Following my previous post, I’m going to keep the Canarian theme running as Ali and I make our final preparations to head this way again later this week. After all, why not whet the appetite with a bit of stolen sunshine as the mercury drops again in the UK – one final blast of winter before spring finally comes a calling. Hopefully by the time we return, things will have warmed up a bit and the garden will be showing a few more signs of life.
It’s been a fun few days – yesterday I saw both of my grandchildren in one afternoon. Not together sadly, as my daughter was celebrating an elderly in law’s 80th. But I did get to witness my son jumping into a freezing sea at Falmouth, sans wetsuit as in my arms I held his five week old son and told him what a crazy fool his father is. Later, I saw my five month old granddaughter, who seemed to be almost as transfixed by Liverpool’s seven nil defeat of Manchester United as I was. And I was introduced to the hitherto unknown cocktail known as a salted caramel hot cross bun by my daughter in law. I’ve put in a bulk order at the local branch of Tesco for when I come home. Hot Cross Buns it seems, are not just meant for Easter.
All of this general amusement reminded me in a rather untidy segway that I’d recently edited the folder I’d collected from the dreamy Playa de Famara on the northwest corner of Lanzarote back in November. It was a beach that I’d visited twenty years earlier with my then cutting edge Canon film camera, paid for with a surprise bonus at work the previous summer. Back then I had little idea about apertures, or which film to use, and I owned but hadn’t taken with me what I can now only refer to as a tripod shaped object. But I do clearly remember standing somewhere around this point and taking a picture of the distant volcanoes in the setting sun. I’m not certain where that twenty year old image ended up, but for years I had it on the bedroom wall, reminding me of those islands of endless springtime where it never gets cold.
What I hadn’t done in 2002, was taken my swimming gear. The resort pool was freezing and the sea was even colder at the time, and although both of my then young children had braved the waters, I’d decided to enjoy the sunshine. But now here I was, all of these years later, armed with a pair of swimming shorts. Being notoriously hard of spending, I hadn’t paid the extra baggage fees and brought my board with me, but I’m not averse to pretending I’m an ironing board and using my body as the vehicle by which I surf. Ever tried it? It’s a rather liberating experience. In fact I have a friend who has never owned a board to my knowledge, but body surfs at Porthtowan well into the autumn each year. And now here I was, on a distant beach in a surprisingly warm sea, body surfing in the shallows and taking the utmost care not to get dragged offshore by a furious rip that dragged everyone in the water from west to east at regular intervals. Ali refused to go in, and went to sleep in one of those delightful stone circles that hold in the heat on the beaches of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.
Later, having survived all attempts by the Atlantic to carry me off in the direction of Madeira, I strolled down the beach to where there were far fewer people and set up a tripod that does pass muster as a tripod. And as you can see, I had a rather enjoyable time, experimenting with shutter speeds and figures walking along the beach as if they’d emerged from a Vettriano painting. Well a Vettriano in swimwear anyway. This pair caught my eye as I ploughed through the images that I took over the course of an hour or more. The chap with the board on top of his head sold the shot to me, as the two beach lifers ambled contentedly along the shoreline in the direction of the setting sun and those glorious volcanoes.
And now I’m pretty much packed for a trip to the neighbouring island. Interestingly (maybe) there’s an extra gizmo in the camera bag in the form of an underwater camera – the one my colleagues presented to me as a retirement present eighteen months ago. Whether I get a picture worth sharing from the protracted sub-aqua escapades is something I’m really not sure about, but it’s going to be fun trying. And above all – I think we’re done with winter now aren’t we? About time things warmed up a bit.
Yesterday my son asked him whether I was going to bring my baby grandson a present back from our travels? "What are you thinking of?" I asked. "They do some nice beer out there," came the response. Frankly, I think I smell a rat……….
Posted by Dom Haughton on 2023-03-06 19:22:50
Tagged: , Lanzarote , Famara , volcano , Teguise , playa , beach , surfer , Water , water_shots , water_captures , Timanfaya , Sunset , Canary , Canary Islands , glow , Spain , Atlantic , Ocean , Sea , seascape , sea shore , Mountain
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