Coming down from my hilltop eyrie in the soft dawn light, listening ,fittingly to Sigur Ross as I crossed the lava fields, I looked across the stone walled fields to the mountains beyond and thought I could be home in Western Ireland.

Moving down the trail I passed more signs of recent settlers. Some nice new traditional style and modern looking buildings with Adobe walls and clay and straw roofs, unpainted and blending in to the colours of the surrounding landscape. Well tended plots and more windmills and solar panels. I guess the’re off the grid out there. An English horsebox, smart stables and fine looking horses next to a sign advertising Finca Julie riding centre. Right next door another sign for an Eco Farm and the standard collection of buildings, vans and growing spaces. I wondered what drew them to this particular spot. If you feel the urge to leave it all behind there is a parcel available.

Here’s the number to call.
When I got to the road on the approach to Lajares I discovered a mini suburb of shacks and sheds, caravans and vans and a couple of converted shipping containers on what looked to the unfamiliar eye to be waste ground. A call to the wild without much cash ?
Or maybe devoted surfers, there’s certainly plenty of the vibe around. Surf schools, boards, wet suits and branded clothing- it’s all here. And the posters, signs and bumper stickers exhorting you to give it all up to the ocean.
Next door to the Clean Ocean Project
Which looked like it did positive work promoting clean seas, and selling surf gear was the estate agent…FreeLifeFuerteventura – Property and Life.

A good looking bar cafe restaurant gallery on the way out of town was definitely tuned to the lifestyle and it did look attractive but I’m here to walk so I turned my back on it all and gave myself an additional big climb by detouring up a volcano to see the crater.
The sun which had been sulking behind clouds all morning briefly came out to light the scene.

At the top the view was too wide to be able to do justice with my phone.

I was joined at the top by a group of English retiree hikers, one of whom was 86. It gives you hope.
So it was nearly all dirt road walking today and mostly cloudy. In fact even a little bit of hesitant drizzle.
The lava landscape was quite interesting and there was another caldera right next to the road ( could have saved some legwork).

The final approach into Corralejo was a bit dispiriting. I had a view of Lobos ,the little island I hike around tomorrow, behind an empty expanse of failed development dreams.

So that’s Fuerteventura from end to end. I apologise to anyone reading this looking for a route guide. There are two forms of rambling, and I do both.