We decided to hire a car for 3 days to explore the island and are so glad that we did. It is good to get out of the marina, go up high and look down on the scenery and find out more about the island.

We spent Day 1 exploring the south-west corner and headed straight over to Lanzarote’s number 1 tourist attraction – Parque Nacional de Timanfaya and the fire mountains of Timanfaya. Lanzarote is known as the Island of Fire as a result of the world’s longest ever eruption lasting 6 years from 1730 turning a quarter of the islands rich, agricultural land into a sea of lava. It was very well organised and we toured the area on a coach and left the driving to the very capable driver who negotiated the twists and turns with ease. We were also given a demonstration of the ferocity of the volcanoes as branches were inserted into the fumeroles and instantly ignited and water poured in was violently ejected as piping hot steam. We had lunch in the restaurant on top of the volcano where floor to ceiling windows gave us a great vista and the meat was cooked over a large fumerole.

From there we went to find the Salinas del Janubio, one of the only remaining working salt flats, where islanders create sea salt for consumption and export. The flats were all different colours from pink, red and coral with pyramids of bright white salt piled up high.

Further on and we arrived at Los Hervideros where we saw how the crashing waves of the Atlantic had carved out blowholes in the volcanic rock. The contrasting colours of the turquoise sea and black volcanic rock were fascinating.

Our final stop of the day was at El Golfo to see the green lagoon, known locally as El Charco de los Clicos. The colour of the lagoon is created by the formation of algae in the sea water that feeds the lake here, which strikes a stunning contrast to the volcanic sand beach that surrounds it and where we sifted through the black sand to find pieces of semi-precious Olivine.

A great day out and we’ve still got two more to go…..