The North-west coast of Lanzarote, Canary Islands

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Lanzarote, Canary Islands
This is a selection taken from half a dozen videos taken with my Phantom 3 4K over a period of several months and edited together during the current lockdown, which has been among the tightest in the world over the past several months.

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I love looking at the stark landscape. I would guess that fishing is the main business. I have to do some studying about this place. Any indigenous "endemic" plants or animals there? Any idea about the first settlers?
 
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I love looking at the stark landscape. I would guess that fishing is the main business. I have to do some studying about this place. Any indigenous "endemic" plants or animals there? Any idea about the first settlers?

The main industry is tourism - or at least it was until Covid - 19 reared its ugly head. As you suggest, fishing is also important, as is grape cultivation for wine - Shakespeare often mentions Canary wine and Malmsey (a wine made from the Malvasía grape). Lanzarote is one of the Canary Islands archipelago (Admiral Lord Nelson lost his arm on Tenerife, one of the other islands in 1797). A substantial part of Lanzarote erupted from the sea between 1730 and 1736 and this region is a National Park where it's illegal to fly drones.

There are a lot of native plants, but many flowers only appear in the spring of years that have had a reasonable amount of rain during the winter - the seeds often laying dormant for several years. We also have several species of lizards and geckos, along with quite a lot of birds that are native to North Africa. Until the discovery of synthetic dyes and colouring, Lanzarote produced most of the world's cochineal.

The Canary Islands have always been an important stepping off point in trans-Atlantic voyages, with sailing ships heading south from Europe to get into the Northeast Trade Winds. As Lanzarote is the most northerly of the group it has long been an important landfall on this route. I don't think there was ever a conquest by Europeans, just a gradual integration.

I have read that the small island of La Graciosa, which is just visible in the still above, was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
 
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He wouldn’t have made it on La Graciosa. No water, no anything. With all the white houses where you live, what would happen if you painted your house blue? Lol
 
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Are all the Canary's as stark as this, or are some of them more lush- more vegetation?
 
Are all the Canary's as stark as this, or are some of them more lush- more vegetation?

No, they aren't all the same. The most northern islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura have the least vegetation. The small island of La Palma is predominantly forest and is very beautiful indeed .
 
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What a start yet visually compelling place. Nice to see. I'm assuming the crater at the very beginning is a caldera instead of an impact crater. Or is it something else? I would have liked to have seen more of that. It appears that it is one of the most prominent and interesting geologic features of the area. A little more examination of it would have been the cherry on top. Regardless, thanks for the nice visit to an interesting place.
 
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What a start yet visually compelling place. Nice to see. I'm assuming the crater at the very beginning is a caldera instead of an impact crater. Or is it something else? I would have liked to have seen more of that. It appears that it is one of the most prominent and interesting geologic features of the area. A little more examination of it would have been the cherry on top. Regardless, thanks for the nice visit to an interesting place.


Yes, it is a caldera, but it is several million years old and close to a beach with the northeast trade winds blowing towards it, so the crater is just an uninteresting bowl filled with sand. Much more recent eruptions just a few miles away are visually much more interesting, but they are within a national park where drone flying is forbidden.
 
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Wish I was there... x
Seeing the wonders of the world is fascinating. BUT, there is no place like home. My son and his family helped me do the final touches to the swimming pool. I'm sitting listening to the birds singing in the cool of the evening as the pool fills up, overlooking a lush green valley with the mountains in the background. This evening i may see deer, turkey or that bear that has been the terror of people's bird feeders in my area. Lol
 
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