Ireland day 1244. Sunday 23 February 2025- Fuerteventura Day 13

Today’s summary	Set out to climb Pico de la Zarza but the weather looked poor so made a last minute switch to walk to Morro Jable and catch the L111 to Punto de Jandia. Did a brilliant 12k circular walk from Puertito and then caught the afternoon bus back. The weather improved during the day but Pico de la Z in cloud for much of it. Dinner in the hotel later
Today’s weather	Cloudy at first but sunny by midday. Light to moderate north easterly wind. Appx 21c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Los Talahijos circuit

Commentary

Well we had a day of descanso (rest) yesterday so today it was time to get out and about again. We got up early – once again we were the first in breakfast(!) and after eating, headed out from the hotel to try and climb Pico de la Zarza – Fuerteventura’s highest peak (it’s right behind our hotel). But as soon as we had gone about 100 metres up the path, we realised that this wasn’t perhaps the wisest idea. The clouds had come right down, a brisk wind was blowing, and it was quite cool.

So we pivoted. After a brief confab, we decided to switch to another walk that we had always wanted to do – a circular loop in the Punto de Jandia area – which would mean once again catching the trusty L111 bus. Seeing as we were up so early, we had plenty of time to walk the 6 or so km to the bus station and get there well in time for the 10am departure.

So we ambled back down to the coast and along the promenade through Morro Jable to the bus station. I have to say that on initial impressions that Morro Jable isn’t the most scenic town in Fuerteventura. Though we haven’t really had chance to explore it properly yet. We are just too busy!

Anyway, the bus set off spot on time – there were no spare seats so some late-comers actually didn’t get a ride today. We sped along, via Cofete, to Puertito de la Cruz – the scruffy pueblo at Punto de Jandia, just before the lighthouse. We were duly deposited there at about 11:15 and set off on our walk straight away. The walk we had planned was only 12 or 13km but, like Friday, we were under time pressure to catch the bus back later in the afternoon (and for some inexplicable reason today, the bus left at 16:00, not 16:15 as the timetable says, so we actually had slight less time than we thought we would).

Our walk took us clockwise on a roughly square-shaped loop walk, heading up to the north coast of the island and running, for some the first section, alongside a disused airstrip which I suspect might have been built for Herr Winter when he lived in the spooky Casa Winter over at Cofete. Once over a small hill, we reached the rocky slopes of the north coast and – wow! – the views were spectacular. Nobody about, wild rugged slopes and inaccessible coves, with our path clinging to the hillside and sweeping in and out of the barrancos. Absolutely superb and we loved every step.

The return from the far point along the coast took us roughly in a straight line directly across the Jandia peninsula back to the south coast, where we regained the GR131 again. Once more, we found it slightly tedious going with innumerable ups and downs. It was also quite busy today, with surfers and other assorted Beautiful People. We were soon back at Puertito (where I stopped recording my GPX). But as we had almost an hour until the bus was due, we walked on the extra kilometre or so to the lighthouse. We waited there to enjoy a slightly more satisfying finale to our day – at the remotest point of the island, rather than in the tattiness of Puertito.

The L111 once again was bang on time and – by the time we reached Cofete, completely full with even a couple of people standing precariously in the aisle. Anyway, we sped back to Morro Jable and were safely deposited at the Estacion de guaguas at about 5:30. Val cunningly managed to nab a passing taxi and we were duly back in the hotel before 6pm.

Once back, Val dashed out for a quick swim while I had a shower and tried to make myself look vaguely presentable for a 7:15 pm dinner on the hotel. All in all, another brilliant day, even though we didn’t actually end up doing anything like what we set out to do in the early hours of the morning. Ah, the beauty of plan B..

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


“Downtown” Morro Jable. It actually manages to look nicer than it is	A pair of these strange looking gyrocopters took off from the abandoned Punta de Jandia airstrip just as we were passing

Another resident of the abandoned airstrip with an arabesque-looking fort behind it. The “fort” was actually fake – there were just wooden batons behind the façade holding it up. Val thought it might be a film-set and I suspect she could be right	On the lonely path in on the northern coastline. Fabulous

Admiring the view, with Cofete behind us. And yes I do know I need a haircut	The last stretch of the route back along the coast follows the GR131 that we completed on Friday. The yellow band on the marker post, in addition to the GR131’s familiar red and white flash, signifies the “local” path we had followed for the loop walk

Abandoned by the bus in the middle of (almost) nowhere!