TENERIFE

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Moira still in pain on TENERIFE.

Monday 9 March.

We were hoping to take the bus to Santa Cruz today rather than having a walk because of Moira's sore back. She was still in pain when she go up and even just going to the city it would still involve a lot of walking around so we decided to have another day in and she dosed up on pain killers.

After breakfast we listened to some of the Country Music that we could still get on 'catch up' even though the pop-up channel, as they called it, had finished. We read the newspaper until after 10 am when I got ready for the gym. Moira's back was feeling a bit better after the painkillers had taken effect and went out as well to Lidl for a few odds and ends we needed. She was going to get the heavy stuff like, milk, beer and wine at the supermarket at the gate and when I came back from the gym I would meet her and carry them up to the flat.

The haze of the last couple of day's had cleared and it was beautiful again, and becoming very warm. I started off at the gym with a short session with the light dumbbells to warm up then some balancing on the half sphere. My workout was for legs and upper body. I was happy with my efforts on the leg press machine and have now reached 100kg for 20 reps. I did a few ab exercises before heading back to the flat. Moira was waiting at the gate, when I arrived back, with the heavy shopping that I took upstairs for her.

It was lunch out on the veranda and then in the afternoon we listened to more of the Country Music on the radio. I managed to finish the prize crossword in yesterday's 'Telegraph' and submitted it. There was a programme on the radio about the life of Jim Reeves. It was another of these programmes where they think it is more important to talk about the music than to just play it and let us listen and make up our own minds whether it is good or bad and whether we like it or not.

It was quiz night on TV, the usual Monday. The early ones as normal then later 'Uni Challenge' and 'Only Connect'. There was football on tonight and I watched most of the second half after the quiz. It was Man. U. v Arsenal, another FA Cup quarter final tie. Arsenal won 2-1 and I was pleased with the result. I can remember in 2000 when Man U refused to enter the cup because the FA or the Government forced the to take part in an International Club contest in South America to somehow promote the English bid to host the 2006 World Cup finals which they didn't get anyway. Ferguson took umbrage and said if they had to enter this competition they would be too tired when they returned to play in the FA Cup. Now they are back to telling us how important the FA Cup is to the club!! That is why I like to see them getting knocked out.

Moira had gone to bed early when the football came on and was sleeping when I turned in. Her back had improved and maybe we can go out somewhere tomorrow.

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Monday, 9 March 2015

Moira has a sore back on TENERIFE.

Sunday 8 March.

Moira didn't sleep very well last night because of her back and it seemed to be more painful when she got up in the morning, so we weren't going out anywhere today. She was still able to make our 'full English' breakfast as usual for a Sunday, it was very nice. I put on 'Match of the Day', but there was only one league game and two cup ties one I saw last night and the other was a nil nil draw. I gave it a miss and listened to Country Music on the radio, today's temporary station didn't begin until mid-day so I listened to some from yesterday on 'catch-up'. I read the newspaper, tried today's crossword while listening to the music until about 10:30am when I headed for the gym.

It was still hazy over the sea and the mountains, also it was cooler today as I walked up the hill to the sports centre. I started with 60 sit-ups, planks ( 90sec front and 45sec side), 100 twists and 30 hip extensions. That was one superset and I did another two of them through the session with a number of other exercises in between. These other exercises were a mixture for upper body and legs. It was a good hard session and as I had the keys with me to get back into the complex I wasn't in a hurry and ended up with a 90 minute workout.

It was lunchtime when I got back then we spent the afternoon out on the veranda listening to our favourite Sunday radio programmes. In the evening the TV was good, after 'Countryfile' and 'Call the Midwife' there was a remake of 'Poldark', a period drama set in Cornwall. The original was shown in the 70's but I didn't watch it then. It was all right and promises to be a good series.

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Sunday, 8 March 2015

Weather not so nice on TENERIFE.

Saturday 7 March.

Moira's back was still sore this morning but we went for a short walk after breakfast. She was going to Lidl for a few things we were short off and I said I would walk with her then we we would continue along the top 'contour road' to the gym. It was very warm when we went out but it was hazy and the island of La Gomera couldn't be seen on the other side of the water. But at least there isn't any rain.

We spent about half an hour in Lidl just looking around, but all Moira bought was a jar of coffee, mini Bounty bars and mayonnaise. They had running shorts at a reasonable price but only extra extra large ones were left. It was then a pleasant walk round the top to the gym. Moira continued home while I went in for my hour's workout.

