Dinosaurs, Landslides and Battlefields

I recently returned from a holiday in the UK. While there, I spent a week on the World Heritage Jurassic Coast in Dorset, based in the attractive seaside resort of Lyme Regis, setting for the film 'The French Lieutenants Woman'. During the holiday, the weather was superb with blue skies every day and warm temperatures. I took the opportunity to explore some of the outstanding scenery to be found along the coast in the area. One of the walks began from the centre of Lyme and headed inland to Uplyme and the hills and woodland beyond. Another explored the south-west coastal path around West Bay and close to Golden Cap, the highest sea-cliff in the south of England. The most interesting walk for me however, was another trip along the south-west coastal path through, the Undercliff and back to Lyme. This 8 mile route began with a bus trip from Lyme to nearby Seaton, where it set-off along the promenade to Axmouth before climbing uphill through a golf course and out onto the clifftop path. The views from here are impressive and strangely, at a premium. This is because the path soon disappears into the dense undergrowth lining the route and only occasional further glimpses of the coast are revealed as you pass through this jungle-like world. The Undercliff National Nature Reserve is formed from landslides, and is particularly famous for the occurrence of an enormous one that occurred at Bindon on Christmas Eve 1839. The Bindon Landslide became famous and attracted national publicity and thousands of visitors. People visited by paddle steamer and a piece of music, the Landslide Quadrille, was written for it. Many beautiful prints and engravings were made. Today they provide an invaluable record that catalogues how the environment has changed over time and in particular, how woodland has colonised the area. These landslides still occur today, creating an internationally important mix of habitats from dense scrub and woodland to open ground, with many special plants and animals. English Nature manage the reserve and visitors are required to keep to the South West Coast Path than runs through it. The journey on foot between Axmouth & Lyme Regis is an awe-inspiring and fairly strenuous walk and you really do have the sense that you are entering a 'lost world', especially if you pick a day when there are few others walking the path. Because of the regular landslides, fossils are regularly exposed making the area a paleontologists paradise. There is a museum in Lyme called Dinosaurland, for budding dinosaur hunters, where examples of fossils found in the area can be examined.

After returning from the week in Dorset, I met-up for a Sunday walk with the Milton Keynes Ramblers - which I used to be a member of - for a walk around the civil war battlefields at Edgehill in Warwickshire. It was nice to meet-up with old friends again and walk in such a beautiful part of the country. The weather was good and the whole walk reminded me that, although I now live in beautiful Tenerife, the British countryside is a wonderful, diverse country, with many excellent walking destinations.

Ascent of Teide

On my first ever trip to Tenerife in 1995, I visited the National Park and was instantly awestruck by the amazing landscape. I decided there and then that I would come back the following year and climb Teide, Spains highest peak at over 12,000ft. After reading up during the intervening year about the climb, I successfully made it to the top and back down again the following August.

Since moving to the island last year, I have walked in many areas but each time I have seen the peak of the volcano looming over me in the distance, it seemed to be mocking me and challenging me to climb it again. Okay, I realise this was all in my mind but the longer it went on the more I began to question if I should have another go. On my first climb, the cable-car wasn't running so I saw only a handful of people all day. Since that climb, it has become a more popular challenge and a permit system introduced. I was unhappy about doing the climb in a 'procession' so I devised a plan to hopefully avoid the crowds. I decided to wait until near the middle of the year when there would be enough daylight hours for a midday start giving time to climb up and back down again. This way, I would hopefully avoid walkers starting off early in the day and I should also reach the top when the last cable-car would be taking the tourists back down, meaning that I should have the mountain to myself. This of course meant that I would be unable to get a permit for the summit but I had been right to the top before so I wasn't too worried about this, plus with no-one around, it might be possible to get to the top without one.

