Sombrero de Chasna

With the Royal Wedding celebrations in full swing, I did the only sensible thing open to me, I climbed a mountain! Setting off from just above Vilaflor, I climbed to the near 8,000ft summit of Sombrero de Chasna on a cold, but mostly clear and sunny day. After an extremely steep start, the path levelled out to enable me to enjoy the superb views down to the south coast. Ragged clouds drifted across the slopes as I made my way to the caldera rim with the summit of Teide slowly revealing itself as I climbed. At the foot of the Sombrero, I scrambled up the rocky staircase to the summit for more views to the south coast and in the other direction to Teide. After leaving the summit, I walked to the edge of the caldera rim, which I followed above sheer cliffs plummeting hundreds of feet to the caldera floor below, before descending back down through the pine forests. More photographs from the walk

Sombrero de Chasna

Walking the Royal Road

The Chasna Royal Road is an ancient trade route that from pre-Hispanic times up until the end of the 19th century linked Vilaflor, Spain's highest village, with the north of the island at La Oratava. This route is a high-level traverse of the island, crossing the high mountains via the Las Cañadas National Park and was at one time the quickest way of travelling between the two regions. Traders would carry their wares on the backs of donkeys, oxen and sometimes even horses, mules or camels, as they led their laden animals on foot, walking alongside them as they toiled up the steep mountainsides. The trail was also used by goat-herders heading for the high pastures of Las Cañadas as the heat dried out the grazing in the lower parts of the island. Even in the height of the summer, the huge caldera still provided grazing for animals, as it once had for the Guanche's animals before the arrival of the Spanish wiped out the indigenous island population. The ruined house of Casa Marrubial can be found along the path and marks what was once an overnight resting place along the way for the goat-herders and their flocks as they headed for the summits of the island. The way was also used by farmers as they went to work in the terraces and Casa Golindo, at the top the El Atajo (the shortcut), the steep hill out of Vilaflor, is now the only remaining finca still operating along the way. The first section of the Crater to Coast walk, which follows the path over the Degollada de Ucanca, is a branch of this ancient way. This lesser used branch, avoids the main GR131 long distance route to the east of Tenerife's fourth highest summit Montaña Guajara, descending to the west of this impressive peak and could not be more different scenically to the GR131 route. Whereas this official route traverses the stark, black-sand dunes of Montaña Arena, the Crater to Coast walk descends through the wild and beautiful Barranco de Eris de Carnero (below), which is framed on one side by the impressive tower of Roque Encaje and on the other by the cliffs of Montaña Guajara. In early summer, the way down is lined with Tajinaste Rojo and Teide Broom, that occasionally encroaches on the path and this, along with the rough, boulder strewn going underfoot, gives the walk in this area an undiscovered feel. Later on in the walk, after descending alongside the lower sandy slopes of Montaña Arena, the route eventually joins with the more populated Paisaje Lunar or 'Lunar Landscape' path back to Vilaflor. The whole of this section of the Crater to Coast route is scenically spectacular, passing through the majestic scenery of the Las Cañadas National Park to Vilaflor, Spain's highest village, with Teide, the islands 'Jewel in the Crown', providing a wonderful backdrop to the beginning of the walk. Last Saturday, I led a group of walkers along the route on a superb day, with very clear views to the coast 8,000ft below the Degollada de Ucanca pass. After around five hours walking, we descended through the 'Corona Forestal' pine forest and admired the carpets of orange California Poppies that greeted our arrival in Vilaflor, adding a vivid splash of colour to this attractive mountain village. For more photos click here