Today I was concentrating mainly on my arms. I warmed them up with a good session with the dumbbells gradually increasing the weights. I did some balancing and press-ups before getting to the main session. It was curls for my biceps in various positions, dips and pull downs for the triceps and reverse curls for my forearms. I finished off with a couple of ab exercises, twists and sit-ups before heading home.

When I got back it was lunch time and we sat out on the veranda for it. I had the radio on through the iPad and we listened to it all afternoon, the temp Country Music channel. I managed the prize crossword in the 'Telegraph' and submitted it. I then read until time for the football results. Morton lost to Forfar 2-0, not very good for their prospects of promotion. After the results there was a Quarter Final FA Cup tie between Aston Villa and WBA live on the TV. The first half was poor but the football after half time was much better and Villa won 2-0. There was a pitch invasion by the Vila fans at the end that had the commentators on their 'high horses' with condemnation of the 'unruly fans' and that we hadn't had anything like this for decades! I was surprised that during all this commotion there were police standing all around the edge of the pitch, and that was what they continued to do, just stand there watching and took no action.

After dinner the TV turned out to be not too bad for a Saturday evening. There was an interesting programme about the history of light, that is from candles through the light bulb to neon and lasers. Then it was the next part of this guy's travels through the Southern States of America investigating the history of their music. It was quite interesting but it's another programme where they think that talking about the music is somehow more important that actually just listening to it.

It was late when we got to bed tonight, 10:30pm. Moira had taken an anti-inflammatory suppository and that seemed to be helping her back.

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Saturday, 7 March 2015

After yesterday's long walk relaxing on TENERIFE.

Chinyero eruption 1909.

Chinyero 2015.

Friday 6 March.

Moira found a picture on the Internet showing the eruption of Chinyero in 1909. Above is that photograph and the comparison with the view now.

Today was another easy day other than my workout at the gym. Moira had fallen yesterday near the end of the walk and landed on her back. This morning when she wakened it was very sore and she decided to give it a rest today. She did come out with me on the way to the gym but didn't go up the hill, instead she continued to Mercadona supermarket and then headed back to the flat.

It was another hot and sunny day, already at 9 am, and it warmed me up by the time I reached the gym. I started with some exercises on my legs; leg extensions, hamstring curls, leg presses and squats leaning against the wall with the big ball. Next it was my upper body with; chest presses machine, lat pull downs, pec deck, and upright rowing. Finally it was a few exercises for my abs; hip extensions and sit-ups. It was even warmer as I walked back to the flat. I met Moira on the road she had gone to the agent's office and bought another's months Internet access. We now have two access numbers until next week, she had bought the extra one to get a full month for her money before we leave on April 1.

When I got in I settled down with a cup of coffee and worked on my account of yesterday's visit and walk round the volcano for my blog. After lunch I did a crossword while listening to the radio. There is new temporary radio station, Radio 2 Country, with Country Music as a build up to a music festival at the week-end. It was quite enjoyable music. When I finished the crossword I edited another few days of my VF diary in preparation for a book.

The evening was a normal Friday for TV after the early quizzes. After 'Mastermind' we had the 'Three Musketeers' then it was off to bed.

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Friday, 6 March 2015

Chinyero another volcano on TENERIFE.

Thursday 5 March.

It was walking today again. The route was to another volcano, Chinyero, and the start was at the same place we began the walk to the Valle de Ariba last week. We caught our normal bus at 7:20 am and it was up to Santiago del Teide then over the pass to the stop just before Erjos. From there it was up the side road where we picked up the concreted path beside the farm house.

Forest walk to Chinyero.

El Teide and Viejo.

Lava field.

There's a woodpecker up there!

The weather was completely different from the last time here. The sky was cloudless, not a breath of wind and it was very warm already. We has our fleeces on but once the path began the steep climb to the col we had to stop and get them off and into the daypack. Once we reached the road at the top it was just a short distance to the roundabout and the start of the marked trail. Our route went to the left this time and the signpost said, Chinyero 3.8 km., it was a wide well laid-out path and easy going. Soon we entered a pine forest and now underfoot it was a bed of pine needles. It was a steady climb and through the trees we captured glimpses of El Teide and now we recognised the mountain in front of it as Pico Viejo. At one point we stopped when we heard the rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker high in the trees. We searched the branches and foliage above but couldn't see it though the noise was close and very distinct. As we got higher lava from the last eruption of the volcano was thickly distributed among the trees. The lava gradually became thicker and as we approached the volcano there was a huge lava field with some strangely shaped standing pillars constructed of volcanic debris.

