Dunas de Corralejo at dusk, in Fuerteventura, Spain.
We first pass by car, on our way to take the ferry to the Isla de Lobos. We do not know if we will see them again. This unusual landscape accompanies us for a while. Left and right, right and left — we look around as two strips of white sand follow the direction of the road. The ocean to our right adds up to this unexpected vision.
We find ourselves only 97 kilometers away from the coast of the African continent, where the western border of the largest desert in the world dives into the Atlantic Ocean. That tier of land must have seen the British, the Italian and the French archeologists stealing Egyptian treasures. But it must also be witness to those souls that await to be ferried to Europe today, being exposed to such an uncertain crossing. What a relief and an incredible emotion it must be to see the ocean possibly for the very first time, after so much sand!
The increasing desertification that displaced the Mahos
What environmental conditions produced these dunes in the north-west of the island? They were mainly originated from pulverised shells and shellfish, and probably date back to more than 10,000 years ago. The area is recognised as the National Park of the Dunas de Corralejo since 1994, while Fuerteventura was declared UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2009.
Fossilised beehives beneath the sands tell us of a time past when the water level went 120 meters below today’s and the temperatures were lower. Following the Würm glaciation 18,000 years ago, there existed a single island that was made up of Lanzarote, Furteventura and the smaller islands. The vegetation was greener and the African coast was only some 60 kilometers away. The geologist and paleontologist Francisco García-Talavera Casañas and the botanist Lázaro Sánchez-Pinto explain that the flora and the fauna were different yet not so different at the time. Remains of various birds, small mammals, scrabbles, sea snails and shellfish from different historical periods were also encountered.
These remains show how these animal species had been adapting to changing climatic conditions.
It seems that the Mahos, the first inhabitants of Fuerteventura, only arrived to the island between 700 and 300 B.C., finding a more arid and warmer island. When the atmosphere is limpid, the coasts of the Canary Islands are visible from what is now the port of Tarfaya in the south-west of Morocco. The increasing desertification had probably pushed them to leave the African continent behind and put out to sea. This population had in fact been in contact with some of the great civilizations from the Mediterranean Basin — the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians and the Romans.
Aerial view of the Dunas de Corralejo, in Furteventura, Spain.
A unique biome a few meters away from the Atlantic Ocean
Well, we had never seen the desert before. We arrive at dusk, at a time the sand has already become cold yet not yet humid. We enter this biome that lays a few meters from the ocean. We walk barefoot and soon sit down. The wet beach towels from the day do not keep us warm. A family in a caravan switch the lights on, as they prepare for the night parked along the road. The children excitedly rush back and forth the confined interior.
The wind designs patterns on the vastness of the desert that here is pristine, free of the green sprouts that cover a good part of this landscape. The colossal hotels that carelessly emerged from the sands, cannot be spotted from here. Only the red lights of the wind turbines blink from afar, and the volcanic cones of the Montaña Roja, the Montaña Pajarita and the Montaña de Mal Nombre now appear mildly violet.
Sources: ABC Ciencia, Ciencia Canaria, Dialnet.