Tenerife roaming

[raykilhams]

Well we're retired now, so it's time to spend a bit more time away than usual to discover a few more walking destinations in Europe.
To begin we decided to spend a month away in Tenerife in Jan/Feb 2018 and so I planned accordingly i.e scouring my Cicerone Walking in Tenerife guidebook and checking weather conditions. The walking appeared varied , from flattish coastal walks to high mountain hikes ( sea level to 12000ft), and so we packed to suit all weathers....thank goodness.
We left a wet, windy, cold Edinburgh and arrived in a very warm 24c Tenerife where, after arriving at our hotel and buying some wine, olives and savouries, we sat on our balcony soaking up the literal sunshine while enjoying a glass of the liquid kind......did we really need to bring fleeces and coats?.

The Walking.

After getting our bearings and realising that there are just so many good walks/hikes/ climbs and scrambles on Tenerife we decided to concentrate on the north west, around the Teno region and leave the other areas for another time.
Walk 1. The PR tf 65 . Puerta Santiago to Santiago de Teide.

This was a really good, straightforward walk, all up hill passed banana plantations on the lower slopes to all manner of fruit trees, many with fruit still hanging on them higher up. The scenery was magnificent, the sun was shining and it was hot. We climbed higher the beauty of the mountains with their array of sharp and rounded peaks inundated with caves , made us revaluate our previous ideas of Tenerife as just a hot , beachy tourist attraction . It really is a walkers paradise.
All in all a fairly easy walk , although most people walk down rather than up, but a beer always tastes better after a bit more effort. And so after reaching Santiago we sat in the shade of a bar enjoying a cold beer and a plate of olives before taking the bus back down to the port.

Walk2. PR 65 The almond route.Santiago to Arguayo.
Took the 8.30am bus from the port up to Santiago( the start/finish of a number of our walks) , got off at the church and immediately felt the cold maybe 10-15c colder than down in the port. So out of the backpacks came our fleeces, coats, hats and gloves and boy we needed them for the weather changed and dark clouds and a thick mist came down lowering the temp. even more. By the time we reached about 4000ft and traisped across the lava flows from Chineryo the rain lashed down( torrential) and we were less than half way to Arguayo. Fortunately for us the rain did stop on occasion giving us a brief respite and an opportunity to lift our heads to admire the surrounding countryside. But alas the greyness of cloud and mist had reduced visibility to maybe 50m,so there was little to see. By the time we walked into Arguayo the rain had eased off and we settled down in the bus shelter to take the next bus back to Santiago and down to the port. It appeared, according to the timetable that we would only have to wait 25mins , not to bad. And then the real rain began to fall , it was torrentially torrential ( if there is such an expression , if not there should be), and the temp. began to fall further. We sat in the shelter and began to feel the cold as it wormed its way through our clothing and boots.Half an hour turned into an hour and still no bus and the rain continued to pour down. I looked up to the skies around Arguayo but they were black , full of rain, so we just had to sit it out. Surely the bus would come soon , and it did , and as I stepped out of the shelter, into the rain, I waved my arm and the bus slowed up. But, much to our dismay it didn't stop, the driver just opened his window and shouted ' back in 30mins'. Oh well such is life, so I gave Arlene my fleece, as she was feeling the cold more than I was, and stamped my feet a bit more to warm them up.
To cut a long story short ( or a very long story less long)the bus driver was true to his word and we caught the bus which took us all the way back down to the port where the sun was shining. And as we sat in our shorts basking in the sun on our balcony sipping cold wine we reflected on how it's not only Scotland that can have four seasons in one day'
I think at this point it is fair to say that it is important to obtain an accurate bus timetable , for some of the smaller villages only have one or two buses each day. Suffice to say we never had any problems after that walk and didn't experience any further heavy rainfall.
We did several other walks in around Santiago and the sun shone and the views around the mountains and the snow capped Teide were magnificent.

La Roque.

Clouds over Teide. Erjos to Santiago.

The Almond Walk. A festival is held every Jan/Feb.

