Session 22 - Famara, Lanzarote

Caz and I decided to take a little bit of a road trip today to the National park. Now don’t get me wrong we were both very amazed by the sheer volume of baron volcanic landscape but about 10 mins in to the bus trip, which covered 14kms of the volcanic countryside, we were a little bored. I know it is bad to say but after a while one rock looks the same so we spent the journey amused by the couple in front who both insisted on taking a picture of every rock and every bit of harden lava formation they could see. Seriously I hope I never have to experience their holiday pictures! (They still didn’t beat the lady whole filmed the entire ferry journey to Fuerta and back again!). We then took a drive up to the hill to admire the views across the bay and headed to Famara again for another wave session!

The wind today was stronger than yesterday so I always knew that it may be a mission to kite as the smallest kite I have is my 7m, but hey you can only try and the depower on my C4s is pretty incredible! Following a conversation with Vyky over dinner last night, she informed me that if I kited more in the middle of the bay the waves are more even and I would get more gap between the sets to just cruise and enjoy. So when we arrived I called her as I could see a few kites just inside the turning and this to me looked a much safer place for me to kite without Simen there and also because it was more onshore so I could play in the flats between sets more. Ummm. So I rig up the 7m and Caz launched me (oh yes love her she has been taught to launch and land now – perfect best mate!!) I went out completely powered so tugged on the depower to about half way. Had some fun getting over the little waves and then hit the slightly bigger ones at the back, though – pah I coped yesterday and popped myself over one LOL. Big mistake. Board got caught and I was swimming again. Gutted. Board came back and I tried again. This session pretty much stayed like this for about 15 mins until I realised I had to play nearer the shore line and then I got wider gaps between the waves to just enjoy. I was not having a good day though. I tugged on even more depower as the gusts were high and then it would drop right back down, so whilst having to negotiate wind differences I also had the waves to cope with and the sheer wind strength. I will admit that I came in after half an hour, shattered (I had done too much driving to cope with a longer session to be honest) and completely over powered, well so I thought. All my depower on and I still couldn’t get upwind. Gutted. But when I finally landed my kite I was relieved to get talking to man who landed my kite. Same height and weight and he had come in at the same time because he couldn’t cope on his 7m also. Then I started to note that all the other guys there had swapped to 5m and 7m kites and then I realised Yay for once it wasn’t me being a girl!! Happy days. Home for dinner on Caz’s last night and to perform the ritual de sanding and de-salting before we glammed up a little and went for some awesome Champagne Sangria at this awesome restaurant on the beach!! I will get the name for you all!!

session 21 - Famara, Lanzarote

After nearly a week of not manning up to kiting Famara I decided that I had to at least try so at least I could say I had done it. I am not too sure why I was so worried about kiting it but I was. If I am brutally honest the whole female thing doesn’t help! Due next week and naturally I become more sensitive and more cautious about my well being and therefore kiting is not a good thing for me to do!! Cautious and kiting do not mix as you tense up and then get wiped out even more than usual!! Hey ho, c’est la vie. Anyway I finally manned up and me and Caz followed Simen to the beach and ended up in a little bay which was 600m down a bumpy dirt track and I got progressively more and more quiet as the drive went on, knowing that I was going to be ending up in the bay that Adam had mentioned that was higher waves than the rest of Famara....... ah well may as well start of big and then the smaller waves look fun!

I park up the Car of Choice and then help Caz find a little stone circle to hide herself in (poor cow had been sand blasted enough at Flag beach) and then I got to getting my kit ready to go out. Simen took his kit to the beach and proceeded to talk to all and sundry and then by the time he finally decided to get ready my kit was ready, he launched me and off I went. The waves were definitely higher than they looked and all I could hear was Matt and Ben saying “man up and get on with it” in my head. I knew I would wash up on the shore worst case! So I went out, got out over the first few sets and then saw the biggest wave coming towards me, I got scared! I turned and came back in towards the shore and then turned and went back out and the same thing happened and took my board from me. Not happy. Body dragging in this water really isn’t like it is in anywhere I have been. The board gets moved by the waves and the waves move you down wind really quickly and you swallow more salt water than I have ever swallowed previously! I got scared. I got back to my board and came back to the shore. That was not fun. I was not happy.

