A perfect end to our trip

With half a day to fill between our arrival in Tenerife on the ferry from La Gomera and our flight departure for Edinburgh, we followed the advice of our friendly guide Juan Miguel and picked up a hire car from CiCar at the port - €39 all in for the day with fully comp insurance and no worries about checking for scratches and dents etc.

Drove along the coast to a little fishing village- Tajao- which has so far avoided the mass tourism crowd and had an excellent lunch at Agua y Sal.

While we stood waiting for our table we had a chat with one of the waiters about the fish on display and chose the three courses of our meal - Grilled langoustine and Scallops to start, Spaghetti a la Marinara to follow and  sardine and tuna brochettas to finish. A reasonable half litre of ice cold white wine to wash it down and a cafe solo to follow - all for less than £50. Just the sort of meal that Bernie G would have enjoyed - and probably still does.

Due the onset of the Scirocco wind from the Sahara, the temperature was hovering around 37C and really too hot for anything other than a quick stroll around the port and back to the air-conditioned comfort of the airport terminal and hordes of our compatriots who have gone from the blue-white skin tone of their arrival to something akin to the that of the grilled langoustine we had for lunch.

Leaving La Gomera

We have talked about coming here for a walking holiday for about 12 years - so it was good to finally make the trip. Really enjoyed the island and the walking - probably as challenging as I would choose now.

Will have to plan another trip in a year or two.

The final walk

For our last walk, we hiked to the top of the island – Alto de Garajonay. Great view point although the cloud was just clearing as we started the walk.

From there we headed cross country to La Cercada and the local pottery centre – where we weren’t really tempted by their artisan products – and then on to Chipude and Sonia’s Bar and restaurant for our lunch stop. Great food but a bit more than we needed since we still had 2-3 hours of walking which finished with a climb to the top of La Forteleza.

Aside from the guide, Linda and I were the only ones to go all the way to the view point at the top – which was hidden in the cloud when we got there. The descent was a bit more challenging than the ascent but a great finish to the day and to our week of walking.

Short taxi ride home in time for shower and pre-dinner drinks. Unfortunately, Linda was laid low by something in the lunch and had to retire before dinner – thankfully nothing major and she was back to normal in time for breakfast.

On our own for the last day – all our fellow walkers departed at the crack of sparrow-fart this morning – 7.00am ferry to Los Cristianos and their respective flights home. We had a leisurely morning by the pool, strolled into town for lunch, back to the pool for the afternoon and then back into town for dinner. 

While it has been a good holiday it feels like we have been in one place too long – perhaps it would have been better as a two centre holiday – 7-8 nights in one place is too much for me.

Brandy for breakfast

After resting on Saturday, Juan Miguel was keen to get us moving again on Sunday morning, one of the ladies had come down with a head cold so only 6 of us leaving the hotel for the drive to Valle Hermoso. It took nearly an hour to cover 35km over numerous switchbacks and ascents and descents and we were ready for a coffee stop before the start of the walk.

The only place that was open seemed to be the haunt of the towns less salubrious characters – avoided the temptation to join them drinking brandy for breakfast and settled for my regular café solo.

Today’s walk had been billed as a gently undulating trail on the northwest of the island leading to a small chapel and then a coastal path leading us back to town. Since we had driven down to the bottom of the valley, we started – as usual with a long climb – and found that for the first half of the walk, the undulations were decidedly upwards and by the time we reached the chapel – our lunch stop – we were walking in the low cloud.

This stayed with us for walk around the coastal path so that the views were a little limited but cleared as we headed back to town along a path which only undulated  downwards.

Quick coffee stop in town – same place, same clientele still drinking brandy – before we headed back to the hotel. Another pleasant but challenging hike through another very different terrain.

You have to rest sometimes

Day 4 was a rest day – both for the walkers and the guide. We managed a leisurely breakfast, a swim and an hour by the pool before a gentle stroll down to San Sebastian to see the sights and have lunch – excellent grilled sardines – and a slight less gentle climb back up the hill to the hotel.

Another couple of hours by the pool and it was time for dinner – it’s hard work but we are managing!

A walk in the park

By breakfast on day three, the continuing chatter of complaints from our fellow walkers about the ascending and descending trails was almost annoying as the nagging ache in my legs – and there was me thinking I was getting quite fit!

Can’t understand why you come on a walking holiday and then spend your time moaning about the walking. This is a great place for walking with a seemingly endless selection of walking routes – from the hardcore GR routes to gentle routes between the villages – admittedly still with a fair bit of up and down.

