Back home from Tenerife, to the nigh impossible task of selecting a few pictures from the hundreds taken, and sifting the memories into a condensed format for anyone unfortunate enough to be in our vicinity over the next few days. We stayed here and once we got there, which was not easy, we found it very difficult to leave, so we basically spent our time in the national park. The park is largely made up of the caldera of El Teide, the volcano. It sits above the clouds and the tree line. Teide is nearly 4 kilometres high, the caldera is from the original top which slid off. The land around is lunar, Martian, other worldly, call it what you will, strewn with lava, obsidian, pumice, bizarre rock formations and endlessly fascinating natural structures. The forces involved are mind boggling, a stern reminder of what can happen when Nature Gets Upset. Anyway, I see I have 248 pictures of rocks, which would test the loyalty of the most devoted chum/family member, so from a journey which included interacting with some of the least and most helpful people in Tenerife, much star gazing, a walk in the desert, a trip to the observatories, the cable car up the volcano, some truly scary roads (some sweary conversations with the sat nav), a selection below. Thanks in no particular order to: the chap at the airport who phoned a hotel for us on his moby, when it became obvious we weren’t going to make it to Las Cañadas that night; the breakdown services and tow truck guy; everyone who stopped beside us on the TF 56whatever to ask if they could help – we now know the Spanish for “Eh, the clutch is knackered, pal”, well Paul can make the vroom vroom noises; and the man in the bar who made us fried garlic chicken and rice at 10 pm when the Barca match was on the tv.
Tenerife, what you call a road we call a precipice, but we love you and we’ll be back.