I stood on the beach for ages, watching Kirsty Jones turning in and out of the waves on her wave board like they were the smallest waves she had ever seen, is was even more amazing to watch her practicing her free style and I was so jealous that I couldn’t man up enough to get out there and practise mine!! After about 40 mins of standing there getting progressively colder I decided to go and see Caz in her little circle. I was trying hard to hold back the tears, more from frustration than actual sadness that I couldn’t get the balls. She was priceless, “get out there Brunner, you told me I was not allowed to accept any excuses today so get out there and let me get some pictures!!” She was of course, right. So I manned up and Simen promised to kite with me and off I went. This was better. I finally got over the big set at the back and found familiar water, the swirling 1m chop of Fuerta!! I was happy here, I came back in and out and then eventually got told by Simen to stop going so far out as there was no rescue and wind also changed direction out there from the cross on to offshore and then I would just not come home – ever! That worked for me so I stayed closer in, well a little at least and spent 45 mins (ish) really enjoying myself until I got wiped out near the beach, the wave washed me and wrapped my lines round my bar and I kite looped smack into the beach! My kite just missed this poor newby who was setting up for a beach lesson, I got slammed into the sand about 3 inches below the shallows and grazed my knee and then I decided it was my time to call it a day. I felt awful as I had only managed about an hour on the water but god I ached and I was happy with my achievement! Poor Caz had also had enough of being sand blasted and we were due to head out for dinner with Vyky.

Girlie dinner with Vyky proved hilarious as always, brit watching was the order of the night and for the first time this trip I have had a burger and chips! The Cafe we went to in Puerto Del Carmen was a nice change from Costa Teguise but it was definitely good to get back to the chilled out vibe Teguise offers over the Brit filled hustle that seems to occupy the rest of the bigger towns. We are all still trying to answer why British men think football shirts are a good addition to a holiday wardrobe!

Some things I know...

1 – Marmite is not sold anywhere when all you really want is Marmite on toast.

2 – The grass is never greener, just people say it is to hide their regrets!

3 – Your mum really does know everything you have ever done; you just hope that there are a few things she hasn’t worked out yet.

4 – Sometimes the hardest things are the best.

5 – If you cannot nail what you did in the session, give up and try something else, frustration and kiting don’t work together.

6 – Sleep and eat well, you never realise how much energy you use up kiting until you haven’t got it and try to complete a new thing.

7- Pay the rescue on the beach if it available as you never know!

8 – Don’t forget your parent’s birthdays while you are away as they definitely won’t pick you up from the airport!!

9 – If it seems too good to be true it inevitably is! Although if a door opens and you want to chance it go for it, worse case you can say you tried and lived!

10 – There really is nothing better than your own bed when you remember for 2 mins what it feels like to lay in it on a cold winter’s day.

11 – I never thought I would miss being cold.

12 – Listen to your friends for their advice and experience, the first aid kit i compiled has been priceless thank you Matthew.

13 – Family and friends will always be there, don’t forget that.

14 – Take pictures as one day you won’t be able to picture the memory.

Lazy Days

Woke up this morning feeling even worse due to this bloody cold, therefore me and Caroline decided to potter about in Costa Teguise and then go of exploring in the car of choice, as she has now become known. I sorted some boring things out like travellers cheques and a new phone sim and then we had some lunch and decided to head of to the Cactus garden! Now as I am sure you are aware if you have been to the Canaries, there is not much around in the way of greenery that is not a palm tree or a cactus; when we are driving to the Cactus garden and I see 3 massive fields full of just plain old cacti I was a little disappointed. We pulled into the car park to find a small number of cars and people milling about and this enormous metal sculpture of a cactus in the car park and a small entrance. We were charged to enter (no issues there) and we walked through the gates. At first you are very underwhelmed by the Jardin Du Cactus and then after a small time when you stop giggling like children that some of them are so phallic you realise that it is a truly beautiful space, although not huge it contains over 1000 different species and some of them are massive! The grounds are very clean and there is so nice sculptures tucked into the mix for you to look at also. Me and Caroline enjoyed a very nice cold beer at the cafe and watched the world go by from the patio. It would be an amazing place to a bbq / birthday party although I am sure that there would be a few accidents on the walk home which wouldn’t be painless! By the end of the visit I had decided that I should open one of these in Swindon, LOL although it would have looked hilarious with all the tiny small cacti I would have used..... “so tell me again Miss Brunner, why are you bankrupt?” “Oh well I decided to spend all my redundancy on Cacti to build a tourist attraction” Maybe not hey! Famara tomorrow for a lazy beach day for Caroline and for me to finally man up and get out kiting!!

