The Teno Rural park in the west of the island is probably best known as the location of the village of Masca, where tourists flock in their thousands to explore the remote, idyllically situated village and walkers to stretch their legs in the barranco down to the sea. Yesterday morning, as I drove through, I was early enough to have the place to myself as I headed further up the valley to the village of Carrizal Alto. Leaving the car and the main road, I descended the narrow road from the slumbering, upper village to Carrizal Bajo, as I admired the surrounding mountains and impossibly steep cliffs that sheltered the villages from the strong wind that blew isolated puffs of cloud across the tops of the mountains. On the outskirts of the lower village, I left the road to begin a mountain walk that will rank among the best I have ever done. Soon, I was climbing steeply from the Barranco Carrizal as gusts of wind tugged at my clothing and the views became ever more expansive. Cresting the top of the first ridge, I stood agape admiring the sea of peaks and ridges spread out around me as far as I could see, clinging to the rocks to avoid being blown from my lofty perch.
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Continuing, I decended steeply on a tricky, steep path of loose stones and soil into the Barranco Taburco through a wilderness of rock, the only other living things I saw were a few goats scrambling up the impossibly steep slopes. As each slope was descended, another had to be climbed, and so the process repeated, each ridge top revealing more awesome views of the stormy sea of rock, as well as a further deep barranco to be crossed. Cresting the final ridge, I arrived at the Teno Plateau and found myself walking through conditions more akin to the North Pennines or Scotland than Tenerife as the fierce wind blew the low cloud across the windswept plain. For most of the rest of the walk along the Cumbre Baracân and Cumbre Carrizal, views were at a premium, reduced to brief glimpses of the valleys I had walked far below as ragged holes opened in the clouds before quickly swallowing them again. After around six hours, I was back at my car, images of the walk through this mountainous wonderland flashing through my mind, where they will remain for a long time to come.
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