Great Escapes in Timanfaya
No visit to Lanzarote would ever be complete without visiting the black lava lands of Timanfaya National Park. Most visitors will opt for the official tourist experience, however, approaching the Park from the South, parking their rental cars in order to switch to big tour buses to take them on a scenic round trip around the volcano land. The official tour then provides them a public display of the forces of nature by having water shoot out like hot geysirs and broiling chicken on volcano stoves. While undoubtedly impressive, it still is a mainstream tourist experience built on mass appeal and spectacle.
For those of us who love treasures of the beaten track, however, Timanfaya has other more alternative experiences to offer as well - such as a great escape to some of the most remote beaches of the island in the far north of Timanfaya, the so-called "VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK".
So best to pack plenty of water and some food for a great day on the road, and to head North to the village of Tinajo. A stop in nearby Mancha Blanca may be worthwhile too to admire the beautiful "Virgen de los Dolores" pilgrimage church constructed to commemorate the exceptional miracle of lava mass stopping RIGHT before the Northern Communities of Tinajo, Tiagua and Mancha Blanca during the biggest volcano eruptions between 1730 and 1736 and thus sparing the villages' destruction.
Tinajo too is a gem of a small town with shiny white houses against a blue Lanzarote sky and the intermittently brown and green surrounding countryside - and the nearby BLACK color of not-so-old lava from the "Fire Mountains" or MONTAñAS DEL FUEGO. Plus nearby we see already on the horizon the northern coastline of Lanzarote with its deep blue color. From Tinajo we are driving out into the fields on a very small side street in the direction of a remote isolated village - almost a ghost town of sorts, called TENESAR. What a sight as the small narrow highway goes through fields of dark earth, some Lanzarote vineyards too, and then opens up towards the sea, nowadays marked on both sides with white rocks, adding yet another beautiful color contrast to this spectacle for the senses.
At some point, the highway makes a sharp right turn towards Tenesar. We decide to keep going straight ahead, however, on what at first sight seems like a very poorly maintained dirt road. Driving the first hundreds of yards, however, we are surprised by how well-packed the road surface really is, and despite being a dirt road, going 40 and even 50 km per hour is easy and possible even without a 4-wheel drive.
Then the scenery changes abruptly to nothing but black lava as we now truly enter Timanfaya and its spectacular VOLCANO NATURAL PARK:. This is by far the youngest of the volcanic landscape on the island dating back to the most recent eruptions some 270 years ago - we are surrounded by nothing but black lava earth - with here and there an occasional green shrub or cactus as a sign that nature is still alive and ready to eventually grow over the lava fields again. And then there is blue - the blue of the sky and of the Atlantic Ocean ahead of us. We continue on the dirt road into the park for about 5 kilometers right up to a series of small black beaches - among the most remote and isolated stretches of sand on the entire island, the so-called PLAYA DE LA MADERA and the PALETÓN.
Depending on the weather it can be breezy even stormy at times with high and powerful surf crashing onto black sand and black rocks behind. Gorgeous coves and hide-outs can be found in between the rocks and hardly a single other person can be seen. Occasionally a rental car or vehicle from the regional Park Authority may be driving or stopping by, but otherwise this ranks among one of the most deserted stretches of Lanzarote coastline anywhere - and in its own special way, is both eerily rugged, uninviting, infertile and empty, yet at the same time also spectacularly beautiful, slightly melancholic, soothing and spiritually uplifting. There is no better way to experience the magic of Timanfaya to its fullest than here, at what seems like the end of the world or at least, the very end of our beloved island of Lanzarote.
For those of us who love treasures of the beaten track, however, Timanfaya has other more alternative experiences to offer as well - such as a great escape to some of the most remote beaches of the island in the far north of Timanfaya, the so-called "VOLCANO NATIONAL PARK".
So best to pack plenty of water and some food for a great day on the road, and to head North to the village of Tinajo. A stop in nearby Mancha Blanca may be worthwhile too to admire the beautiful "Virgen de los Dolores" pilgrimage church constructed to commemorate the exceptional miracle of lava mass stopping RIGHT before the Northern Communities of Tinajo, Tiagua and Mancha Blanca during the biggest volcano eruptions between 1730 and 1736 and thus sparing the villages' destruction.
Tinajo too is a gem of a small town with shiny white houses against a blue Lanzarote sky and the intermittently brown and green surrounding countryside - and the nearby BLACK color of not-so-old lava from the "Fire Mountains" or MONTAñAS DEL FUEGO. Plus nearby we see already on the horizon the northern coastline of Lanzarote with its deep blue color. From Tinajo we are driving out into the fields on a very small side street in the direction of a remote isolated village - almost a ghost town of sorts, called TENESAR. What a sight as the small narrow highway goes through fields of dark earth, some Lanzarote vineyards too, and then opens up towards the sea, nowadays marked on both sides with white rocks, adding yet another beautiful color contrast to this spectacle for the senses.
At some point, the highway makes a sharp right turn towards Tenesar. We decide to keep going straight ahead, however, on what at first sight seems like a very poorly maintained dirt road. Driving the first hundreds of yards, however, we are surprised by how well-packed the road surface really is, and despite being a dirt road, going 40 and even 50 km per hour is easy and possible even without a 4-wheel drive.
Then the scenery changes abruptly to nothing but black lava as we now truly enter Timanfaya and its spectacular VOLCANO NATURAL PARK:. This is by far the youngest of the volcanic landscape on the island dating back to the most recent eruptions some 270 years ago - we are surrounded by nothing but black lava earth - with here and there an occasional green shrub or cactus as a sign that nature is still alive and ready to eventually grow over the lava fields again. And then there is blue - the blue of the sky and of the Atlantic Ocean ahead of us. We continue on the dirt road into the park for about 5 kilometers right up to a series of small black beaches - among the most remote and isolated stretches of sand on the entire island, the so-called PLAYA DE LA MADERA and the PALETÓN.
Depending on the weather it can be breezy even stormy at times with high and powerful surf crashing onto black sand and black rocks behind. Gorgeous coves and hide-outs can be found in between the rocks and hardly a single other person can be seen. Occasionally a rental car or vehicle from the regional Park Authority may be driving or stopping by, but otherwise this ranks among one of the most deserted stretches of Lanzarote coastline anywhere - and in its own special way, is both eerily rugged, uninviting, infertile and empty, yet at the same time also spectacularly beautiful, slightly melancholic, soothing and spiritually uplifting. There is no better way to experience the magic of Timanfaya to its fullest than here, at what seems like the end of the world or at least, the very end of our beloved island of Lanzarote.
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