Blog

Of course the Canary Islands are not that far from the West African coast and the Sahara Desert but you wouldn't expect to find a desert in Gran Canaria. Amazingly there is one - well sort of. In the south of the island of Gran Canaria are the Dunas de Maspalomas or the Maspalomas Dunes. This is a protected area of land over 300 hectares in size that resembles the deserts of Africa. The fine sand is formed from ground shells and the shifting dunes themselves reach heights of 10m.

In the sixties and seventies planning rules were not strong enough to prevent the building of a few hotels, villa developments and a gold course close by, but now the area is closely preserved and classed as a natural park. A memorable day for the environmentalists happened in 1989 when the Hotel Dunas, which was situated right in the middle of the dunes, was demolished by explosion and removed.

The Dunes are home to an interesting variety of plants which have a fundamental in the formation of the dunes and a mix of birds, many of which use the area as a stopping point during migration. The eco-system in the area is very fragile, especially for the fish in the small area of water there, and visitors are asked to take great care not to leave any food, rubbish or allow pets to roam off a leash.

One sight you may not expect to see is a line of camels, but to give tourists an authentic desert experience, a company offers guided camel rides on the dunes. The first construction on this part of the island was the Maspalomas Lighthouse which was erected at the end of the nineteenth century. It took four years to build after some initial difficulties with the foundations and rises to a height of 56 meters to warn ships travelling to and from the island and along the African coast.