New Experiences

1 – Driving abroad. At home I passed my test 2 months after my 17th birthday and I have never really being without a car since. I enjoy driving and I really enjoy good cars; yet I have never driven abroad. So when I braved getting a hire car in Lanzarote I was a little anxious and consistently thought “I must remember to stay on the correct side of the road!”. Luckily Caroline was with me and I had her to navigate our way across the island and help keep me from ending up the ditch because I seemed naturally drawn to the edge of the road!! It was funny, we have a tiny little chevi thing that barely fits my kite kit in but hey it will do at 94Euros for the week!! I get to venture to Famara in it tomorrow to test the kite kit properly!!

2 – True Spanish Paella. With a fairly adamant aversion to sea food Paella for me has predominately involved being vegetarian and although good always felt a little like I was cheating. So when myself and Caroline had proper full on paella the other night with squid and mussels and prawns I was a little worried but it turned out to be very delicious! Even if Caroline got attacked by prawn spunk!

3 – Kite moves that I hadn’t been taught in a lesson. I am naturally a worrier, I get it from my Mum, wish is no bad thing but I also have a little bit of my dad’s lack of worry so kiting works out quite nicely for me sometimes. When I finally switch of the inner sensible I then start to try a few things and I am always surprised about how much progress I make. I am looking forward to getting back on the water tomorrow and get practising my back rolls and heel to toe turning!

4 – Driving a car on to a ferry! Sad huh! Funny though!

5 – Thinking about change. With losing my job I always expected this trip to be a little time for me to assess my career and the way I wanted my life to go. I never expected to meet so many wonderful people and experience so many different out looks on life and enjoy it so much. I have had an offer for a job working in Egypt as part of the team that I was kiting with and a year ago I wouldn’t have even consider taking it with everything at home, now my outlook is although I would be away from home I would also be at my surrogate home and learning at least one new language! Ha.

6 – Waxing. I am blessed with a very dear friend at home who does my bikini line every few weeks and I know her very well and it doesn’t worry me one bit, when you are away for 10 weeks in foreign climbs this simple and short task becomes a mission! Luckily I have a friend who lives in the canaries and recommended a great English owned salon which I managed to visit today in relative comfort! Thanks Vyks.

Stir crazy and wind blown.

Fuertaventura was the order of the day today, I want to kite somewhere I assumed would have wind and say hello to the guys on the beach an show Caz where I had been hanging out a little also. Unfortunately there wasn't much wind and what was there was onshore which doesn't play well for the rocks along the shore line. So we had a very lazy day watching the lessons on the beach, man i have seen some slow learners but these people should never kite, ever!!

It was nice to go back for me but I think a little boring for Caroline and I think by the end of the day we had both gone stir crazy as we found ourselves discussing schooling of children and I think that I wont send my kids to school, they will be called Broccoli and Marmite and they will be in charge of learning everything themselves whilst living in the garage.... It is obviously not the truth just a demonstration of what happens when I don't get to kite and when Caz is left in the wind too long.

Luckily I am glad I didn't kite as my friend went out and came in with a huge gash on his knee which required a hospital trip and 4 stitches in the end - those rocks would have found me first if I had gone out!!

Happy lazy days, looking forward to wind on Thursday as I would have had nearly a week off and I am getting very very bored!!

XX

Prawn Spunk...

As Caz had only arrived late on Sunday night we decided that due to a lack of wind on the island we would just chill and get some food in and catch up as we hadnt sen each other for about 2 months.

We eventually surfaced about 11am which is normally not heard of in my world and we wondered about the town and explored what there was to offer, to which I found a great place to have a good massage which I had no idea how much I needed - wow my back was sore!! We then went and sat down at Poco loco's so i could catch up with updating my blog and went for a walk down by the beach. Here the lazy mooching ended as we discovered this great little Tapas bar and we sat there for the whole afternoon playing catch up on the news and gossip and reminiscing on old days from school, it is amazing how much we have covered in the 20 years we have known each other! After several glasses of wine in the sunshine we move in to the shelter and decide to have paella.... well when in Spain and all that! It was hilarious I have never peeled a prawn in my life so Caroline is trying to teach me and all of a sudden her white beach top is covered in the contents of the prawn and the waiters have noticed and they are laughing with me!! Bless her, we have yet to get the prawn spunk out of her top but hey priceless moment!!