Damien Enright: Splitting the silence of the upper valley in La Gomera

Splitting the silence of the upper valley in La Gomera, the sharp crack of a rifle echoes between the steep, inaccessible scree slopes, patterned in horizontal or vertical layers of volcanic rock, red or grey or a dozen variations of each. Even where one rock face is persistent, it is often fractured by lava flows or ’’cañadas’’, the paths of water streams often dried out for centuries or millennia but, given a unique occasion of heavy rain, capable of reappearing as fast-flowing rivulets or waterfalls.

The rifle cracks are from the guns of the Seprona division of the Guardia Civil that manages nature conservation across the Spanish mainland and islands.