View from Roque De Jama

Towering 2,500ft over the southern hill-town of Valle San Lorenzo, the peak of Roque De Jama dominates the local scenery. This prominent landmark is a phonolythic dome - the interior of an old volcano that has been exposed by erosion - and is the largest example of it's type on the island. Valle San Lorenzo is a bustling town, easily accessible by local bus from Los Cristianos or Playa De Las Americas, enabling you to easily get to the start of the walk to the summit of this impressive mountain. Although a fairly short walk, it is quite a steep climb, initially along quiet country lanes until you leave the tarmac and begin the ascent of the peak. The walk is graded as 'difficult' in the book although this does not relate to the 'effort' required for the climb but the problems encountered along the way. These include a very steep, tricky path that is often quite hard to locate as well as sections of exposure near the summit that will not suit those suffering from vertigo. Fortunately, as I climbed to the summit today, the conditions were fine, if a little cloudy at times but I still had excellent views down to the coast and surrounding towns. Overall, the walk takes a little over 2.5 hours giving you plenty of time to enjoy a drink or a meal in one of the many bars and restaurants to be found in Valle San Lorenzo before catching the bus back. One of my favourite eateries in the town is the Meson Era Las Mosaz, which is a little difficult to locate as it is in a backstreet behind the BBVA bank but is well worth searching for. Make sure you have a good appetite though as the portions are enormous and you will see many people leave clutching a bag of uneaten meat. Last time I was there on a Sunday lunchtime, it was packed to the rafters and diners were treated to an impromptu concert given by two customers who entertained us playing singing and playing guitars, creating a wonderful atmosphere. The short video below shows various views from the summit of Roque De Jama.

Walking in the Monte Del Agua Rainforest

Yesterday, I spent the day walking in the Monte Del Agua rain forest, one of the most scenically stunning locations on the island. Tucked away in the north-western corner of the island between the village of Erjos and the the town of Los Silos some 3,000ft below, it is a remnant of the laurisilva forest that once covered southern Europe and North Africa. Tenerife is home to some of the only remaining pockets of this ancient forest making it one of the few locations where you can still walk through this remarkable landscape. As one would expect, it is often cloudy and damp in this region and yesterday was no exception as I left behind the blue, cloudless skies of the south for the overcast and humid, albeit dry, conditions of the forest. Clouds scudded across the hilltops on the descent to Los Silos as I admired the abundant flora along the way, with fantastic views opening up of the surrounding barrancos and laurel clad mountains. The descent into Los Silos is around 11 kilometres with the return trip to Erjos being only around 5.5 kilometres. This is not the advantage that it may seem however, as the whole return trip is steeply uphill, a very tiring walk of around two hours. Despite this, I arrived back in Erjos five hours later, weary but elated at having enjoyed a marvellous walk in a beautiful part of the island. Video below.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

One of the attractions of Tenerife as a winter walking destination is that you can be fairly sure that you will be spending a lot of your time walking in sunshine. Similarly, you can also be sure that you will be walking in mild, if not hot temperatures. At least that was my experience up until this week. For the past two or three days, the island has experienced temperatures the like of which have been more akin to an early spring day in the UK. Yesterday, I was guiding on a walk in the west of the island and the scenes that greeted us were more Lake District than Teno Mountains. Starting from the village of Santiago Del Teide, we began to climb the attractive mountain path to the Degollada de La Mesa (pass). This eucalyptus and pine clad valley is my favourite way to the summit of Pico de Gala and follows a normally dry streambed as it winds uphill through endemic plant life and pine trees. Yesterday however, we had an additional attraction to entertain us, a beautiful mountain stream complete with waterfalls! One of the things I miss about walking in Tenerife is the total lack of permanent rivers so this was a wonderful bonus, enhancing what is already a lovely walk. As we ascended, we turned to look beyond Santiago Del Teide and were greeted with another unusual sight, peeking just below the cloudline. It is not unusual to see Teide snow-clad in the winter but now, as well as the lower flanks of the volcano gleaming white in the general gloom, we had views of the lower hills also covered in a silent white carpet of snow. Reaching the pass, we enjoyed the stunning views into the Masca Valley before climbing to the summit of Pico de La Mesa for an even more impressive vista. This was followed by a walk on an enchanting path through a section of laurisilva forest, one of the few remaining pockets of this ancient woodland that at one time covered the south of Europe. As we emerged from the woods, we gazed down on the Erjos Pools, disused quarry workings that have now been reclaimed by nature. These pools are fairly unique on the island and it often seems odd to see moorhens gliding across the water in Tenerife accompanied by the sound of croaking frogs. On this visit, the pools were full to overflowing and the footpaths in the area were doing a good impression of fast flowing streams as we splashed our way back to Santiago del Teide.

