El Hierro: Ermita de la Virgin de Los Reyes - Mirador de Bascos - El Sabinar tree

This probably is a very scenic hike, but unfortunately during some parts of this hike there was so much fog that we could hardly see each other. Well, the fog also added a mysterious flavor to the surroundings so it was not all that bad. There are some really good viewpoints where you have a great view of the El Golfo valley (as I noticed during a partly overlapping hike from Pozo de la Salud to the Malpaso peak a couple of days later), but all we saw during this hike was a grey wall of fog. The original track was downloaded from http://senderosdelhierro.com/, but we did some modifications. We did not start at the Ermita de Los Reyes as in the original track, but retrospectively I can recommend to actually start at the Ermita de Los Reyes since the part from Ermita de Los Reyes to our starting point is via a not-so-interesting asphalt road. The Mirador de Bascos was closed and fenced off because it was damaged and is not safe to visit anymore. Nevertheless, the location itself will probably give you good views at clear days. The next noteworthy sight is the famous El Sabinar tree, the Juniper tree that became the trademark of El Hierro. These Juniper trees have been blown into these unusual shapes by the winds that continuously terrorize this part of El Hierro. Not only the most famous, fenced off, and protected version of this tree can be seen here, but also many of its family members in the wild as well. The second modification that we made was after the El Sabinar tree, where we left the unpaved road leading to El Sabinar to visit a small cave. This small and not very special cave is illuminated by a small open cone in its roof. We decided not to walk back to the unpaved road but to go off-road a bit and pick up a track shown on OpenStreetMap a bit ahead. It involved climbing a stone wall with barbwire fence, but nothing too difficult. Just before we reached the Ermita de la Virgin de Los Reyes there was supposed to be another cave but it was locked. Next to the Ermita de la Virgin de Los Reyes there are also some caves that may have served as housing or cave churches. Walking back from the Ermita to the point where we started via the asphalt road was uphill and a bit boring. 4 out of 5 stars for the hike. After the hike we drove to the Orchilla lighthouse and the impressive lava cave Cueva Del Acantilado. You enter the cave near the lighthouse and exit again about 150 m further. The cave may be a bit difficult to find because it is not indicated so a GPS device may be helpful. Make sure to take a good flashlight! We had a look at the Orchilla beach area as well, a paved beach area where you can enter the water. Subsequently we continued our trip to the black sandy Verodal beach, allegedly dangerous because of falling rocks on the beach and strong currents in the sea. We didn’t have time to relax on the beach anyway and drove back to our accommodation in Isora via the El Golfo area.