La Isla Bonita – Transvulcania La Palma

Niandi and myself have arrived on the island of La Palma – ‘La Isla Bonita’ – the home of the Transvulacania La Palma.

We are here for a working holiday. By that I mean we are here on holiday but still working as and when we feel like. We both have commitments that we need to fulfil while out on the island but we plan to be really flexible… of course I have another episode of Talk Ultra to get out. Based on how slow the wifi is here in our apartment that may be a real challenge.

Anyway, we decided NOT to to ease ourselves into this and went out for a full on 8 hours on the trail on our first day. Considering the longest run I have done in the last 17/18 weeks has been 75 min (due to dodgy knees) that was somewhat optimistic. However, I knew that this was not gong to be a run… more of a tough long hike with some jogging (mostly downhill).

The Transvulcania course starts in the south of the island and heads up the spine to the dramatic Roque de Los Muchachos at 2426m and then from here you basically have a 32-36k drop back to the sea at Tazacorte and then a run into the finish at Los Llanos.

Niandi and myself don’t have the luxury of multiple cars or drop/ pick ups so pretty much all our days out will be out and back.

Today we went from the sea at Tazacorte Port and went straight up to 2400m, had a picnic, turned around and came straight back down.

An incredible day on the trails and while friends back in the UK struggled with snow and ice we had T shirts and shorts on for the whole trek. The course offers some tough technical terrain, the views are dramatic and once above the cloud one really does feel like a ‘Skyrunner’ quite literally.

I personally had a great day. The longest on my feet for months BUT dropping from 2400m to sea level in one go DID test the knees. It wasn’t pretty at times but I am happy.

Here are some images from the day:

No warm up, from Tazacorte you go up for 18k

Caves in the rock face – once homes!

Follow the GR markers

Niandi has a break

About 1800m up, still a way to go…

Running through the cloud was incredible

Just stunning

Once through the cloud layer the views are incredible and the temp was 20+ deg

After 7 hours on the trail, with just 1 hour to go we get to see the sun disappear.