Winter sun in island hideaway

Mar 8 2009 Sunday Sun

NIGEL GREEN feels the heat on a fought-over family holiday to Fuerteventura . . .

IT had been a long, hard winter and it was fantastic just to walk barefoot along a sandy beach on a warm, sunny day.

The water may have still been a bit cool as the waves rolled onto the shore and washed up our legs.

But this was the middle of February, and 72F felt like a tropical heat-wave after four months of freezing cold weather.

Me, my wife Diane and our 12-year-old son Harry were on Fuerteventura.

It is one of the Canary Islands and is situated in the Atlantic, around 60 miles from North Africa and alongside the better-known islands of Tenerife and Lanzarote.

We had been warned that Fuerteventura is barren and wind-swept.

Such comments helped fuel our now customary, annual argument over where to go on holiday.

I always want to get away in winter and I’m happy to go anywhere that is a bit different.

My wife wants guaranteed heat but is not keen on flying long-distance.

Fuerteventura, I argued, would make the ideal compromise.

It is a four-hour flight from Newcastle but, unlike mainland Spain, is far enough south to be hot in February.

My wife was still nervous about heading to somewhere she knew little about.

I was determined to put her mind at ease . . . but my hopes were soon dashed.

As our plane came into land in Fuerteventura, it suddenly had to abort the landing.

I am not a nervous flyer, but I couldn’t help wondering why we were suddenly climbing quite sharply.

The pilot soon told us the reason . . . there were dogs on the runway.

My wife looked concerned and I couldn’t help thinking I was losing the argument over our choice of destination.

But, canine calamities aside, within half an hour, the plane had circled and landed safely.

Getting through customs and collecting our luggage was quick and easy.

Our hotel was a one-hour drive from the airport, near the southern resort of Morro Jable.

Fuerteventura is not as popular as Tenerife and Lanzarote. If truth be told, this was why I chose it.

The island is 65 miles long and 20 miles across but has a population of just 75,000.