The Canary Islands have long been a popular port of call among Europeans in search of a dose of vitamin C during the cold winter months, with their sub-tropical climates guaranteeing the warmest temperatures in all of the continent. But arriving to Lanzarote—the wildest of the string of eight Spanish islands hovering a few dozen miles off the West African mainland—on a mild December morning, it soon becomes clear this isn’t your typical warm-weather escape.

If pristine white sand beaches and rambling, picture-postcard villages were what you were coming for, though, you’d be missing the point. Lanzarote has never promised to offer the trite box-ticking you might expect from a Mediterranean island hotspot. For one, its landscape is harsh and volcanic: emerging from the breakup of the Africa

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