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Canel Tunnel
Barranco Seco
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Followed Tenerife Sunflower walk 22 from Punta del Hidalgo up the Barranco del Rio following a water channel up the right hand side of the barranco until it reached its source. In places it was a tight squeeze to get past over hanging rock if you didn't want to walk on the outside edge with a drop down the left hand side into the valley below.
After 2 hours, just as it was starting to rain we reached Batan de Abajo so stopped in the only bar for a drink, hoping that the rain would stop, but it didn't, so we set off again for Bejia and then down the Barranco Seco (meaning dry valley) in the wet to return to Punta del Hidalgo.
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For today's walk we travelled to the north eastern end of the island to the village of Chamorga and followed the sunflower route 29 down the Barranco de Roque Bermejo to Roque Bermejo, a scattering of houses by a small harbour whose only contact with the outside world, besides the path, is the sea.
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Roque Bermejo
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Climbed up to the Faro de Anaga lighthouse where we stopped for our lunch before following the route 29 alternative, around the coast to Las Palmas and Draguillo then turned inland to return to Chamorga via a hard slog up the barrano to a col and down into the village.
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Today we walked to the top of the third highest peak on Tenerife Guajara 2712m following the Sunflower route 12, but the opposite way around, as we preferred to ascend the difficult section via Degollada de Ucanca pass rather than descend it. On a section where vertigo may be a problem its better to be looking up with the mountain in front than looking down into the valley below!
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Sunflower recommend than this walk should not be attempted in unsettled weather.
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Having spent a few minutes locating the start of the track we set off with clear blue skies all around. As we reached the half way point clouds started to roll in over some of the adjoining peaks but Guajara remained clear.
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On reaching the col, a group of Germans appeared in front of us and we decided to tag on behind, as they seemed to have an experienced leader who knew the path. Although the group travelled slower than we would on our own it was well worth the inconvenience as we didn't have to concentrate on finding our way over the difficult section.
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Dianne
on Guajara
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As we neared the top the clouds came down and light hail started to fall, the excellent views promised were quite obscured though visibility was not so poor as to cause concern
After a short stop for diner we left the group and made the way down an obvious track by ourselves, with the hail slowly turning to rain. A morning of bright sunshine had turned very quickly to rain.
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For today's outing we created a circular walk by cobbling together parts of routes 27 and 25 from the Sunflower Book.
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Parking at Taganana we made our way up out of the village and on to the hill above. After going too far along a track we retraced our steps and found a path off to the right that looked possible, so took it, this proved to be OK and we Zigzagged our way up the valley, finally emerging at the col.
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Below us was the valley of Afur into which we slowly ascended, stopping at the local bar for a drink and our lunch before continuing down the path to Playa del Tamadite. A small stone house near the beach is in use and campers are setting up their tents, on the beach, behind stone wind breaks. The book says that to swim here would be suicidal, looking at the breaking waves the would be correct!
After sitting to enjoy the sea view, we continued by climbing up the coastal path that heads out east and following it as it made its way to Taganana.
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Looking down on
Playa del Tamadite
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Today we followed route 30 in the Sunflower book. Starting at Igueste we climbed out of the town and took the short detour to the semaphore station. Returned back up the track to make out way across the ridge and into Barranco de Zapata which we descended. The book says not to follow the barranco down to the sea but we did and enjoyed our lunch in the small bay, completely cut off from the outside world.
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Punta de Antequere
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Returned back up the barranco until we could head off east and pick up the track over the top of a ridge and along a cliff path to Playa de Antequera. Playa de Antequere is only accessible by path and boat, a number of people had used the latter to get into the bay for a picnic and some seemed to have taken over abandoned harbour buildings for their own use.
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Back up the Barranco de Antequere, crossing and re-crossing the dry bed until we reached the pass at the top and the path between Igueste and Las Casillas. Turned up the path to Las Casillas for a short way to gain a view point before turning and making our descent to Lomo Bermejo and walking back along the road to Igueste.
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Today we returned to Punta del Hidalgo to walk to Las Carboneras via Chinamada.
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For the first part of the walk we followed Sunflower route 23 up the Barranco del Rio and then on up to Chinamada where we took the path out to the miriador Era de las Amacigas, returning over the top of the hill to Chinamada.
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To Las Carboneras we walked along the road arriving there in time for lunch.
