La Gomera 2005 - We are back again...

Our Beautiful World

Back again...

Yes, we're back again. For the 4th time to Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera.
And we love it. Even as they told us they had the coldest winter in 80 years!

But when the winter on La Gomera is just as good as a normal norwegian
summer, then is doesn't matter at all if they call it winter.

This time we got a lot of new experiences. First of all, we stayed for
7 weeks this time, against only 5 last year. How were we to get time passing?
We found that we were capable of doing some art, which we did know we
had the necessary qualifications.
See more here.

Then we were, of course, curious to see what had happened since
last time. Were they still working on the new harbour?
Any new hotels coming up?

The new harbour is to be finished in June this year, as at that time
the first car-ferry from Tenerife is scheduled. And they will have it ready
in time. However, the new beach, which we were told should be part
of it, doesn't look like a beach at all - and now they tell us that there
are no such plans either.

But if you now compare the old picture from last year, with the new
one from February this year, you can see for yourself how far they
have come.:

Even as they are getting a new big ferry to come over from the other
islands, the Garajonay Expres will continue bringing you back and forth
in less than two hours to Los Cristianos on Tenerife. From there you
can take the bus (costs you € 1,75 -) or a taxi (€ 18,-) to the airport.

When you go further out along the Tequergenche mountain, that's around
the corner to the left on the picture above the "Expres", we wondered
if the cliff was still standing where it should.

It reminds us of the part of La Palma which someone has suggested will
fall out into the Atlantic Ocean soon, and send a tsunami towards the
Eastern USA, Caribbian and South America, and destroy most of it....
Look here for more.

So to the "Baby Beach" as it has been called.

It's still there, and when low tide, no problems with the children.
They love walking around in the low water, catching small fish and crabs.
This time there were some of these "Portuguese Man of War" coming in,
during a storm one day. But as the weather was no good, noone got in
touch with them.

However, some people wants to go outside the lagoon during low tide,
and hope to get a swim further out in deeper water.

First you have pass the barrier - all those big stones lying between
the ocean and the lagoon. Then, if you know what you do - you might
be able to get a short swim - but you might as well hurt yourself on some
of the rough volcanic rocks out there. And one more point:

As we experinced last year, it is not every 7th wave that is the biggest,
but they often come in 7 coherent, one larger than the other.
As in this story - the man feel kind of safe, but he has underestimated
the size of some of the waves. Luckily he is aware of them coming,
as stands facing against this one.


And here he just disappears in the wave.

But up again, this one did not do any harm.

Then......


the next wave is coming in - and this time.....


it doesn't seem he is aware of its force, he disappears completely
into the wave, and then you can just see how the wave
carries him further in

Well, to end the story, we can tell he was lucky.
He got up when the wave drew back, and hastened to a safer playground.

Just to remind you that the waves here off the coast of La Gomera
are not the friendly type - at least not during the winter.
See more here.

We are not going to scare you. The lagoon in Valle Gran Rey is really
the place for children - and their families!

Look for more here


This year we saw another side of the climate on La Gomera.
One week we had the 'Calima' with dust from Sahara in Africa coming over,
the next week we had the clouds coming down....

Not much sunshine those days, so good we also had other activites.
More about that here.