European mountains
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Nov 4 2010: Today, I was informed by Estudio de Variables Ecológicas en el Parque Nacional de Garajonay that public access to the Los Roques is not permitted. |
This was our (Anne Rudsengen and me) third day on the island of La Gomera, and the fog that gave us zero views on Garajonay and Fortaleza the day before, was gone. We didn't have any explicit plans for the day, but drove up to the high country to get the famous Los Roques in view. We stopped at the main Los Roques viewpoint and could see Roque de Agando, Roque de la Zarcita and Roque de Ojila rise around us. Then there was this little, cool rock (Roque Carmona) which seemed like a much better viewpoint, and that's where we headed next.
After a short and easy scramble, we were on top of Roque Carmona and could see our car - completely blocked by tourist buses from Tenerife and San Sebastian.
The main Los Roques viewpoint, seen from Carmona
(Click for larger image)
Roque Carmona was fun, but this was not a real mountain and we continued our journey to Montańa de Yerta, and later on point 1045m (which I will refer to as Las Toscas), before strolling up to the Tagamiche viewpoint - all covered in a separate trip report (soon), before returning to the Los Roques area where we discovered a trail to Roque de la Zarcita.
[ information about the ascent has been removed ]
From the summit, we waved towards the tourists at one of the Los Roques viewpoints, and they waved back. Today, some of them got a Zarcita picture with two additional features...
After descending Zarcita, we returned to Valle Gran Rey. The day after we visited the Tejeleche range in the northeast (separate trip report). But on the first day of 2010, the urge to explore Roque de Ojila had grown strong, and we returned to the Zarcita trailhead to see where the other path would take us.
[ information about the ascent has been removed ]
3pm - 70 minutes after leaving the trailhead, there was big joy on Roque de Ojila. What a great way to start the new year! 4155km southwest of my house, and far, far away from winter and snow. Awesome! We enjoyed the views for a while before we started to focus on the descent. I felt quite calm about the descent, having studied enough details on the way up to avoid a major navigational error upon descent.
Back in the forest, we were high on adrenaline. Not because of the scramble, but because we had been up there. Which seemed like a faint dream when we started to become familiar with the island 5 days earlier. We decided not to hike anymore that evening. Nothing could top this.
Next report: Las Toscas
The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 450D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6
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Roque Carmona, Dec 30 2009
Roque de la Zarcita, Dec 30 2009
Roque de Ojila, Jan 1 2010
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