Arico Nuevo to El Contador and back again!

Los Roques de Tamadaya

Recently, I finally got around to walking to El Contador, something that I had been planning to do for some time. El Contador is a recreation zone/campsite high in the pine forests above the south-east coast of Tenerife and it took me around four hours of continual climbing to reach from the lovely village of Arico Nuevo. The walk certainly tested my fitness and I began to wonder if the climbing was ever going to stop before I emerged from the forest by a picturesque finca situated above a barranco. After a break, it was a case of turning around and walking back down again and overall the walk took 8.25 hours to complete. The scenery throughout the walk was superb, particularly Los Roques de Tamadaya, a forested rocky ridge in the Barranco de Tamadaya. As I descended, I became aware of three lesser spotted woodpeckers in the pine trees above me and stood quietly watching them as they hopped from tree to tree and even managed to get a reasonable photo of one clinging to a tree trunk. The walk itself is easy to follow as it is clearly signposted, although there are a couple of alternatives. I followed the path from Arico Nuevo to the village of La Sabinita initially before heading across the Barranco de Las Hiedras to the summit of the Lomo de Tamadaya and then on up to El Contador. The whole walk is certainly not for anyone who is unsure of their fitness but a short circular alternative can be made by utilising the two branches of the PR86 path. The start of the path, which initially follows Calle el Molino, can be found on the TF28 across from the Calle de La Luz leading into Arico Nuevo. This soon splits into the PR86.2 & PR86.3 and both rejoin on the Lomo de Tamadaya. It is here that you should head to either Arico Nuevo or La Sabinita for the short circular of around 6 kilometres, depending on which way round you are walking. The full route however is around 23 kilometres and climbs and descends around 1300 metres, taking between 8 to 9 hours. An album of photographs taken on the walk can be found HERE 

El Jaral - Walking in Guia de Isora

Casa Amarilla, Finca Palo Alto

This week, I headed towards the south-west of the island to the tiny hill village of El Jaral in the Guia de Isora region, situated around 800 metres above sea level. This tranquil, sleepy village is the 'jumping off' point for numerous pathways and there are a number of information boards outlining details of the more major routes.

Valle Arriba circular walk via Arguayo and Las Manchas

 Valle de Arriba

Continuing my recent exploration of footpaths in and around the Santiago valley, I set off on Wednesday from Valle de Arriba to walk to Arguayo with the intention of returning via La Hoya mountain and the village of Las Manchas. As usual, I was wearing shorts and T-shirt but had to stop fairly soon to don my lightweight anorak owing to a sudden downpour of chilly rain. As the Santiago valley marks the dividing line between the north and south micro-climates, it can often be shrouded in mist and rain on the northern side while the southern side is bathed in sunshine.

A Walk from Valle de Arriba

Recently, I have been exploring footpaths in the west of the island and today I decided on a walk that I had found on the internet from the village of Valle de Arriba, close to Santiago del Teide . Although I was already familiar with many of the paths in the walk there were some promising variants that I hadn't tried and as I am always on the lookout for alternative routes, this was an interesting choice. 

Ascending from Valle de Arriba

Setting off from the village on a pleasant but cool morning, I located the path up and out of the valley. This section was new to me and was a delight to walk and must be wonderful in spring when the flowers are in bloom. As I climbed fairly steeply up the narrow valley my attention was drawn to the cry of a buzzard just overhead and I stopped to watch as it soared above me and disappeared out of the valley.

An Erjos circular walk

Dodging the puddles on the way to Las Portelas

The village of Erjos, which is situated at over 3,000ft above sea level in the north-west of the island, is crossed by numerous footpaths and offers many opportunites to create circular walks in the area. I had planned a route from the village to Las Portelas from where I would climb to the Cumbre de Masca and then onto the Cumbre de Bolico before returning via the Erjos Pools.  As I set off to walk to Las Portelas, the air was cool and a little damp, the wet roads and puddles on the footpaths evidence of overnight rain.

Climbing Montaña de Guama

The Santiago Valley

After a fairly lengthy spell in which I have walked very little, I decided it was time to get out of my armchair  and lace up the walking boots again. The previous week in Tenerife had been wet with some fairly heavy rain and although this had passed by when I set off for Santiago del Teide, the skies were still quite overcast.

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. 

A Circular Walk from Mirador La Centinela

View from the Mirador La Centinela

The Mirador La Centinela is a spectacular restaurant/viewpoint situated around 1,800 ft above the San Lorenzo valley giving stunning views down to the coastal plain and inland to the mountains. A good circular walk starts here from in front of the restaurant and descends into the barranco below, initially on a track of volcanic cinder, before climbing up to the hamlet of La Hoya. As the path climbs to the hamlet, it passes the  Fuente de La Hoya spring that would, in the past have refreshed travellers and their animals along the way and if you look carefully, you will see water troughs carved into the volcanic rock at different heights to serve both human and animal needs.

View inland at the start of the walk

La Hoya is the site of the first settlement in the area and the route passes the picturesque Casa Vera de La Hoya rural house before arriving at the road, close to a well preserved tile kiln.  After crossing the road, the route descends into the impressive Barranco del Drago before arriving at the site of the Fuente de Tamaide on the barranco floor.