Lava rock.

Chinyero.

Chinyero through the trees.

We now came to the start of the circular path round the volcano; it was the Chinyero Circuit 5.7 km. There was a map and the trail going to Santiago del Teide was shown to start nearby and I estimated that it was a distance of about 8 km. Moira was doubtful if we could do the circuit and then make it to Santiago del Teide in time for the bus just after 4 pm. I suggested that we walk along part of the circuit then come back again after about half an hour. The start was across the lava field and there was some large sharp rocks on the path and it was slow going. I reckoned it would take longer than usual and might be doubtful about catching the bus. Fortunately the path improved and underfoot it was more like fine pumice then we entered a pine forest again with a carpet of pine needles. The route was fairly flat and we were now making good time and I decided that we should carry on and if the worst came to the worst we would just have to wait for a later bus. It wasn't quite clear what hill was Chinyero and the ones we were near weren't very impressive. As we travelled further round suddenly we came to what was unmistakably the volcano and it was a beautiful mountain. There were signs telling us to keep to the path and under no circumstances to climb the volcano as the environment is very fragile. We were now glad we had continued round the circuit it was absolutely magnificent and one of the best walks we had done. All our fears of running out of time were miscounted when we arrived round at the Santiago del Teide turn-off in only 90 minutes, it had been a very fast track with only short sections over lava that tended to slow us down.

A beautiful old tree among the pines.

Path strewn with pine needles.

Monument at end of lava flow of 1909.

Panorama of mountains at Santiago del Teide.

As we turned off the circuit we saw some mountain bikers come along, I don't know what damage the sharp lava does to their tyres. Our track was wide again over pine needles, there were trees on one side and on the other the lava stretched in a wide channel up to the section of the volcano where the eruption had occurred. From the junction the signpost said 7.4 km to Santiago del Teide, shorter than I had estimated from the map. We walked until 1pm then stopped under a tree where we had lunch. Now we had plenty of time and we stretched out in the sun after eating and relaxed for half an hour before continuing. We were now out of the trees and underfoot it became rocky but it didn't slow us down much. The next junction we reached was where the track joined the one from Santiago del Teide to Arguaya; that was one of our first walks on Tenerife. It was now over another lava field and at the end of it was the shrine and cross where the villagers had prayed when Chimyero erupted and the lava flow stopped in 1909. They built these memorials as a remembrance of their salvation and there was a pilgrimage held each year until 1970 from the church in Santiago del Teide.

From the shrine it was downhill all the way to the town. The track was all right but a bit rocky in places. We kept at a steady pace and it was 3:15 pm when we got the the centre of the town giving us an hour to wait for the bus. We went to the pub and had a large beer and sat outside to drink it. The weather was completely different from the last time when we waited for the bus, then there was a bitterly cold wind blowing. This time the sun was still shining brightly and there was no wind, very pleasant having our beer 'al fresco'. The bus arrived early, 4:10pm and he seemed to be in a hurry as he speeded down the hill and swinging the bus round the bends. At one point there was a traffic jam at a bend with another bus coming up. As they slowly passed one another there was a bang as the wing mirror on the other bus got whacked. I though there would be a long delay to exchange insurance particulars etc but once they cleared each other we drove on and there wasn't any concern if there had been any damaged. Even with his speeding it still took half an hour to get back to the flat.

When we got in I made a cup of coffee then downloaded today's photos to the Notebook. After that it was time for the quizzes on TV and to relax. After dinner I worked on a crossword and it must have been easy, I finished it quite quickly. Later there was a new drama series about the convict settlements in Australia. From the trailers it sounded promising but before it started they warned about strong language so we didn't bother with it. Instead there was a programme on ITV about the best 20 hit parade No 1's from the 70's. It was good and I predicted the top one, 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen.

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Thursday, 5 March 2015

It's getting hot on TENERIFE.

Wednesday 4 March.

We both went to the gym this morning. I made the breakfast and we read for a while before getting off just after 9 am. It was another beautiful day and warm this early in the morning. When we got to the gym Moira came in to the weight room and tried out the balancing on the half sphere. She didn't do very and was frightened she was going to fall off, she went to the cardio studio instead and did some cycling and rowing.

