As a visitor to this part of the island I found that it could be like being on the moon. This is my favourite tourist attraction of the island, and cannot be missed.
The Mountains of Fire in the Timanfaya National Park are not named through any creative act of poetic licence; they have justified their title through a spectacular demonstration of the dramatic forces of nature during the hundreds of violent, lava-spewing volcanic eruptions during 1730 - 1736.
As the number one visitor attraction in Lanzarote, Timanfaya National Park, covering some 51 square kilometres on the west coast, never fails to astonish it’s sightseeing public, from the multi-coloured badlands with its eerily smoking craters, to the lunar wilderness stretching hazily to the distant farms and the sea beyond.
The region was declared a National Park in 1974 and has the highest classification of protection afforded to such areas of outstanding natural importance. When you arrive you have to leave your car behind, (nobody is allowed in the park unaccompanied), and take one of the escorted tours, either by bus, or for the more adventurous, by rent-a-camel. The escorted bus tour has a running commentary in English, Spanish, and German.
At the Islote de Hilario car parking area is the El Diablo Restaurant named after a hermit who lived here with only his donkey for company for 50 years, thus the entrance to the park is signposted with an emblem of a devil holding a pitchfork.
This interesting building was designed by Lanzarote’s most famous son, the artist and environmental protector, César Manrique. Meals are cooked over the natural volcanic heat and the subterranean temperature is demonstrated outside by guides who conduct various experiments, showing how brushwood fed into a shallow hole bursts into flame and water instantly turns into steam. Just 10 centimetres below the surface, the temperature reaches 140 degrees centigrade in some places, and at a depth of 13 metres, recordings have shown a reading of 610.
The whole tour takes about three hours and in that time you will experience a multitude of emotions; a feeling of eeriness as the wind blows through the petrified lava formations, a sense of awe at the visible omnipotency of the forces of nature, and also a strange feeling of calm at the simplicity of a landscape unspoilt and unchanged for hundreds of years. There’s nowhere like it on earth - maybe there is somewhere else.
When I go back to Lanzarote I will certainly take this tour again.