Cycling Timanfaya National Park, Lanza
WOW! What a landscape! Before I go into any details, here are a few snaps of the amazing landscape we cycled …    Lanzarote may not be everyone’s choice of destination but I’m sure it will surprise and delight! The island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1993 and if you’ve visited, you’ll understand why. Lanza is the forth largest of the 8 main islands in the Canaries. There are 500 different kinds of plants on the island, 17 of which are endemic. It’s moonscape is black and rocky, like some giant worm has burrowed beneath, creating these amazing mounds. We put the bikes together and headed off on a planned 30 mile ride through the Timanfaya National Reserve.  Heading out of the marina and past Playa Blanca heading for the main road, the wind became brutal and relentless! Lanza glorious Lanza!! 10 miles or so up there road we came across the amazing colours of the Janubio Salt Flats.   These uniformed and colourful salt pits are the largest producing salt flats in the Canary Islands and are a big tourist attraction. The salt industry used to be very important to the Canary Islands until the emergence of modern conservation techniques. Once fisherman began to freeze their daily catch, the tonnes of salt once needed to preserve the fish for weeks until they brought them back to land, was no longer in demand. The salt collection takes place between May and September when it’s hot and dry. Wind and sun are the essentials needed for salt crystallisation and in my view, Lanza has that in bucket-loads!!! It’s a hot, dry and pretty barren landscape but a great place to ride!
By luck we seemed to have made a good choice - chips with cheese, chicken, bacon, tomato sauce and tobacco plus an egg, bacon and cheese sandwich accompanied by two ice-teas and two beers, PERFECT! The best cheesy chips ever!
Despite the heat and constant wind, Lanza has a surprisingly large number of vineyards.
Each vine having its own 5x3m pit surrounded by a small stone wall to protection the vines from the wind and assist in the capture of rainfall and morning dew. It’s a pretty striking view wouldn’t you say? Just to prove we actually did ride round Timanfaya, our Strava post below says it all!
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What does grow here has to be tough to survive. 
We stopped for lunch at a cafe in the village of Mancha Blanca and ordered from a Spanish menu not having a clue what we were ordering! I’m ashamed to admit neither of us speak a word of Spanish apart from Hola meaning hello! 