Paradise Found Out

While putting together the routes in the Ifonche region for 'Discovering Tenerife on Foot', I became aware of a large amount of work happening in the area on path upgrading. In fact, because of this, I eventually altered the end of the Ifonche route to include a section of path that I later discovered was the new GR131 route from Arona to La Esperanza. One of the reasons for writing the guidebook was that I knew there were many paths in the south of the island that weren't, as far as I was aware, detailed in any guidebooks. As I reconnoitered the paths in total solitude I realised that the GR131 would pass through three of the routes in the book, the Ifonche route, the Crater to Coast route and the Vilaflor Circular. A few days ago, while walking the Vilaflor Circular, I had the unusual experience of meeting a number of other walkers, seven in all plus a group of mountain bikers. This may not seem a lot but I have walked this route quite a number of times in the past and have never met anyone else on it. One of the beauties of waymarked routes is that they take away the doubt and uncertainty when walking in unfamiliar countryside but this can also be a drawback because it popularises previously uncharted walking territory. Routes that previously allowed you to walk all day in solitude attract more walkers and this seems to be happening with the new GR131. For most, this is not a problem but I must say that I personally love nothing more than walking alone and not seeing a soul all day. Of course, this may seem a selfish desire, and probably it is, but I am always on the lookout for the more remote, unused paths in preference to the well-walked trails. Alfred Wainwright, author of the famous Lake District guidebooks, was often known to hide when he saw other walkers heading in his direction but his superb guides are responsible for drawing more walkers to the area than any other. He would probably never go out into his beloved mountains now with the huge amount of walkers to be found clambering over the fells, many ironically inspired by his own guidebooks. I wouldn't say that my preference for solitude extends to those extremes but I understand where he was coming from. Hillwalking is one of the few pastimes where you can totally get away from all other distractions and lose yourself for a day. Although a fairly small island, it is still possible at the moment to walk in Tenerife without seeing too many other walkers and enjoy a sense of solitude and adventure. However, as more and more paths are signposted and routes created, it must be hoped that it does not become more difficult in the future to find peace and solitude as the island attracts more walkers drawn by the GR131 and other waymarked paths. While it is good for the local economy that Tenerife is becoming a destination for walking holidays, as well as the traditional sun and sand for which it is renowned, it is to be hoped that the very thing that attracts them in the first place isn't lost under the bootprints of armies of holidaying hikers.

The Beautiful South

'The south of Tenerife is a barren wasteland once you get outside of Playa De Las Americas, you have to go to the north for decent scenery' Or so I am often told. A recent remark by a friend, similar to the above, started me thinking about this common perception of the landscape in the south of the island as barren and desert-like, unworthy of exploration and the only reason to visit the south is for the sun, sea and sand holidays normally associated with this area. Being a walker, my first visit to the island was filled with curiosity as I had been advised that, being a person who enjoys the outdoors, I wouldn't like a destination where all there was to do was sit in the sun all day on the beach or around the pool. Upon arrival, the first thing about the island that immediately caught my attention was the strange, mountainous landscape a few miles inland from the coast. Immediately I wanted to put my boots on and explore. While the coastal regions were very barren and volcanic, the mountain scenery looked more promising. Sure, it didn't have the 'chocolate box' greenery of somewhere like the Lake District in England but for me that was a bonus. This was something different, worthy of further investigation. I have always had a love of landscapes that some describe as 'bleak', often exclaiming 'Wow! look at that', while others are complaining that 'it's not very green, is it'. 'Bleak' isn't the right word to describe what I witnessed on my first visit, mysterious yes, exciting yes, barren maybe, but bleak no. Having purchased a couple of walking guidebooks so that I could get out into this wonderful countryside, I was disappointed to note that there were only a handful of walks in the south of the island. Having walked these routes and frequently been amazed by what I had seen , I began to wonder why these books seemed to largely avoid the south. Having noticed large quantities of walkers at the bus station in Los Cristianos heading into the hills, I thought it was a shame that there weren't more guidebooks offering more routes in this part the island, so I set about writing a guidebook detailing all of the walks I had found for myself. Over a number of years, during numerous visits, I have walked through the quiet, remote beauty of the Ifonche region, the wonderful pine forests of the Corona Forestal, in impressive barrancos such as the Barranco De Las Vegas and the Barranco Del Rey, to the top of mountain viewpoints and passes such as Montana Colorada and the Degollada De Ucanca, to the sadly deserted village of Las Fuentes and to the spectacular viewpoints of the Cauldron and the Mirador La Centinela. While I recognise the beauty and fantastic walking opportunities of areas such as the Anaga, Teno and the Orotava, not to mention the Las Canadas national park, I think it's a shame that the south is often dismissed as having nothing worth investigating when, in my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth.

