La Gomera offers a uniquely different ‘vibe’ from other Canary islands in one important respect. Apart from its unique cloud forests, unspoiled beaches, walking paths and absence of glitzy resorts, a distinctive laid back feeling abides, writes Damien Enright

Stepping out of Central Station, Belfast, at about 7pm on the Saturday before last, I saw, at the end of the street, a murmuration of starlings wheeling about the sky.

IN ALMOST every email I’ve received from Ireland, the UK, or Scotland for the last three months, my correspondents mention somewhere that the rain is beating on the windows as they write, writes Damien Enright

If Irish walkers keep coming to La Gomera in the numbers that arrived with the Bishopstown Hillwalking Club this week, they’ll wear down the paths and stone-made steps climbing the mountains out of the fecund valleys, routes laid down hundreds of years ago.

I DO like small communities. The population of this village on La Gomera, where I am currently escaping from the mad rush of Courtmacsherry, Co Cork (population approx. 350) is circa 60. 

I PASSED through Los Cristianos in southern Tenerife last week on my way to my youngest son’s wedding on the island of La Gomera. 

Last week, my regular column, now in its 25th year, returned to the Outdoor page after appearing in the County supplement since August 2012.

ONE unseasonably grey afternoon during this year’s unusually bright summer, the kilometre-long beach near our West Cork home was deserted but for a single figure in the distance, walking along the top level of the tideline.

I WAS not surprised to read a genetic study of the present day inhabitants of the Canary Islands, revealed that the natives of La Gomera — our second home for over 30 years — retain more of the aboriginal DNA that the inhabitants of the other islands.

Certain characteristics distinguish the small island of La Gomera which I recently visited from the larger resort islands of the Canaries.

SPAIN: WALKING IN LA GOMERA, CANARY ISLANDS

THE Canary Islands are universally associated with sun, sea and sand but they have many other attractions and the sheer diversity of the islands is striking.

Seen from above, or from the middle distance, there is something apocalyptic about a scattering of palm trees 50 feet tall standing stark in a vast swathe of blackened landscape.

We arrived at night and woke next morning to hear the familiar music of the fish van passing up the valley, soulful Latin American music issuing from speakers on the roof.

THE advances in nature in Ireland during our 30-day absence are striking but it is that time of year when, almost overnight, buds open and the bush which, yesterday, was bare branches, suddenly wears a shawl of green.

I WILL miss life at the feeder when I travel abroad to hide away and finish a book about west Cork.

THIS morning, dawdling knee-deep in the water at the edge of the port beach at Valle Gran Rey on the Canary Island of La Gomera, I remembered standing in the same spot many years ago with a skinny boy, now a giant of 30 years, and looking at a big manta ray lying in the sand at our feet.

IT IS to be hoped the threatened Canarian giant lizards will not fall victim to the likes of Jereme James, charged with smuggling three endangered iguana into the USA using his false leg.

AT NIGHT, the sea in La Gomera moaned and spoke with many voices. We could hear it from our house amongst the bananas, as we lay sweating on our sheets.

FIRST MORNING back from the ever-lovely island of La Gomera, in the Canaries, and it’s porridge with figs for breakfast; fresh figs purloined from a roadside tree as we drove across the island to catch the boat to Tenerife for our flight home.

GOMERA shops offer 20 island walking guides in German and just one in English — the latter costs 14 and falls apart.