Garajonay: the forest that outlived its own era
You drive up from the coast of La Gomera in mid twenties heat and full sun, and twenty minutes of hairpins later you are inside a cloud, among moss covered trees, with wet ground underfoot and not a single drop of rain falling.
That is the laurel forest, and Garajonay National Park preserves the best surviving example of it in the Old World.
A forest that arrived late into our era
The sentence that explains it best is this: the laurel forest is not a transplanted tropical jungle, it is a survivor.
During the Tertiary period, this kind of humid evergreen forest covered practically the whole Mediterranean region. Then the climate changed, the basin dried out, and the forest disappeared from Europe and North Africa.
Not from the islands. Here, at certain altitudes and on the windward slopes, conditions stayed stable enough for it to survive. What you see in Garajonay is a landscape that has been extinct on the continent for millions of years.
Why it is wet when it is not raining
Here is the mechanism, and understanding it changes the walk.
The trade winds bring humid air off the Atlantic. When it hits the island it rises, cools and forms the sea of clouds, the layer that looks like a white ocean from above.
The forest lives inside that layer. And it does not wait for rain: it combs the fog. Leaves and moss intercept the suspended droplets, which merge, run down branches and trunks and end up in the soil.
This is called horizontal rain, and on many days it delivers more water than ordinary rainfall does. That is why the ground is soaked with clear sky above it.
The numbers, and what they tell you
3,984 hectares, and the park touches every municipality on La Gomera. For a small island, that is an enormous proportion.
A national park since 25 March 1981, the fourth in the Canaries.
A World Heritage Site since 1986.
Alto de Garajonay, 1,487 metres, the island's highest point. The park's lowest point is 650 metres, at the hamlet of El Cedro.
That last figure is the most revealing: the park starts at 650 metres because below that height the forest cannot sustain itself. The laurel forest does not cover the island, it occupies a band.
How to visit without picking the wrong day
The commonest mistake is choosing the sunny day. It sounds sensible, and it is exactly backwards:
The forest is better in fog. In full sun it is a pretty wood; with the cloud inside it, it is something else. If you get to choose, choose the grey day.
It is considerably colder up there than on the coast, and the humidity sharpens it. The difference from the beach can be well over ten degrees.
The ground is slippery. Moss, roots and wet rock all year round, summer included.
The visitor centre is at Juego de Bolas, outside the park, and it is worth the stop before you go in.
The El Cedro area is the most rewarding for a first walk, and from the Alto de Garajonay on a clear day you can see the neighbouring islands rising above the sea of clouds.
To plan the rest of your day on the island there is our guide to La Gomera. And if you want to compare, the Anaga laurel forest on Tenerife is the same kind of woodland on another island, with a different character.
Sources
Garajonay National Park data: 3,984 hectares, declared a national park on 25 March 1981, inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1986, Alto de Garajonay at 1,487 metres and a minimum park altitude of 650 metres at El Cedro.
Justification for the designation: the best known example of Old World laurel forest, a relict woodland from the Tertiary.
Cover photo: Garajonay National Park, La Gomera. Photograph: Николай Максимович, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
