Degollada del Gran Valle a Cofete
A waymarked trail, the PR FV 55, climbing from Gran Valle to the Degollada de Cofete pass at 343 metres and then dropping to the hamlet and the beach of Cofete, inside the Jandía Natural Park. It measures 6.7 kilometres with 303 metres of ascent, is rated moderate and takes around two hours. It starts at the car park on the dirt track that links Morro Jable with Punta de Jandía, in the municipality of Pájara.
The walk sets off from the car park on the unsurfaced track between Morro Jable and Punta de Jandía, some 500 metres beyond the village cemetery, and works its way up Gran Valle between two commanding massifs, Morro de Mungía and Cuchillo del Ciervo. The country is arid, and the plant that holds out here is the cardón de Jandía (Euphorbia handiensis), a species found nowhere else and regarded as the botanical emblem of Fuerteventura. Beside the Casas de Gran Valle lie the remains of an aboriginal settlement of dry stone, reused after the conquest: this was one of the earliest routes to link the Sotavento and Barlovento coasts.
At the top, on a pass that is always windy, comes the view that earns the effort: on one side the great arc of Cofete, what is left of the huge gravitational landslide that carried away the summits here some fourteen million years ago; on the other, the wide open U of Gran Valle. The descent passes the house that the German engineer Gustav Winter had built in 1946 and ends at the beach, near the modest cemetery half buried in the sand. This is a dangerous shore, open to the north, with strong currents and trade winds, so take great care before going into the water. To get back, either leave a second vehicle in Cofete or retrace the trail on foot.
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