A corniche is a road on the side of a cliff or mountain, with the ground rising on one side of the roadway and falling away on the other. That simple definition fails to fully convey what it is like to cycle along one of these roads with a steep drop lurking on one side.
The GC-500 road in the south of Gran Canaria is a very scenic route that hugs the coastline westward as far as the holiday resort of Taurito. A lovely cycle on the way west as you are on the mountain side of the road (see this video: • Gran Canaria Cycling: ... ).
As I've said before in some of my videos, I love cycling in mountains but am afraid of heights! This hasn't proven to be a problem in the past, but when I climbed up to the road to return to Maspalomas I just froze with fear at the nightmarish drop on my right. My legs turned to jelly, and strange things happened to my lower trunk body parts! I had to give up and return to Taurito.
I was now faced with a problem as to how to return to Maspalomas. The only other route out of Taurito goes north to the GC-1 motorway, but bikes are forbidden to use it. Thankfully, a bus driver agreed to take the bike in the luggage area and dropped me as far as Arguineguín.
This is just something that I'll have to watch out for in future. Routes like this will hopefully be rare, but I'll have to look at ways to tackle this fear if it stops me attaining my dreams.
Shot on a helmet-mounted GoPro10 camera on the 3rd June 2024.
eBike hired from Scooter & Bike Rental:
scooterandbike...