Download the Caldera walk

 

The route of my recent walk in the Las Cañadas caldera can be downloaded from the Wikiloc app or from this link. The GPX file can also be downloaded from the link. 

Climbing Baracàn from Puerto de Erjos, Tenerife

Video of a recent walk to the summit of Baracàn in the Teno 

Rediscovering the 'lost' village of Las Fuentes, Tenerife

House in Las Fuentes with Montaña Tejina

The 'lost' village of Las Fuentes sits at the foot of Montaña Tejina in the south-west of Tenerife and for many years was only accessible on foot or by driving along a precarious, winding dirt track into the hills. It is one of the oldest settlements in the municipality of Guia de Isora, with a past linked to agriculture and the presence of small springs, from where the village gets it's name. Along with traditional rural buildings, other infrastructure can be found such as threshing floors, brick kilns, bread ovens, reservoirs and caves that were used for storage. 

A Hike to Cho Pancho Recreation zone

This walk started from the village of El Roque and climbed steeply to the Cho Pancho recreation zone. The weather when I walked it wasn't ideal, with the hot and hazy conditions restricting what would normally be some impressive views, however, my early start meant that I finished walking before midday when it was starting to get very hot. The early part of the walk followed a well engineered, cobbled path that wound it's way comfortably up the hill and was dominated by excellent views to the volcanic dome of Roque de Jama, with Montaña Guaza just visible in the background through the haze. The Cho Pancho recreation zone made a welcome break in the shade of the pines just after the halfway mark and here I took advantage of the picnic tables to rest and cool off.

Thanks to John and Alison Mackenzie for the route, which I obtained from their excellent website Walk Tenerife Sur: Under 10km https://tenerifesurunder10k.wordpress.com

A Visual Feast - Las Cañadas & the Orotava Valley

Any walk in the Las Cañadas National Park guarantees spectacular scenery but when this is combined with aerial views across the Orotava Valley, the awesomeness factor increases significantly. Setting off from El Portillo Alto, I followed the well worn path towards La Forteleza, which I always think of as Tenerife's Ayers Rock in miniature, until I reached El Cabezòn. As I walked in the early morning sunshine, I enjoyed the stunning views of Teide completely dominating the view to my left, as it stood silently surveying the desert-like scenery I now passed through. As I reached a crossroads in the path below the summit of El Cabezòn, I turned off of the main path and descended into the forest, initially on a wide track then later on a narrower, more ill-defined path through the trees.Arriving on another broad, level forest track,

Hiking Tenerife's Wild Barrancos

The attractive Mirador de Chirche sits above the village of the same name and gives expansive views to the coast and inland to the mountains. The terrain in this area is characterised by very rugged volcanic lava fields and although there are few notable peaks, the countryside is riven with impressively deep and wild barrancos. Leaving the mirador car park required a fleece layer to keep out the cold as the early morning mist swirled around the hills and as I climbed through the lava-fields,  I was impressed by the huge amount of giant aeoniums growing in the harsh landscape as rays of sunshine shone through the mist illuminating the fine droplets and giving the whole scene a magical feel. Reaching the Galeria Tamuja, I admired the views into the Barranco Tamuja before returning to the main route and climbing to a junction with the TF-PR70 footpath. The remainder of my walk followed this path back to Chirche as I crossed the Barranco Tamuja and the Barranco del Cedro and pausing in the first of these, I enjoyed a break and sat absorbing the silence and admiring the wild and rugged scenery. Continuing, I crossed the barranco before arriving at the even more impressive Barranco del Cedro. After a steep descent and ascent, I arrived at a spectacular viewpoint looking down to the Galeria Tamuja that I had passed earlier in the walk, now far below me. Climbing out of the barranco, I reached a junction and turned downhill and followed the very steep, rocky path back to the Mirador.