The big question on everyone’s lips in recent months was what would they be doing for the two bank holidays. Given the fact that the Royal Wedding gives us an extra bank holiday you could effectively take only three days off from work but still benefit from a 10 day break. I hadn’t really thought about my plans much – instead when I was in Oz two separate trips on the two bank holiday weekend was planned for me. I just had to give my credit card details. Heh heh. As a result I ended up working a day in between the two bank holidays but I think this actually worked out quite well as it gave me a chance to recharge.

As it turned out both weekend were trips away to Spain, the first was to Tenerife with Laney and Jonny and the second to San Sebastian with Su Yin. I’ve heard that Tenerife is the party island, or it would be if you stayed where all the tourists/hen parties/stag dos stay – in Playa de las Americas. But it turns out we were there to explore the natural wonders of the island instead.

Weather	Warm and sunny at first degenerating to showers by the time we left
Tips	Get a car. Get an updated Tom Tom or invest in a decent map. Unless you’re happy to stay in one spot you will need the car to get around and the Tom Tom to work out where to go.
	Allow plenty of time to get around the island. Roads are extremely windy (to get around all those peaks and troughs) and what looks like a ten-minute journey by the way the bird flies is in reality much longer due to the winding roads and low driving speeds.
	Many restaurants in quieter places are often closed come about 9.30 or 10.00 so best bet for food is to head, unfortunately, into party central at places like Playa de las Americas.

The Experience

I hadn’t really thought about it but Tenerife is MILES away from London. I guess if I’d bothered to look at a map beforehand I would have realised that it was further even than Morocco! At any rate, we started with an early morning flight on a Friday morning and it wasn’t until late afternoon that we finally settled in at our hotel at Puerto de Santiago on the West Coast of the island. It was almost an hour drive from the airport and at first the novelty of the twisty roads caught our interest but after a while we just wanted to get to the hotel, get into our cossies, get some food and then get on to the beach!

The day we arrived weather wise was probably the nicest and warmest of the three that we were in Tenerife. After lunch on a particular sunny terrace overlooking the beach we headed down to wait out the sunset (by then it was nearly 5pm! The beach had a lovely black fine sand which sparkled beautifully in the sun light. Took in the heat like you wouldn’t believe though and it got everywhere … especially if you throw it on someone! LOL.

I wonder if many people take the sand away from the beach because there was this sign on the beach.

It really was pretty stuff.

On our second day in Tenerife we had planned to climb Mount Teide, a volcano and the third highest volcano in the world from its base. It is still active but last erupted in the early 1900s … so we felt pretty safe with the plan to walk up it. The day dawned beautiful and bright but it was wicked as all get up. You could feel that a storm or something crazy was just around the corner. It was weird because one moment it would be like this:

And the next it would be like this!

The drive to Mount Teida and around the National Park was dotted with some lovely scenery. There is something about the volcanic ashes that gives something different to the local fauna.

When we got to the information point we were disappointed to find that they had closed the final climb up to the peak of Mount Teide due to the conditions. To get to the top you actually have to apply for a pass. I guess to ensure that they know who has gone up and to be able to account for numbers for safety reasons. At any rate the highest point that could be reached the day we climbed it was the rest point at 3,260 m on the No.7 trail and just under 7km in distance. 500m short of the 3,718m peak but to me still quite an achievement.

To say that we were hardly prepared for the walk would have been an understatement, and me probably the least prepared. All we had were our trainers and not nearly enough water for the entire walk. Seeing the looks on the faces of the “real” hikers in all their hiking gear, with their sticks, etc. was vastly entertaining. But hey, we made it in the end, even if it took me over three and a half hours to climb (the walk down was ridiculously shorter taking only two and a half hours!) The map at the start said the entire climb (to the peak of 3,718m one presumes) should take five and a half hours, rating diffulty, HIGH!

Jonny was heaps faster, at least 45 minutes if not more, and Laney was not much further behind him. Laney was really good though – she was trying to stick with me but in the end I sent her off because I felt bad for holding her back. I have to be honest, there was a stage on the walk right at the end when I thought, stuff this, I can’t make it I’m just going to sit back on these rocks and sunbake until the other two get back down! But the hikers who were coming back down from the peak were very encouraging and I did make it in the end. It was definitely one of the hardest walks I’ve ever had to do, especially as it was so windy at times that I thought we would actually get blown off the mountain! And it got soooooo cold despite the sun. At the peak it was actually something like 5 degrees!!

It is a stunning walk with a landscape that reminded me a lot of Arizona … but it was a huge relief when we finally made it back to the car. Exhausted (and starving!) much!

That evening we returned to our hotel to find the little village (cause the night before we’d concluded it was a sleepy little family village) were getting set to have a big party! There was this huge music marathon with live bands in this square near the water. Clearly a huge community thing. Disturbingly there were young girls, and by young I mean no older than thirteen surely, in extremely short and skimpy dresses and high heels. It was loads of fun.

Because one walk wasn’t enough for us the next day we decided to take another walk … but this time on a peak which wasn’t so challenging. I was even less prepared than the day before though. Once again I was tricked by the fact that the day started warm, but by the time we got to the walk it had cooled down a bit so I had to resort to using my towel to keep me warm. Actually, I had brought a sweater but had left it at the hotel at breakfast.

This walk felt like we were walking on the moon!

When we were done the weather had really taken a turn for the worst. Very disappointing as we had been looking forward to spending some time with Mr Sun baking us brown!

With very little sun in sight we decided to drive around the island. It got well hairy at times when the twisting winding narrow roads became one lane and it was pot luck that a car wasn’t going to come screaming around the corner. Then we got a flat tire!!! … but Jonny and Laney proved they were handy at replacing it. Shame that our insurance covered pretty much everything … except blowing a tire! Would have been better to drive the car off a steep hill and into the ocean!

Lunch was at Garachico …

… before we finished with a further drive along the coast to watch our final sunset for our visit.