Roque Del Conde

Recently, I climbed the prominent southern peak of Roque Del Conde. This table-topped peak is very visible in the southern resorts and one I have climbed many times via the usual route from the small village of Vento, near Arona. Some time ago however, I climbed it from the Degollada De Los Frailitos on the north side of the peak. This is not the usual route that is followed by most walkers from Vento in the east but is a difficult and fairly dangerous route involving scrambling up cliffs. As I reached the summit, I came across a plaque fixed to the rocks 'To Ichasagua - Free People's Mencey'. Having visited the summit many times before along the usual route, I had never seen this plaque before and I became intrigued by the person and events that it commemorated. I was also aware of the existence of a mural painted on the wall of a ruined building below the peak showing a Ichasagua holding a club with the mountain in the background. After a little research, I discovered that Roque Del Conde is also known as Roque De Ichasagua, which is a reference to Guanche Mencey (king) Ichasagua, who led a guerrilla war against the Spanish in 1502. Ichasagua was the Mencey of Adeje and led Guanche rebels against the Spanish after retreating to the highlands from the conquest in 1496. The conquistador Fernandez De Lugo landed his troops at Los Cristianos but the guerilla warfare skills of Ichasagua held them at bay for many months. Changing tactics, the conquistadors, used sympathetic Guanche nobles to negotiate a meeting with Ichasagua close to Roque Ichasagua, but he was betrayed and De Lugo and his troops were lying in wait. Realising he had been betrayed he killed himself by plunging a dagger into his chest to avoid being taken captive.

Walking the GR131 on Tenerife - Vilaflor to Siete Canadas

Distance: 10 Miles Ascent: 3,500ft Descent: 1,120ft Time: 5 hours 40 mins

For the second section of the GR131, or Stage 6 as it is officially known, I set out on Tuesday morning from the Plaza San Pedro to the sound of workmen renovating the square. This seems to be taking an age to complete, which is a shame as normally it is a pretty, peaceful spot to sit with a drink and enjoy the sun. Today however, it was a pleasure to be leaving the sound of digging behind as I located the route out of the village. Strangely, although the GR131 and the Lunar Landscape walk coincide for the first two or three miles, they leave the village by different routes! Soon, I was climbing steeply out of the village on a section of the Chasna Royal road called El Atajo or The Shortcut. The Chasna Royal road is an ancient trade route from Vilaflor to La Orotava in the north of the island and was used for transporting goods and herding goats to the high pastures of Las Canadas for grazing during the summer months. After passing Casa Galinda, a finca in a picturesque setting near the top of the climb, I descended into the Barranco de Las Mesas on a path that pushed it's way through a number of giant Tajinaste Rojo plants that depite now being green, had been a riot of red flowers on a previous visit a few weeks earlier. Crossing the Pista Madre del Agua, I continued climbing as the peaks of Montana Guajara, Roque Encaje and Montana Arena provided a spectacular backdrop to the surrounding pines. Soon, the Lunar Landscape path and GR131 parted company and the path now climbed steeply above the Lunar Landscape, which I could see far below in a valley to my right. Continuing the climb, the scenery began to change as the black, sandy mound of Montana Arena became more prominent and I descended into and out of a barranco as I admired fabulous views down through pines to the sea of cloud below. Leaving the trees behind, I emerged at a junction of paths and followed a pathway marked by a two lines of stones as it ascended the back of a broad, black-sand ridge towards the peak of Montana Guajara. The walking now became more difficult in the loose sandy soil and this combined with the effects of the altitude made for slow progress as I stopped fairly frequently to catch my breath. Leaving the black sand of Montana Arena behind, I climbed a rocky path on the slopes of Guajara and after passing the turn-off to the summit, the peak of Montana Pasajiron came into view above the Degollada de Guajara pass. Reaching the pass, I decided to stop for a lunchbreak and enjoyed the superb scenery from the rim of the caldera where I had a chat with a group of German walkers walking from the parador to the Lunar Landscape and back again! Wishing these intrepid if somewhat insane hikers farewell, I descended to the Siete Canadas trail where I left the GR131 and turned left to the parador. After admiring the rock formations of Piedras Amarillas I reached the parador where I pushed the boat out and paid an outrageous price for a large slab of chocolate cake and a coffee before catching the bus back to the south.