Walk 3. The Masca Gorge.
What a walk/scramble this was . We left early in the morning on the bus from the sunny Puerta de Santiago to a drizzly, wet Santiago de Teide and on to Masca. There were a couple of organized walking groups on the bus and so we decided to stop in a bar for a coffee, hoping that the groups would start walking and get well ahead of us and also to give the drizzle a chance to stop . And so I ordered coffee and we sat down thinking that the groups must be well on their way , but no about five minutes later they all crowded into the bar just milling around. Oh well no problem, so we downed our coffee quickly and walked out into the drizzle and made our way down the steep , wet and slippery path to the gorge.
Within 20mins the drizzle stopped, the sky cleared and the sun came out. We passed a group of french students and several other people and then seemed to have the gorge to ourselves ( which is the best way)climbing over and crawling under huge boulders.
I have to admit that there were times when you had to stop to get your bearings as there were no actual signs. On more than one occasion we found people no knowing which way to go( the gorge is narrow, high cliffs either side huge rocks laying in the barranco which had a fair amount of water flowing through it due to heavy rain). We were approached by two french men asking us which way to go , as the path seem to disappear into the flooded but shallow barranco. I assured them there was no other path and myself and Arlene just walked through the water (4-6ins deep), and they followed.
We carried on a bit further then stopped for some biscuits and were surprised when a couple of blue tits flew down and were tempted to land on Arlene's hand to take a few crumbs
. We continued on our way scrambling ,walking and wading until we reached Masca bay where we removed our wet clothes, ( Arlene had slipped over and fell in the water so most of her clothes were wet and my socks and trousers were wet ) and changed into our swimming gear. It was great sitting with the sun shining down, enjoying our lunch with the towering cliffs of Los Gigantes behind us looking across the clear blue waters to the island of La Gomera while we waited for the ferry to take us back to the port of Los Gigantes. By the time the ferry came our wet clothes had dried off and after an enjoyable boat ride back to the port we were soon back on our balcony enjoying a cold beer.

Masca. Entrance to the Gorge on left.

Masca Gorge. Had to crawl under hole in boulder where stream runs through.

Feeding Blue Tits in Gorge. Sorry about the blur.

A bit of a scramble.

Masca bay at the bottom of the Gorge.

Making our way back from the Gorge … after a swim.

Walks from Erjos
We went to Erjos a small village high in the Teno region and although it always started off pretty cold early in the morning within an hour of walking the sun would rise up over the mountains giving off its heat and off would come the coats and fleeces.

Clouds over Teide. Erjos to Santiago.

On the Chinyero Lava. Almond walk.

Poser.

Is it a Turtle or is it a dinosaur....no, no not Arlene...the rocks ..look at the rock formation.

Erjos to Los Silos.
This was not by any means a long walk but probably the best all round walk we did . The flowers and fruit trees , the small farmhouses, the cliffs and the walk down the steep sided barranco into the back of Los Silos with the multi coloured bouganvillea trailing over the walls. As we approached the main road a bus was waiting at the stop so we rushed the last 50m just as the driver decided to pull away but fortunately he saw us and stopped. We caught the bus to Icod del los Vinos where we had a stroll around the town before going back to our hotel.

Erjos to Los Silos. A chilly start...fleeces and trousers.

From Erjos.

From Erjos just passed Las Cuevas Negras into the Gorge. Notice fleece now off.

Into Los Silos. Temp. rising down to Vest and shorts.

Erjos to Masca.
This walk took us past farmland up high onto a mountain ridge and down into Masca . At Masca we stopped at a bar for cake and coffee and after realising that the bus back to Santiago wouldn't arrive for a couple of hours we decided to walk up the winding and snaking road to Santiago. Now it took us two hours to reach the top of the narrow, winding road and although it was steep it didn't take too much out of us and surprisingly we almost beat an orange tourist bus to the top which we had passed near the village of Masca. It appears that the road often has traffic jams on it for two reasons , firstly because it is narrow buses often have trouble passing each other and causes hold ups and secondly because rocks and boulders often fall onto the road creating their own problems( and that was the case when we walked up the road). Arrived back at Santiago and still had to wait for a bus but had an ice cream and sat on the sunny side of the road ( the difference in temp. from the shaded side was quite remarkable).

Trekking to Masca.

Looking toward Masca on the walk from Erjos.

Mount Teide . Erjos to Masca.

Enjoyed a few other walks in the Teno region and enjoyed them immensely.

Scenery to die for.

High in Teno with La Gomera floating above a shimmering sea.

Magical rock formations.

La Roque.

P S. This report is a wee bit late as it is now Jan. 2019 and in only two weeks we are off to Tenerife again for a month, this time staying in Puerta de la Cruz. Hopefully the walking will be just as good as last year. Another thing I believe the Masca Gorge has been closed since April due to rock falls but I have read of walkers walking down the gorge in the last few months.

[Sgurr]

Fabulous. You will enjoy the walks you can reach from the Puerta de la Cruz if they are still like they were when we went. Scottish Airports have a habit of opening husband's rucksacks en route to such destinations and grilling him as to why he needs a balaclava. Day One of your report would explain everything. In those days such officials seemed beardist to a person, but now the nation appears to have reached peak beard (or now he has got older) they are less suspicious.