Abandoned terracing

Here, at the spring, is an old communal laundry area and after a scramble between huge boulders the route crosses a wooden walkway as it climbs out of the barranco. The walk now crosses a  quiet rural road and follows an old cobbled camino that crosses a smaller barranco before a road at Tamaide is reached and signposts lead you into the town of San Miguel, passing the Casa del Capitan . This traditional old Canarian house belonged to the Alfonso family until the end of the nineteenth century and Miguel Alfonso Martinez achieved the highest military rank in the municipality, which is where the house gets it's name. After the house was devastated by fire, it was purchased and restored by the town and now houses an historical and ethnographic museum .

Church in San Miguel

Now, you have a decision to make. From the Casa del Capitan continue along the Calle de La Iglesia to soon reach a signpost for Aldea Blanca on the right near the La Bodega Vieja restaurant. If you want to explore San Miguel or have had enough walking, you can continue along the Calle de la Iglesia into the church square where where you can take advantage of the shade and benches provided by the Indian Laurels. From here, it is a short walk up to the main road where you can catch the bus back to La Centinela. However, if you still have plenty of energy, and want to continue the walk, you will need to return to the Aldea Blanca signpost by the La Bodega Vieja restaurant following green and white signs.

View across the vineyards

This downhill route follows an old corpse road, initially on tarmac that soon gives way to a rough track by a house. There are parts of the route where the signposting leaves a little to be desired but if you keep right at all of the major intersections, you will eventually find yourself descending to Aldea Blanca. Bear left in the village to reach the church square where you can take advantage of the shaded benches before setting off on the steep climb back up to the Mirador La Centinela.

Adeje Mountains

After leaving the square, heading for the main road, the route leaves the village on a road alongside the Cafeteria Agora to a plaza on the right, where you pick up the path to La Centinela, which can be found up some steps in the right hand corner.  This follows a track around some industrial units before passing close to a riding stables and climbing steeply up to the Buzanada-Aldea Blanca road. The signs here are a little misleading, giving the impression on reaching the top of the climb that you carry straight on, where in fact you turn right along the old road to reach the main road.

Montana Cambada

The continuation is across this road and the path climbs steeply, giving excellent views across the nearby vineyards to the surrounding volcanic cones and Adeje Mountains in the background. As you climb higher, you will catch glimpses of the restaurant at the Mirador La Centinela above you, until eventually, you rejoin the path you descended on at the beginning of the walk. Just turn left here and climb back up to the Mirador where you can recover in the restaurant with a cool drink while enjoying the views down to the coast. The whole walk takes around four hours, not including breaks for refreshments and sightseeing in San Miguel, the last hour of the walk is mostly uphill so you will need to be reasonably fit. There is also no shade on the walk, apart from the plazas in San Miguel and Aldea Blanca, so plenty of water and a sun-hat are also recommended.   

Pico Viejo – Climbing Tenerife’s Second Highest Mountain

The gap in the list glared at me, like a tooth missing from the smile of a small child. I had climbed three of the four highest mountains on the island, but for some unexplained reason the second highest summit had eluded me. Now, I was setting off to fill the gap with a climb to the 3,134 metre summit of Pico Viejo.

Montaña Guajara & Parador at the start of the walk

I set off from the parador passing the incredible rock sculptures of the Roques de Garcia in the Las Cañadas National Park, that at this hour of the morning were thankfully free of the hundreds of tourists that would inevitably arrive by tour bus and hire car to scramble over them later in the day.

Los Roques de Garcia with Pico Viejo in the background

 Turning away from the display of ‘rock-art’, I set-off on ‘sendero 23’ following a vague line of cairns across the lava in the direction of Pico Viejo, my objective for the day. At this point in the walk, my attention was dominated, as is every visitors’, by the towering presence of Teide, dwarfing Pico Viejo and reducing it to an insignificant protuberance on the western flank of the giant volcano.

Looking back along the path into Las Cañadas

 Initially, the path was fairly easy going as it climbed very gently across the lava fields but soon, it began to steepen, and I could already feel the rarity of the air caused by the altitude. I lost the path briefly, seduced by some erroneous cairns but soon found my way back onto the path as it climbed steeply over a ridge of sharply jagged lava before descending into a valley. The ascent out of this was very steep, on a path of loose, deep volcanic grit and I found myself staggering backwards as the ground gave way under me.

First view into the summit crater

 Most of the ascent was like this, as each ridge was conquered, so another appeared and the upward slog began all over again. At one point, the path vanished altogether as it crossed an area of huge lava boulders but I soon regained the path on the other side.

Pico del Teide

 After three hours of ascent in ever thinning air, I reached the path between Pico Viejo and its more illustrious neighbour, the climb from here to Teide’s summit looking impossibly steep. After another half an hour’s climb, I sat on the summit of Tenerife’s second highest peak, which turned out to be simply a high point on the rim of the large summit crater.

Altimeter reading over 10,000ft

From the top, the views were stunning, encompassing four islands, as well as the Teno Mountainsin the north-west, the north coast, and standing silently overlooking it all, the brooding presence of Teide’s towering peak, decorated with frozen fingers of lava, like icing on a badly decorated cake.

Looking down to the north coast

The summit crater on Pico Viejo is far more impressive than that of Teide’s, which tapers to such a point that it has only a small indentation on the top.  Here, however, the crater is an impressive sea of lava surrounded by rugged cliffs that would dominate the scene but for Teide’s presence.

Summit crater with Teno Mountains and the island of La Palma 

 After over half an hour exploring the summit, I turned and headed back downhill and mentally filled in the gap in my list. It had been a long but worthwhile wait.