After doing some balancing myself on the sphere and the medicine ball I quickly warmed my upper body with a short session using the light dumbbells. Next it was a workout for my chest and back getting up to some big weights. I was finishing off with some crunches and leg raises for my abs when Moira arrived having finished her hour's session. We strolled back in the now very warm sunshine.

Last night after transferring the photographs I had taken at El Teide to the Notebook, I left it connected to the Internet and let it upload the pictures to Google+. It was all completed by the morning. Now I wrote up an account of the trip to the volcano for my blog and inserted some of the better photos. I then published it.

The afternoon was spent listening to 'catch-up' radio and reading. I also managed to finish yesterday's crossword in the 'Telegraph' before it was time to come in to watch the quizzes on TV. Later the only thing we wanted to watch was the second part of the documentary about 'Votes for Women'. It was very good and looking at the attitudes during Victorian times concerning women's rights they weren't very much different to what is objected to concerning the Muslims.

We got to bed intending to read but I was very tired and fell asleep with the iPad in my hand Moira switched it off and put it on to charge before turning out the light.

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Wednesday, 4 March 2015

El Teide, the volcano on TENERIFE.

Tuesday 3 March.

We were up at 7 am for breakfast and got ready for the bus to Las Americas. Moira filled the flask and made sandwiches for lunch and we were on our way. It was the express bus we caught and now that we were both used to the route and nothing new to see we took out iPads with us and read as we travelled to Las Americas bus station.

We caught the same connection that took us to Arona last week for our walk from there. It was expensive costing €29 and we hoped that was a return ticket. We got good views of the mountains Conde, Imoque and Brezos us the bus climbed further up through the spread-out settlement of Ifonche to the next town of Vilaflor. A few people with day packs and hiking poles got of the bus there so there was obviously some hiking routes starting there. From Vilaflor we continued to climb on a winding zigzag road through first of all a dense pine forest. As we got higher the trees thinned out as the ground became more and more rocky and the vegetation got sparse. Next it change to a lava strewn desert with a few cacti but mostly rocky cliffs and jagged pillars of of rock as we passed into the crater of the original volcano. The peak of El Teide was a subsequent eruption many thousands of years ago that built up a secondary crater.

The bus stopped at the Parador, an expensive hotel and the El Teide National Park centre. There was a 10 minute break there while the driver had a rest after his hectic drive up the twisting narrow road. We had a walk about and had a good view of the peak of El Teide. There were a lot of cars parked along the road and lots of people climbing a set of tall jagged rocks, Roques de Garcia, further along the road. When the driver came back and we got going again we had a choice, either to get off at the cable car station or go to the terminus further along the road to the visitor's centre at El Portilla. We weren't sure what was at the visitor's centre and decide to get off at the cable car station and go to the top.

This was expensive as well, €52, but we couldn't travel all the way here and not go to the top. There was a queue for the cable car and we had to wait about half an hour before we were on the way up. I was bit worried coming down again because if there was a hold-up and as there was only one bus back, we had to catch it or get stranded. It took 6 minutes to get to the top cable station so now I wasn't too worried about getting down in time if there were 10 an hour. The car was very crowded and we were cramped in,so didn't get a good view as it climbed. There was window open in the car and the air blowing in was very cold and when we got off there was snow lying about. We had our fleeces on but put rain jackets on top, we also had long trousers on today. This was a wise move as we were now quite comfortable compared with some people in only shorts and t-shirts and open sandals with bare feet.

Before we got onto the cable car they sold us a pamphlet of walks at the top for €2. There were 3 walks from the cable car station. One in each direction to view points while the third went to the crater at the top. The numbers doing the walk to the crater was restricted for ecological reasons and to do it you had to obtain a permit; I didn't think we would have time to do that one anyway. We took firstly the one to the east, which went to the Mirador de La Fortaleza. It was a good path at first but became rough and rocky as it crossed the lava field. The people on the path weren't walkers, slow and clogging up the trail; we had to push past some of them. We were now at an altitude of 3500m and the air being very thin caused us to gasp for breath especially on any rises we encountered along the path. The view at the look-out point was obscured by the cloud that was lying below us. The sides of the mountain from here were covered in snow and contrasted strikingly with the black lava. Near the Mirador there was another path that came up from the road at the bottom. The sign said that it was a difficult descent estimated to take 4hours 30 minutes. I spoke to an English guy coming up but he said he had just walked down about 500 m before turning back up, he said it started as a nice gravel track gradually sloping down but soon became very rocky and steep where he turned back. We decided to investigate ourselves and walked down for about 10 minutes. It did get rougher and as the view wasn't particularly good we headed back up again. We met a young couple who had walked up from the bottom and they said it wasn't too difficult. When I examined the route description again I found that although it was very high altitude the climb, it started at 2348m to finish at 3555m, so was a climb of just over 1200m, a good Munro! Though the thin air would make it hard going.

