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| CSB kiting at Flag Beach |
6-13 June 2018
Jess very kindly drove Shaune (Cooke) and I to Gatwick at an unhealthy 03.15 - for our Easyjet flight to Fuerteventura. Luckily Jess insisted we left plenty of time for the journey - because the M23 was shut for construction work and North Terminal was rammed with Easyjet holidaymakers grabbing June sunshine flights.
Shaune had persuaded me that we needed hotel food for the first three days, before Henry (Sugden) and Dik (Kingdon Jones) joined us - so we collected our Berlingo “van” and drove north for 30mins along the arid coast road to Corralejo. The Riu Palace Tres Islas Hotel is sited in the Corralejo Natural Park - a 10.5km x 2.5km stretch of windswept white sand; how on earth did they ever get planning permission?!
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| Flag Beach at sunset - viewed from our hotel balcony! |
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| Riu Palace Hotel |
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| Shaune and I check in - with the obligatory glass of Cava! |
Anyway, the hotel was amusingly glitzy and full of German, Brit and Polish OAP tour groups. Our twin room had a perfect view of “Flag Beach” - which was to be our kitesurf location for the next eight days.
After finding lunch in the less-than-attractive Corralejo town, we headed out to the kitesurf centre at Flag Beach where Shaune rented kit and I paid my 30 Euro “insurance” for a week’s safety boat cover. Time to hit the turquoise water with a steady 14 knot breeze and see if we can both remember how to kitesurf.
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| "which way round should the helmet go...?" |
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| Shaune ain't no beginner! |
Luckily we had a good first session: 2 hours completely finishing us off! Although Shaune had billed himself as a “beginner”, he was very much in control and able to stay upwind happily - key to avoiding the reef at low tide and the long “walk of shame” back to the kite centre if you’re blown too far downwind.
That evening we discovered that the Riu hotel specialises in FOOD! It has a massive dinner buffet that required at least five return trips..... and a glass of wine of course. Huge sleep for jet-lagged Shaune (LA not LGW) and a few stretches on the beach for me to try and generate an appetite for the vast breakfast buffet....!
The two days followed a similar pattern that we had set on day one: eat vast breakfast to while away the morning, drive five mins to Flag Beach at midday (too much kit to carry for me to walk), kite for 3-4 hours, drag back to hotel for a swim & shower, huge dinner, collapse, repeat! Perfect arrangement, perfect wind - and two happy/ shattered 50+ year olds!!
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| Shaune takes air |
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| happy!! |
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| CSB airborne :) |
Saturday we checked out of the hotel and moved 10 mins up the road to our AirBnB apartment in a housing complex on a slight hill on the outskirts of Corralejo. Henry & Dik joined us at midday, and then off we went to Flag Beach for more playing.
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| Dik K-J hits the water |
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| Henry carves hard (note hydrofoil behind!) |
The next four days were very similar; the only variables were what we bought in the Supermercado for supper (beer, wine, bbq - in that order), how big a breakfast we could rustle up, and what size kite to fly when we got to the beach! I used all three of the kites I took: 13m/ 11m/9m.
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| Henry & Dik using a kite-pump to get the barbie going! |
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| chilli squid |
We were super lucky: Shaune and I managed eight consecutive days of kitesurfing. I dropped Henry off at the airport on Tuesday morning in the rain, and the remaining three went for a tourist drive across to Cotillo - with stunning surf beach. Good kiting there but no rescue service! The weather cleared and - despite my bruised ribs from a failed jump two days ago - we had an awesome last session.
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