I set off at 1pm as planned, and climbed the wide tracks to Montana Blanca without problems. I knew that this was the easy bit however, and once I left this and started the climb up the back of Teide itself, the air would become thinner and I would find the going much harder. There were a number of walkers on this stretch but they all turned off to the summit of Montana Blanca at around 9,000ft and then I was alone. I started the steeper mountain path confidently but I could already feel the thin air starting to have an effect as I began feeling heavier and my breathing became slightly more laboured. In front of me, an almost vertical wall of rock loomed over me so I just admired the scenery and plodded onwards. I passed a lone Czech walker descending and we had a 'conversation' where I think we only understood about three words the other was saying but he managed to wish me luck as we said goodbye. As I approached the 10,000ft mark, my heart began to pound in my chest and I was having to stop more regularly. Soon, I reached the Altavista Refuge at around 10,700ft and I was now struggling quite badly. Any movement was accompanied by a pounding in my chest and I was now deliberating if I should turn back. I sat for a while to ponder what to do but I decided that I had no headache and apart from the weakness and pounding in my chest I felt okay. I decided to carry on by walking 40-50 yards and then sitting to recover. This I did and after an age, reached the La Rambleta walkway from the cable-car to the Forteleza viewpoint. I was by now feeling very weak but continued plodding to the cable-car station passing another very shattered looking walker descending. He was the only person I saw on the summit. Reaching the cable-car, I came to the start of the final summit path, which was unguarded although part of me by now wished that there was a huge guard with a machine-gun to stop me going up. I knew I had to attempt to get to the top and I reluctantly plodded up the steep final climb. By now, I was taking half-a-dozen steps and then stopping. As I neared the top, puffs of sulphurous smoke blew unpleasant odours across the path and unlike the mountain, I had by now virtually run out of steam. I decided to leave my rucksack by the side of the path for the very last section to try and make the task a little easier and as I struggled alongside the small crater at the top, the summit rocks came into view. The relief was immense and I struggled to take a summit photo without my tripod, which was still in my rucksack. After a very short break for a few photos and to just take-in the scene, I made my way back to collect my rucksack and begin my descent before it became dark. As I began descending, I started to recover and was soon moving very quickly. I reached the Altavista Refuge for the second time and passed a group of walkers sitting outside who were presumably staying the night for an early start to the summit to catch the sunrise. Passing a number of other walkers ascending to the refuge, I continued my descent at a jog and before too long I was off of the mountain path and striding along the wide tracks below Montana Blanca. The sun was now setting and the deep reds and browns along with the shadows gave the scenery a totally different look and feel from earlier in the day.

Two and a half hours after leaving the summit, I was back at the car, exactly half the time it took me to climb it. I was tired but euphoric that I had made it, despite being on the verge of giving up a number of times. Climbing Teide is a daunting challenge and one that I have now completed twice. I'm glad that I managed to do it a second time but after the difficulties experienced on this trip, there probably won't be a third. But you never know!

A photo album can be found in the right-hand column.

The Crater to Coast Walk

Recently, I spent a day searching for a route from the Mirador La Centinela to Las Galletas on the coast. The aim of this exercise was to complete a route starting in the Las Canadas National Park and finishing on the coast, a walk that I estimated would take the average walker around three days. I had already explored the first two days finishing at the spectacularly situated La Centinela mirador and restaurant, I now had to find a way down to the coast. From the mirador, I could see that an obvious path led down in the direction of the coast but I could also see that later on, the route could get tricky, one of the main obstacles being the TF-1 motorway. Consulting my IGN 1:25,000 maps, I could see only one viable route across this formidable barrier, a road tunnel under the motorway at the edge of Llano Del Camello. For most walkers, road walking is probably the most despised surface of all, and particularly busy ones. I set off from La Centinela in glorious sunshine and followed the excellent camino downhill as I enjoyed the views of the high mountains and also down to the coast. Crossing the Aldea Blanca road, I followed an old water channel just below the crest of a ridge to Llano del Camello where I picked up the road close to the motorway. After a short section passing a banana plantation, the road disappeared into a dark tunnel with no pavement and I hurried quickly through, staying as close as I could to the wall as cars roared past me. Once through, I followed the busy road into Guargacho before finally leaving it for a track by a football field and out onto the coastal plain. It was a relief to be in quiet countryside again as I followed the paths on the map down to the coast at Las Colmenares beach close to Amarilla Golf. After a quick break, I was soon on my way again following the attractive coastal path to Costa del Silencio where I was forced to leave the coast and complete the walk to Las Galletas by (thankfully) quiet roads. Despite the unpleasant road section across the motorway into Guargacho, I had achieved my aim of completing a very varied walk from the crater down to the coast taking in The National Park, the Corona Forestal (pine forest), the Paisaje Lunar (lunar landscape), Vilaflor, Mirador La Centinela, and a section of coastal path.