Back on the track we made our way gain to the cable car station, Estacion Superior, and picked up the path to the western look-out point. This was a much better path, not so rocky but it did drop quite a bit as it zigzag to the Mirador Pico Viego, 3497 m. Here the view was a lot better and we could see building of the towns on the coast. A profile map pin-pointing spots of interest that allowed us to pick things out along the horizon. The high points on the island of La Palma were visible above the clouds in the distance but we couldn't see anything of La Gomera. The towns we could see we took to be Puerto de la Cruz, Santiago del Teide and Las Americas. Below was clearly the 800m in diameter crater of the Pico Viego and further behind the mountains around the outer edges of the original crater with Parador in front. Another route descended from here and crossed the summit of Pico Viego. After lots of photographs we made our way back to the cable car station.

There wasn't any queue for the cars going down so we decided to have our lunch sitting on the wall while soaking up the scenery. We sat beside a group of guys who told us they had just run up, it took them 2 hours and the distance was 8 km, they were having something to eat before running down again. They were from England and had come out for 3 days especially to do this run. They were training for a 6 day event running across the Sahara Desert. We got talking about long distance running and ultimately the Comrades which they want to do sometime. I told them about a lot of the ultra distance and mountain races I had done and we had a good chat. They were all, we guessed, to be in their 40's and it made we envious that I wasn't that age and able to take part in these marvellous endurance events.

After lunch we made our way down again. There had been a bit of a queue building up at the station but we got on the second car and soon at the bottom again. As we had about 90 minutes before the bus arrived we decided to walk to the Parador and catch it when it came through there. As we descended to the road there was a path clearly visible on the other side that crossed over a small rise in the general direction of the hotel. Sure enough when we crossed the road there was a signpost on the track pointing to the Parador. We followed it up and over the rise and then on the other side it seemed to be taking a route away from where we wanted to go; we followed it for about 10 minutes but it must have been taking a long loop. We had been walking for 30 minutes and the bus was arriving in 45 minutes, we decided to turn round and head back to the cable car station again. It was now fast going as we stretched our legs and picked up the pace. It still took another 30 minutes to get back and we were only relaxing on a seat for about 5 minutes when we saw the bus turn off the main road and come up the hill to where we were.

When the bus reached the Parador the driver had a 10 minute break again and quite a lot of people got on. I don't know where they all came from as there being only one bus each day, I would have thought only the ones that came on the bus this morning would be going back. There was another bus there that was heading for Puerto de la Cruz, a long queue was waiting to get on it and when it left there were people having to stand. It took an hour to get to Los Cristianos and we spent the time gazing out the window at the tremendous scenery. On the way up we were on the inside seats but now we made sure to get on the side with the best views. After the flat sandy looking surface of the old crater we started to drop through the rocky Alpine desert to the slopes covered in pine trees that got thicker and thicker as we dropped. Then after Vilaflor it was the mountain around Arona before reaching the coast at Los Cristianos. It was slow going to Las Americas as we were now in the rush hour traffic and we just missed the express bus when we eventually arrived at the terminus.

We didn't have long to wait when a normal 'slow' bus arrived and we were on our way home. We read our books on the iPads and the journey didn't seem to take so long. We missed the quizzes on the TV tonight, it was nearly 7pm when we got in. Moira heated up a pizza for dinner so it wasn't long before we were having our meal. We watched a couple of programmes from the Freeview recorder tonight. One was the about the life of the singer Nat 'King' Cole which was good and then Andrew Marr's 'History of Modern Britain'. This episode was about WW2 and was quite interesting.

It had been a hard day, probably partly due to the altitude and we were very tired. We got to bed at 9:45pm but there wasn't any reading tonight, we were soon sleeping.

EL TEIDE PHOTO ALBUM