique did more than just preserve the aesthetic of the island, he enhanced it with his abstract art built into the landscape sympathetically. It’s worth stopping here for coffee, and if you’re flagging then Cortado con Condensado will have you flying again, especially if you have some of the almond pastries too.
From Teguise in the very centre of the island the topography changes, hillsides are adorned with multiple terraces, rambling prickly pear cactus spilling over their sides. Little outcrops of palm trees and deeper in the sheltered valleys, more jungle-like plants. You can ride high up above the cliffs above Famara, see the wind whipping the dunes and the empty desert below. Ride around further north and La Graciosa sits in the bright blue sea, little white boats bobbing up and down in the harbour.
There’s an incredible descent down from the windmills at Haria, a track wiggling and winding you back towards the east coast once more, before spitting you out near the fishing village of Arrieta, more snacks anyone?
The important things to note about Lanzarote - it will eat your bike, I went through a set of tyres in two weeks. There’s plenty of bike shops on the island but I’d take a sensible number of spares. The red dust will get into everything - expect to fully strip and clean your bike when you return. The tap water isn’t drinkable - all drinking water is bottled. There’s loads and loads of little cafes and bars about the place so that’s not too much of a problem. The sun is extra strong, but whilst it’s windy it can be deceptive, make sure you have sun block.
Mostly, it’s brilliant, I can’t wait to get back once restrictions allow!