Our walk today started in the cloud and mist – almost heavy enough to be classed as rain – but by the time we had walked along the ridge from Arure towards the coast the sun was out

and – with no shade at all – it warmed up quickly. Luckily Juan Miguel took us to the only tree on the entire mountainside for our lunch stop. 

We finished with a mile long descent from about 700m down to sea level. We had time for a swim on the beach but decided to settle for a cold beer instead and a quick paddle before our ride home.

Hotel rooms - only 57 more to try!

Day two saw us walking in the National Park at Garajonay – almost entirely in forest and again always either steeply up or down - with a lunch stop at El Cedro for watercress soup and goat stew.

Amazing contrast from the arid landscape of the previous day and an introduction to the ‘horizontal rain’ which is caused by the mist and low cloud condensing on the leaves of the canopy and keeping the forest lush and green even though there had been no actual rain for months.

We returned to the hotel and our promised room change – room one had twin beds, room two had a double bed but nothing worked, we decided to accept a move to room three even though it had twin beds as it was the only thing they could offer. Unfortunately, the ceiling fan sounded like a Chinook helicopter taking off so within a couple of minutes we were on our way to room four. By this point we had had enough and decided to stay since it seems that the maintenance level in the whole hotel is fairly shabby.

While I can understand the challenges of maintaining all the basic systems of an old hotel, a place which charges these sort of prices could certainly do a lot better.

Still managed time for the pool and cold beer before dinner – which was again excellent – probably the best thing about the hotel.

Walking on La Gomera

Arriving for breakfast we met the other three members of the group, Hillary, Hester and Jill – ladies of a certain age - and were all fit and raring to go by the time our guide – Juan Miguel- arrived for our briefing meeting.

Off to the local market to pick up supplies for our picnic lunch before we got on the road northwards to the start of our first walk – billed as a gentle opening walk – only 5 miles/ 4 hours. Did I mention that the island is unseasonably hot due to the Scirocco wind blowing from the African Coast – it was 25C as we left the hotel and probably peaked at 30C or so after lunchtime. This made the gentle walk a little more challenging particularly when you consider the eroded volcanic landscape through which we descended towards our lunch stop at Benchijigua. 

Each day we have been treated to some great views of Mount Teide on Tenerife - some atmospheric as the mountain peaks out from above the clouds and others where it just seems to appear from nowhere as you round a bend in the track.

The temperature became more of an issue after lunch as we ascended thought the Santiago ravine with little or no shade on our way to Imada where thankfully there was a welcoming bar serving ice cold local beer – and our transport back to the Hotel.

A good introduction to an island where there are few flat surfaces – everything is either a steep climb or a steep descent -  but hotter than expected, and a bit later return so we missed our evening dip in the pool. Had to settle for a hot shower and a cold beer instead.

Back in the air

Our journey to the airport and the check-in went very smoothly but travelling during the week of a school holiday is a challenging experience. While most of the scabby wains were still sleeping in their buggies and baby seats, it was antics of their older siblings which proved challenging – and that’s not to mention the parents.

I know I have led a sheltered life but don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in Scotland choose a bottle of Rosé with their egg and bacon breakfast roll. Still not sure what to make of the couple in the seats across from us who managed 6-7 rounds of ¼ bottles of red wine each on a 4 hour flight without moving from their seats. This shows a capacity for drink and bladder control which would impress even Jimmy C

Luckily the worst of Ophelia’s winds had passed by and our flight south was as comfortable as could be expected.

Arrived in Tenerife on time and, with four hours to kill before the La Gomera Ferry, we managed to squeeze in an excellent lunch on a fish restaurant – with a decent bottle of Albarino  -and an hour or so on a sun lounger of the beach.

We also met the other couple - Geoff & Sue who made up our tour group with three ladies who had arrived earlier still to meet – not sure we will be exchanging Christmas cards but early days.

We arrived at the Parador in San Sebastian just after 19.30 to find that we had been allocated a twin room – got switched to the last available double room in the house only to find that it was in the ‘unimproved’ wing of the hotel. With no immediate solution available, we decided to postpone the complaints till the morning and headed for a  quick shower and dinner – which was excellent .

Hopefully not another false start!

So, three months since we arrived in Edinburgh - and two months since my last post - where has the time gone?

As we await the arrival of the tail end of Ophelia which appears to have hit the area around our old home quite hard, we are packing our bags for a walking holiday on La Gomera and hoping that our flight will get off without any delay in the morning.

Thankfully it seems that most of our friends have survived the storm relatively unscathed - a few fallen trees, power outages etc,. Glad they are all safe and well.