La Graciosa from Mirador del Rio

We decided to hire a car today and ended up with a rather elderly Seat Ibiza, no air con and shabby interior was no extra cost!

The plan was to head up the coast to the Jameos del Agua and the Cueva de Los Verdes. These are both caves and tunnels created by volcanic eruptions.

The Jameos del Agua allowed access to only one section, despite the tunnel being 6km long. The gardens and entrance buildings were landscaped by Cesar Manrique, Lanzarote's most famous artist. You could clearly see the blind, albino crabs in the water, these have become symbolic of the place. They were like tiny bits of metal glinting in the water.

The Cueva de Los Verdes were well worth a visit. It was basically a big lava tube, corridors and labyrinths , sympathetically lit. Thousands of Lanzarotenos have sought refuge here in days gone by when pirate raids occurred on the island. At one point thousands lived down there for 1 month!

Onwards we drove to Orzola, a small port at the very North of the island, where you can get the ferry to La Graciosa, one of the islands that form part of the Chinijo Archipelago (in the photo). We had a great lunch in a sea front cafe, a wander round the village and then off again to the viewpoint at Mirador Del Rio, terrifying single track mountain roads few crash barriers and vertical drops left me feeling quite nauseous!

I am glad to say the views were worth the drive. The viewpoint was again designed by Cesar Manrique, or should I say redesigned as it used to be an old gun battery. This is all hidden from the land side very cleverly. The views are breathtaking! A book I read states that, "here is a panorama of sea and sky so fantastic it seems unreal". I couldn't have put it better myself!

Onwards we went and some more mountainous roads, even worse than the first ones! We were as high as we could get and the trusty Ibiza struggled with the heights a few times! We decided to have one final stop in Teguise. This was the capital of Lanzarote at one point and has the castle on the hill. It also hosts an art gallery in an old convent and a market. Unfortunately we were too late in the day for all of these.

Chill out time now then off out to eat somewhere closeby.