Tenerife's Split Personality

I was recently reminded on two walks in the Anaga Mountains in the north of the island of the extremely diverse nature of the islands scenery and climate. The mountains form a long, irregular ridge of steep, heavily wooded & sharply pinnacled mountains rising to a little over 3,000ft. The woods comprise of some of the only surviving laurel forests in Europe and provide a contrast to the usual Canary pine trees found in the rest of the island. The rich soil is a another contrast with the south of the island and local people working in the fields growing potatoes and other crops is a common sight. On these walks, I led two groups of walkers along the same route within the space of a week and the two trips could not have been more different. The objective of both walks was the troglodyte village of Chinamada, which is a tiny hamlet of houses built directly into the rocky hillsides. These cave houses were common at one time in the Canaries as they remain cool in the summer and warm in the winter, so suit the more variable temperatures of the mountainous regions. The route took us through the laurel forests and along paths giving us spectacular views into the nearby valleys and down to the northern coast at Punta del Hidalgo. On the first of these trips, we walked in beautiful blue skies and warm sunshine with views across the Barranco de Tomadero to the tiny village of El Batan, clinging to the steep-sided valley. In the background, just visible through the haze, the towering peak of Teide watched over us as we admired the bellflowers and lillies adorning the paths and terraces along the way. In Chinamada, the quaint old cave houses (photo) set into the rocky hillsides looked a little like a scene fron the hobbit village in Lord of the Rings. Leaving the village, we followed a path out to the spectacular viewpoint of Mirador de Aguaide with it's dizzying views down to the sea almost 2,000ft below and watched walkers toiling up the steep path from the coast on their way to the village. The second trip, just one week later, showed the darker side of the islands personality as we set off from the Cruz del Carmen carpark in heavy rain, blustery wind and fog. Descending into the laurel forest, we encountered paths running with water and strewn with fallen trees and rocks, which we carefully picked our way around. Descending into a steep ravine, we crossed a fast flowing stream below a waterfall. Normally, this ravine is dry so it was a surprise, albeit a pleasant one, to hear the sound of water rushing down through the woods to the sea. Crossing the stream, we descended to Chinamada and were grateful as the weather slowly improved and the skies cleared. One of the things that made these walks special for me, even though I have walked the route a number of times, was the reaction to the Anaga scenery from both groups of walkers, which is completely different from any they had witnessed on previous visits to the island. They all found it difficult to believe that they were only an hour or so away from the south coast resorts. Another big difference noted by all was the abundant flora along the walk. Besides the obvious difference in the laurel trees, they were surprised by the varied amount of plant species never seen in the south.

On both walks, we sat in the square by the little church in Chinamada for a break and a rest before passing through the attractive mountain village of Las Carboneras on the long climb back to the car-park at Cruz del Carmen. At the end of both walks, it was very satisfying for me to listen to the appreciative comments as we drove back from the lush greenery to the more desert-like scenery of the south. Tenerife had proved, to these walkers at least, that it is definitely an island with a split personality.

Discovering Tenerife's Secret Paths

One of my favourite pastimes when out walking is discovering new routes. Recently, I studied the 1:25,000 IGN map for the Adeje area to try and create a circular route above the Barranco del Infierno. This famous landmark in the south of the island is walked by thousands of tourists every year who follow the pathway to the waterfall at the head of the barranco and return by the same route. Lately, the authorities have restricted access to the walk, ostensibly to try and control erosion damage caused by the large numbers walking the route. While I can see some of the reason for the restrictions, it always makes me feel uneasy when routes such as this become 'pay as you walk' and I am glad that I walked the route before it became a paying attraction and too pedestrianised for my liking. Having said this, you can still walk the route for free on a Sunday. However, an excellent alternative to the crowded barranco are the many paths above, where you can roam at will to the numerous fantastic viewpoints looking down into it.

