The British journalist and travel writer Rebecca Jackson, specialized in “slow and sustainable adventures,” often writes for various media about how to travel without cars or planes.
This time he decided for a more difficult still and arrived in Lanzarote last January from London without a plane. "I did 3,450 kilometers without a plane," he says, specifically, with four trains and with the ferry from Cadiz. He tells it in an article in the newspaper The Telegraph.
“Each time I had more desire to avoid the stress of the airport, the crowds and the delays. I have been inspired by the television program ‘Race Across the World’, which challenges contestants to reach checkpoints without flying and rethinks the journey itself as the destination,” he explains.
Jackson made the journey with the "flight-free travel agency Byway", which calculates that, despite being ten times longer, it generated 77% less carbon emissions than flying the same route.
Of course, to come to Lanzarote without a plane, a few more days are needed. The journey took him six days crossing France and the Iberian Peninsula before embarking in Cadiz to reach the island.
Launched late last year, the trip is designed as an 18-day round trip, including six days in Lanzarote.
From London to Nimes
"I started traveling on the 9:31 Eurostar from St. Pancras station in London to Gare du Nord in Paris," explains Jackson.
The journalist explains that the day before her departure, storm Goretti had wreaked havoc on train travel, with delays and cancellations, but once in Paris, she managed to navigate the chaos to the Gare de Lyon to take a double-decker TGV InOui heading south.
Three hours later he got off in Nimes, the French city with the Roman ruins best preserved of the neighboring country. “I immersed myself in the temple of the Maison Carrée and the amphitheater and then I enjoyed one or two glasses of local wine with Brandade de Morue (creamy salted cod)”.
Nimes to Madrid
The next morning, he took the 9:01 train to Madrid (via Perpignan, Barcelona and Zaragoza). The journey took him seven hours.
Jackon highlights that this stretch “offered some of the best landscapes” such as “the infinite sea and the snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees”. Also that he took to the train “something to snack on, a book, music and podcasts: essential material”.
From his/her/their passage through Madrid, where he/she/they stayed two nights in a boutique hotel near the Royal Palace, he/she/they highlights the “aroma of chestnuts and chocolate”.
He visited the Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor, a few minutes' walk from his accommodation, and, among other things, he did a gastronomic tour, with “a lot of squid battered with lemon and aioli”, which he finished with a chocolate with churros in San Ginés.
"The first sight of Lanzarote was exciting: peaks so triangular they could be pyramids, among swirls of candy-pink clouds.”
From Madrid to Lanzarote
To get to Cadiz he took the 10:05 train and of the journey he highlights the beauty of “the sherry region”, with immaculate white buildings and rows of low and orderly vines”.
Once in the Silver Cup he boarded a Naviera Armas ferry, for a 28-hour crossing. His reservation included a private cabin with a window in the bow, but it seems that the boat trip was not as seductive as the train journeys.
“While the boat swayed on the rough waters, I felt nauseous and came to the conclusion that long ferry trips were not for me.” Especially because what he likes most about the train, he comments, is “seeing how the landscape changes,” which does not happen at sea.
Nevertheless, the first sight of land, of Lanzarote “was exciting: peaks so triangular they could be pyramids, among swirls of candy pink clouds”.
