The Femes RHS Circle has quite a steep ascent at the beginning to the highest point of the walk. It’s a maintenance track for the antenna farm so is good under foot. The route is easy to follow, but is not signposted. With photo and water breaks it took us about 4 hours. All told with a couple of optional detours it’s about 10.5km.
Directions
Follow the LZ-2 out of Arrecife all the way to the round-a-bout for Femes (the one with the huge camels in the middle). Take the third exit for Femes & Playa Blanca. Up the hill and through the village of Las Casitas. The next village is Femes, I usually park by the church, which is in the middle of about three restaurants.
Click on the map image above to open a Google map of the area in a new tab.
The Walk
From the church, look east and find the Quesería Rubicón (small cheese factory and shop). Take the lane heading round the back of Quesería Rubicón, Calle Juan Cáceres Martín, which leads onto Calle Bote and then look for Calle a Los Pozos. Don’t take Calle Barranco del Olivo.
After about 300m there is a dirt track on your left which starts to zig zag up the mountain. This is the maintenance track for the antenna farm and where the walk starts in earnest.
Follow this track up the mountain admiring the views across and down the valley as you go. As the track levels out you will see a track heading north east, following the ridgeline.
Femes RHS Circle – Detour 1
From here the maintenance track ascends again to the antenna farm. Some impressive views from here. We Also found an interesting spot, out of the wind for a water break. You can either make a small scramble round the crater rims or simply retrace your steps to the ridgeline path.
Ridgeline Path
Heading roughly north east, following the ridgeline. The path is well marked and offers some truly fantastic views. Towards the end of the ridge line you find some excavated water channels leading off the mountain. Head down towards the dirt track that runs between you and Caldero Riscado.
Femes RHS Circle – Detour 2
From the small parking area, you see a small track that leads up to the rim of Caldero Riscado. The path is outlined by large boulders. After the trip up to the rim, simply retrace your steps to the parking area.
Back To Femes
Follow the dirt track down towards the LZ-702, but at the first sharp switch back climb up onto the narrow path. Follow this path as it descends past a number of farms and small holdings. The path joins with a farm track which eventually merges with the LZ-702 just on the outskirts of Femes.
Here there is a one field’s worth where your route is along the LZ-702, so watch out of traffic. As you enter the village however you can take to the back streets of femes. There are some interesting buildings in Femes.
Femes RHS Circle – History
To read more on the history of Femes and the surrounding area, you can checkout the following sites:
The sites are in Spanish, so if it helps I have made an attempt to summarise a few topics of interest in the History section.