After lunch we returned to Chinamada on a foot path via Las Escaleras following Sunflower route 23 extension. As we reached Chinamada the fine weather that we had enjoyed all morning turned to drizzle, but not heavy enough to encourage us to take shelter for more than a couple of minutes.
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Cave houses
Chinamada
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Returned to Punta del Hidalgo along the same route that we had come up.
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We had intended today to return to the Aganana peninsular but as we left La Laguna the clouds were low on the hills and it started to spit with rain. We therefore decided, looking around, that the only real option was a walk on the north coast so we returned whence we had come and drove on to Puerto de la Cruz, parked in the Commercial Centre.
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Following Sunflower route 1 we walked out to the east of the town using coastal paths and up to the Cafe Vista Paraiso which is unfortunately shut on Sundays.
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After lunch in the abandoned terraces of Finca El Ancon we returned to Puerto de la Cruz along the same paths.
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Missed our walk yesterday because we had planned to go out to the east of Santa Cruz and climb up the Barranco de Tahodio, the reverse of Sunflower walk 21. Spent an hour in traffic jams in Santa Cruz before discovering that there had been a major mud slide caused by the torrential rain - 225mm in 4 hours. Gave up and spent the day in Los Cristianos instead.
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Today we decided that we would be better off in the opposite direction, improved weather was forecast coming in from the west and so we set off for Los Silos to walk route 21 in the Sunflower book.
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Although it was dry at the start, after a short while if started to rain and the skies looked blacker, we wondered if we were doing the right thing. However, it soon stopped and we continued on our way up.
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Instead of following the walk back down, we continued along the Erjos track but when we reached the second La Lavaderos turn off (reverse route 17) the sign said that we were 3 hours from Erjos and 2 1/2 hours from Los Silos, we therefore decided to take the path down instead of continuing on to Erjos, even though it seem the times were inaccurate.
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As we descended the well maintained path the sun started to shine making for a very pleasant stroll.
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Some sun at last. Awoke this morning with only a few clouds in the sky and those on the side of Teide so decided to take the opportunity for a walk inside the caldera following route 9 in the Sunflower book and route 4 of the National Park Walks.
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Teide
across a Canada
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We left the car at Parador de las Canada and caught the bus back to El Portillo from were we started the walk.
The route is not difficult following a track all the way with the caldera rim on our left hand side.
Arrived at Parador in good time and so after a drink in the cafe we did Sunflower walk 11 as an encore! Taking our time to view the caves and the spectacular rock formations.
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For our last walk we save what is probably the toughest on the island, a 1300m ascent up Mount Teide to a height of 3600m, to go the last 150m needs a permit that we didn't have.
The first part of the walk up to 2750m was easy with the path following a road track, but a chill wind blew in our faces and we wondered what it would be like when we got higher. But we needn't have worried as the mountain now sheltered us from the worst of the wind and the effort kept us warm. We made our way up a steep winding rocky path with hardly a break until we reached the Refugio Alta Vista at 3200m in time for lunch.
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Refugio
Altavista
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The were lucky to find a place to sit, in time honoured tradition the Germans had beaten us there and taken over most of the places, spreading tea towels with their picnic laid out on the seats. After our rest we continued on for the final ascent
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Guajara
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As we climbed we started to feel not only the effort but also the altitude as what would normally have been a hard but normal climb became a real slog. Parts of the path were covered in snow but the effort was keeping us warm and we were pleased when we finally reached the base of Teide's cone, from where we contoured across to the top of the cable car lift. We had hoped that there might have been a cafe there, but no such luck.
Although we were supposed to need a permit to go to the top, and a ranger was making checks at the official access path, tourists who had travelled up on the cable car were going up on an unofficial path 200m further on without anyone stopping them, we didn't join them.
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Sat to admire the views across the Teide Caldera, the rest of the island was mostly covered in cloud. We could make out the distant island of Gran Canaria peaking though the clouds. Much refreshed we started to make our way back down, which was much easier on the lungs though the knees took a bit of a pounding. We took a short detour to look at an ice cave where in days gone by was packed with ice snow in winter to make ice for use in summer. We also detoured to Montana Blanc to see the view, but it was not as good as the one we had already seen from higher up.
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After what seemed ages along the track we finally reached the car park again, much to our relief.
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