Walking the GR131 in Tenerife - Arona to Vilaflor

Distance: 11 Miles - Ascent: 3,500ft - Descent: 1,200ft - Time: 5.75 Hours

Having decided to walk a section of the GR131 long distance route from Arona to La Esperanza, I set off on Sunday morning on the the first stage from Arona to Vilaflor. Actually, the official direction appears to be the opposite way around as this section is 'Stage 7', the last part of the route from La Esperanza to Arona, which when you look at the ascent/descent figures above would make sense. Never having been blessed with much common sense, I set off from Arona on an overcast morning as local people decorated the streets with pictures made from sand, salt and flowers for Corpus Cristi. Leaving Arona, I walked to the village of Vento and here left the road for the Camino de Suarez, which forms the first part of the route. As I crossed the Barranco del Rey, the surrounding peaks were cloaked in swirling clouds but it was already hot and humid. Climbing to the Degollada Frailitos pass, I paused briefly before ascending into the cloud and climbed steeply to the threshing circle at the pass between the peaks of Roque de Los Bresos and Roque Imoque. Although misty, the climb proved to be very hot in the humid, moisture laden cloud and the surrounding flora was dripping almost as much as me! An hour and a quarter after leaving Arona, I arrived at the large threshing circle at the pass and followed the country lane to Ifonche. As I left the village, I emerged from the cloud to be greeted by a stunning sight. Ahead lay pine forest stretching as far as the eye could see, the huge 'scar' of the Barranco del Rey the only interruption in the otherwise green carpet in front of me. High above the forest, the peaks of Sombrero de Chasna and El Sombrerito marked the boundary of the National Park and I began the long ascent of Montana Chimoche alongside the Barranco del Rey and after what seemed an age, I reached the edge of this impressive ravine. As I decended to the streambed, I passed a brand new GR131 sign warning of temporary flooding, which I suppose could be a problem if you were mad enough to be walking in some of the monsoon-like rain that the island gets from time to time but seemed otherwise superfluous. A short distance later, I arrived at the attractive Puente Guayero stone bridge in the Barranco de las Goteras before ascending Montana Mohino. Great views now opened up of the surrounding Ifonche countryside and the high mountains above as I puffed and panted my way uphill. Reaching the top, I descended once more to a track at the foot of Montana de la Vica, a mountain with a spilt personality it would seem as it is marked on most maps as Montana de los Guaniles or de la Vica. Vica is shorter and easier to spell than Guaniles so that's how I usually refer to it. After following the track for a short distance the route once again begins to climb towards La Coruja where there is a fantastic viewpoint surrounded by an amphitheatre of cliffs overlooking the surrounding countryside and on a clear day you can see down to the southern coastal plain. This was such a day, the earlier cloud having cleared, so I took advantage of the large, stone seat conveniently placed at the cliff edge and enjoyed the scenery as I took a well earned break. After leaving La Coruja, I climbed a short incline on a path below cliffs, which signalled the end of the climbing for the day. Not long afterwards I found myself on the outskirts on Vilaflor as I reached tarmac at the Villalba Hotel. From here it was just a short downhill stroll into the Plaza San Pedro and the end of this stage of the walk.