One of the problems with devising your own routes in Tenerife is that the maps, unlike UK Ordnance Survey maps, do not accurately record paths, so what appears on the map does not necessarily appear on the ground, and vice-versa. Checking mine, I noticed that there appeared to be paths allowing a circular route high above the barranco taking in all of the viewpoints along the way. After a number of false starts, I found the path on the map leading high up into the mountains before crossing the Barranco de la Fuente and circling round and back down towards the Barrranco del Infierno. As I skirted around the top, I succesfully found my way to the three stunning viewpoints, one on each side and one looking down the length of this impressive ravine, before returning to my start point. Although the latter section of the route followed a popular trail, I did not pass one other walker on the whole walk. I always get a special 'buzz' when I plan a route that starts as an idea on the map and then tranfers successfully to the ground. It is so much more satisfying than just following a route from a guidebook. The other bonus is that, because these paths do not appear in any guidebooks, you often have the place to yourself giving the walk a greater feeling of adventure.

Book a Guided Walk

Walking in unfamiliar terrain in your own country can be a frustrating enough experience but when you are on holiday abroad, it can sometimes be a daunting prospect. You know the feeling, you're trying to decipher the route description in the guidebook, struggling with the language and inadequate maps, stressed out from driving on the wrong side of the road to the start of the walk etc. etc..... What should be a wonderful trip in beautiful scenery can turn into a frustrating, tiring experience when all you want to do is enjoy walking on a beautiful island in the sun. Why not book a walk through my website and save yourself all of the hassle? I have many years walking experience, guiding myself on long, multi-day trips through hilly and mountainous terrain as well as leading group walks for my local Ramblers group in the UK. I offer a good range of routes to choose from in all parts of the island and can offer trips from Los Cristianos by local bus for those on a budget or a tailor-made service by air-conditioned MPV if you wish to explore further afield. Check out my website at www.cyberhiker.co.uk and make your walking trip to Tenerife the pleasurable, relaxing experience you dreamed of.

Birthday Cake-walk

Last Thursday was my birthday. To celebrate this momentous event, I went to the Las Canadas National Park with my wife Ann for an easy stroll around the park in the shadow of the huge bulk of the volcano, Teide. Strolling from the Parador (state run hotel), we left the tourists behind and headed for the low, sandy coloured mound of Montana Majua, facing the cable-car station at the foot of the volcano. Thursday in Tenerife is a hunting day and as we wound our way through the harsh volcanic landscape, we spotted a number of hunters on top of a rocky ridge ahead. As we neared the ridge, we passed a pack of hunting dogs foraging in the shrubs and cacti looking for rabbits as the hunters looked on from above. Leaving the hunters to their search, we approached Montana Majua and climbed to the summit. From here we had a terrific 360 degree view of the huge volcanic crater we were walking through. The mountains on the southern wall of the crater created an impressive sight but the star of the show was Teide, filling the entire view to the north. We watched the cable-car taking another car-load of tourists to within a couple of hundred metres of the summit as we descended to a wide, dusty track below. We followed this back to the parador, passing the old sanitorium buildings nestled silently among the rocks as we headed for the ever-expanding view of Montana Guajara, Tenerife's fourth highest peak at around 9,000ft. Picking up the Siete Canadas trail at the base of the crater wall, we passed beneath this imposing mountain, admiring the rock formation of Piedras Amarillas as we completed the easy circuit back the the parador. The easy stroll through the stunning scenery of one of Spains most visited and unusual National Parks was a lovely way to spend three hours of my birthday. We finished the day off with a visit to one of our favourite restaurants in Los Cristianos.