Tenerife Wildfires

As many of you will have no doubt heard, Tenerife has suffered a number of damaging wildfires this summer. One of the worst occurred in the southern region of the Corona Forestal pine forest, an area covered in 'Discovering Tenerife on Foot'. The fires were fuelled by the very hot temperatures we have experienced on the island this summer and also the lack of any substantial rainfall in the past eighteen months. The countryside everywhere is tinder dry and only a spark is required to start a devastating fire, and this is indeed what has occurred in numerous locations across the island in the past few weeks, although it is not known if  arson was the cause or carelessness. 

Arona to Ifonche Circular Walk - A Southern Classic

One of the things I like about living here in Tenerife is the ease with which I can get into the mountains when I want to go for a walk. In the UK, as I lived in the south, it meant a drive of at least two and a half hours to get anywhere with any ‘real’ mountains. Now, it takes me less than fifteen minutes. Close to where I live in Chayofa in the hills above Los Cristianos in south Tenerife are the Adeje Mountains, which are easily accessible from the town of Arona from where there is a wonderful circular walk along old caminos linking the town with the remote hamlet of Ifonche. The route leaves Arona for the nearby village of Vento, from where it crosses the Barranco del Rey in the shadow of the imposing table-topped summit of Roque del Conde. This impressive ravine passes through the Ifonche region on its way to the coast where it reaches the sea by the infamous Veronica’s nightclub complex in Playa de Las Americas, a world away from its origins high in the mountains.