Just got back from a fantastic ten days in tenerife and can thoroughly
recommend it as both a holiday and walking destination.
I have to admit that walking in 30 degrees plus was never high on my list of
must-dos but it does make packing a rucksack significantly easier - no
waterproofs, no gloves, no extra socks. Just suncream, food and water.
For those who gave good info on getting up Teide, thanks but we cheated and
took the Cable Car. Initially we were put off by the permit acquisition -
there seems to be a lot of dispute in various sources about what time the
offices in Santa Cruz are open - and finally when we had gone up by cable
car and seen all the views from the miradors, there didnt seem a lot of
point going up the final 100m to the summit. We later found out from a
local that most Spanish and Tenerifians just wait until the permi-checkers
have gone home at 5pm and do sunset and sunrise ascents anyway(but you didnt
hear this from me ;-))
The Gorge walk from Masca down to the coast rivals any other gorges I have
done. Its not especially high, hard or rocky but it just has very
interesting elements - water running even in summer, tropical
plants(including evil prickly pears, the spines which are still embedded in
my hands), high sides and little human use. It is especially nice to reach
the coast and be able to jump in the sea.
We also managed Guajara which I think came in at 2718m and Montana
Grande(which was slightly less) but nearly got very seriously dehydrated due
to a combination of 34 degs. and land radiation. It is also an experience
trying to walk uphill on slippy volcanic gravel. Views are as always
worthwhile and even on a hazy day, you can see a long way.
A warning about Tenerife - they are beginning to charge for the popular
walks. the Barranco del Infierno now carries a 3 euro charge to walk it and
it wasnt too Infierno either given the lack of rain and outline of waterfall
on rock rather than any flow.
Basic premise was to try to do one day's walking and then one day's touristy
stuff and this worked quite well. There's loads of both to do and you dont
find all that many walkers in the hills - mainly German tourists. We didnt
get to the north east of the Island but that potentially looks the best
walking with some very high limestone peaks.
All in all a good holiday and could have done with at least another week to
cover North East walks and maybe do one of the lesser peaks like Conde.
Mike Reid's site is excellent for planning and there are a couple of really
good walking books we bought - didnt like the Sunflower one much as it
missed out a lot of stuff. Discovery book was good as was the 35 good walks
in tenerife book that all the ocal walkers recommended. The 1:50,000
Kompass German map is very good but does have some mistakes on it re: road
numbers and the odd name.
Thanks to everyone for the recommendations. I hope to be back out at
Christmas
Rob