Lanzarote: The baby and the volcano

‘On the first day of September, 1730 between nine and 10 o’clock at night, the earth suddenly opened… An enormous mountain emerged from the ground with flames coming from its summit. It continued burning for 19 days.’ So wrote the priest in the village of Yaiza, around two miles from Lanzarote’s Timanfaya national park, as the beginning of six years of volcanic eruptions transformed the island.

The area is still called the ‘Mountains of Fire’, which sounds faintly like something out of Tolkein, and is as dramatic a reminder of the terrifying power of volcanoes as Pompeii. Even today, parts of the island are too hot to stand on in flipflops and the tortured black lava flow covers much of the ground.

As my last trip abroad had been to another volcanic island, in the Azores, it seemed somehow fitting that Minnie’s first trip should be equally explosive. Besides, as regular readers will know, I have something of a fondness for volcanoes (from a safe distance, if required).

And no-one should go to Lanzarote without making time to visit Timanfaya, part of a Unesco Biosphere Reserve. You can’t explore on foot unless you’re one of the handful of walkers who book months in advance to join the special treks – which includes proving your fitness.

Not something to do with a baby. To be honest, not something I’d considered doing before either. (Lazybones).

But after paying your entrance fee to the national park, there are bus tours included from the vantage point of Islote de Hilario. Normally, the idea of being herded onto a bus with a recorded commentary doesn’t entice me, but this really is worth it.

As well as the eyewitness account of Father Curbelo, repeated in several languages, you can see the blasted landscape, cones and calderas and the heroically determined attempts of a few small bushes and lichens to reconquer the blackened earth.

Buy tickets to Timanfaya National Park, including the bus tour, here

Minnie, bundled into the baby carrier, promptly fell asleep, which gave me time to take a few photos through the window and notice the different colours streaked through the earth, the flow patterns frozen in rock and the blue of the sea in the background.

I also had chance to be a bit thankful she was small enough to tote around as the toddler sitting across the aisle was lavishly travel sick part-way through.

Back at Islote de Hilario, there’s a few kitschy tricks for the tourists – which I still love, regardless. First, one of the guides throws a bundle of brushwood into a vent, where it promptly bursts into flames.

Just a few metres under the surface the temperature of the magma-heated ground is 400C, which also cooks the food in the restaurant El Diablo. After that, he throws a bucket of water into another vent (having strategically arranged all the watchers) and two seconds later, a geyser of steam shoots up.

I’ve seen it done before, and you get a warning but still jumped out of my skin, to Minnie’s mild bemusement.

Then, although most of the tour groups head straight off (and as ever, it’s worth arriving early or late to beat the rush), we drove the short distance up the road to the visitor’s centre.

As well as information about the area, there’s a machine showing current seismic activity (minimal), a viewpoint out across the lava fields, and a recreation of what the eruption would have felt like.

For the first time, I came across something Minnie couldn’t do – although children aren’t forbidden, the staff don’t recommend it for under four-year-olds, so this part of Timanfaya with a baby was off limits.

Sitting upstairs as the recording played out, I could still hear and feel the deep vibrating rumble in the pit of my stomach before the loud bang of the explosion (which would almost certainly have startled Minnie).

Unable to see the lava flows, it was eerily menacing – until some more prosaic yells about lack of nap time signalled that she had had enough for now.

Travel lesson learned: Don’t assume babies will stop you exploring even the most unlikely areas, even if you can’t manage everything.

For tips on more things to do in Lanzarote with kids, check out this post, as well as more information in my guide to the Canary Islands for families

 

Image courtesy of Depositphotos