Well just one of them. Leonie and I broke with tradition and booked a package holiday to Gran Canaria. We spent a week in a hotel devoid of stars but with plenty of cigarette smoke in Playa del Ingles. Despite the shabby room it was all ok as we went road cycling for many hours during the day. In the evenings I did my coursera machine learning course and we went for little walks and generally tried not to overheat too much.
Day 1: Arrived, felt sick, lazed around, investigated the beach. We went for a walk amongst the huge sand dunes on the beach. It’s strange that they don’t just erode away.
Above: We arrived and took the bus from the Airport as part of our package deal. Our hotel room stunk like stale cigarette smoke but we were here to ride our bikes not to sit in hotel rooms. We had quite a lot of luggage with two road bikes and bags full of our gear.
Above: We went for a walk through the many sand dunes at the beach near our hotel.
Day 2: We rode up the GC-60 to the North. The road was in very good condition. We found our way to San Bartolomé de Tirajana and had a bit of food before a nice long descent back to the coast, followed by a ride back along the GC-500 to Playa del Ingles. A bit overcast but a good ride.
Above: The GC-60 heads directly North of Playa del Ingles. It heads steadily up from the sea to this pass and then drops down behind us still heading North before climbing again in the hills far behind.
Above left: The road heads straight to the North before wiggling a few times as it climbs. Above right: Us back outside our hotel in the evening after our ride.
Above: Day 2’s route.
Day 3: We rode out along the coast to the West. The ocean was a deep blue and there was a breeze as we rode along next to the sea. Occasionally we’d see huge ugly hotel complexes and then sometimes huge abandoned or half finished complexes. I guess the 2008 financial crisis hit hard here. We headed up a really nice pass road along the GC-605. The pass road to the turn off to Soria was perfectly sealed, had very little traffic and was a nice easy gradient. The weather was also perfect. Warm and sunny with blue sky and no clouds. The landscape was also more varied. and it was forested on the ride up to the pass. We continued on from the Soria turn off up to Ayacata at the junctions of the GC-605/GC-60/GC-600. From there we headed around the hills and back down the GC-60 to Playa del Ingles.
Above left: Us after just riding up a really nice windy, smooth, and traffic free pass. I rode quickly to the top and waited for Leonie at the cross roads. We had a nice view out to the ocean from here. We continued to the left along the GC-605. Above right: It was nice to have a few trees. This part of the island was greener than it is near our hotel although the Northern side is supposed to be much greener again.
Above: After following the road up to almost the middle of the island we began dropping back down.
Day 4: We headed back along the coast and up the road to Soria. We continued up to the pass where we had been the day before only to find that they had closed the road some way along. We revised plans and did yesterday’s route in reverse taking in one more baby pass along the way.
Above: We rode up this hot valley and then had a very hot pass climb. The condition of the road worsened and then we found ourselves at the crossroads from yesterday. They had closed the pass we had rode up yesterday so we had to turn around and ride back down the first smooth pass road we’d ascended yesterday.
Above: Looking down the winding pass road towards the sea.
Day 5: We left late and did battle with a head wind along the coast in a vaguely northerly direction. After some time Leonie conceded that it wasn’t a good tour. We bought some corn chips and drink (as has been the theme so far) for lunch and then started on the dasterdly climb. Actually we didn’t know it was dasterdly but it sure was. After starting harmlessly it turned into a relentless 12%-16% swelter. After reaching a turnoff we though we were done but it continued to climb and climb and the road stopped being a nice smooth thing and turned into a juddery mess.
Once we began to descend all was good again. The scenery was nice. Pine forest, orchards of some sort, little camping areas, and funky looking rock formations. This part of the island is pretty green compared to down at the coast. It was early evening and the sun not as intense, the shadows longer, and the light generally just better. We stopped and had some food at the cafe that we had shunned the other days due to the waiter being an annoying sales type. This time there were no other opportunities. After some potatoes with mojo or whatever it’s called we cycled back down the GC-60 to Playa del Ingles. I’d been told the mojo potatoes are a speciality and I should try them. They were quite tasty. New potatoes with a tasty sauce of some sort.
Above: Possibly a bit greener over this side of the island.
Above left: Riding through the pines. Above right: Leonie nears the top of our “house pass” at Degollada de La Yegua.
Day 6: We hung around at the beach and at the hotel until 4 pm and then went for a short sweaty ride. We had intended to avoid the heat but this didn’t work too well. We rode up into the hills and then descended back down a valley.
Day 7: We headed up the GC 60 to San Bartolomé de Tirajana where we stopped for our usual food stop. Then it was on up to Ayacata + one extra pass and then back down to Playa del Ingles.
During the trip we drank lots and lots of tonic water. A chilled tonic water tasted so good after the heat. Random but true.
For some reason I don’t have any photos from the last couple of days… Not sure what happened there!
Above: Our cycling routes during our week in Gran Canaria.
