Last day on TENERIFE.

Tuesday 31 March.

 

This was our last day on Tenerife and it was another glorious sunny and warm one. After breakfast I gave the kitchen a good clean while Moira began with the packing. At 10 am I headed for the gym for one final workout.

 

I concentrated on my arms and shoulders with heavy weights for 2x12 reps after a warm-up set with an easy weight. I eased in with a light dumbbell session then it was the side arm raise m/c, preacher curls, shrugs and side bends with dumbbells, dumbbell curls, barbell wrist and forearm curls, and tricep push downs and bench dips. For my abs it was barbell twists, Roman chair crunches, and kneeling cable bends. My last exercise was legs presses and I manage a few sets of 20 reps with 90 kg, I also did heel raises on the same m/c. It was a good hard workout to finish at the gym here.

 

When I got back to the flat Moira had finished her photo album and was uploading to Lidl for processing and printing. It still had an hour to run before it was completed and I couldn't get on the Internet for the radio until it was finished. It was nearly 1 pm when it was done and she got a confirmation email from Lidl that it had been received. I got the radio on and caught the last hour of the Jeremy Vine programme while having lunch.

 

I had managed to get the photographs of our climb up Conde yesterday uploaded to Google+ overnight. This time it had been quick and successful. I wrote up an account of the climb and incorporated the photos then published it to my blog. Later I spent an hour listening to catch-up radio on the BBC iPlayer. There was a 'Dad's Army' then the quiz 'Brain of Britain'. At 4pm I went down to the pool and had a swim, it was busy again and I had to be careful as I did my half a dozen lengths of the pool that I didn't bang into some of the kids. When I came up I showered then it was time for the quizzes on the TV.

 

After dinner I washed up and gave the kitchen another clean. Everything is looking nice and tidy, in the morning once we have breakfast we can just go out the door to the bus. The only thing that was on the box tonight was a football friendly International between Italy and England. It wasn't much of a game and ended up a 1-1 draw. It was 9:30 pm when we got to bed tonight, Moira set the alarm on her phone for 5:45am to give us an early start. We will catch the 7:15 am express bus for Las Americas, an hour earlier than the one we usually take.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Climbing Roque del Conde on TENERIFE.

 

Monday 30 March.

 

We were off on our last walk of the holiday on Tenerife. It was just a short one up a Canaries 'Munro'. This was the Roque del Conde, the flat topped peak behind Las Americas. We had admired this mountain every time we had been down that way and I was determined to climb it before we left.

 

We left at our normal time, 8:15 am, on the express bus to Las Americas. It was looking like a fine day again but it was still a little cool as it was actually 7:15 am if the clocks hadn't been changed. We had our fleeces on as we left. We changed buses at Las Americas and caught the El Teide but only as far as Arona. The bus was very busy with lots of people heading for the famous volcano and more got on when it stopped at Los Cristianos. We weren't on for long and at Arona we headed to the path that we took the last time we were here and walked to Ifonche and Adeje over the hills. The route was also signposted to Conde.

 

The two paths were together until just before coming to a deep gorge. The Ifonche route went right gradually climbing to the col between Conde and the pointed Roque Imoque. Our track dropped down into a gorge, Barranco del Rey, then climbed steeply up the far side. It was now very warm and though there was a breeze blowing the wind was hot as well. The fleeces were soon off and in the daypack. Once up from the gorge the track continued climbing, up to a ridge below the final ascent to the plateau at the top. The first part to the ridge was quite easy and the path gradually zig-zagged upwards. We passed an old farm house with two threshing circles on the way.

 

After the ridge it became a bit tougher and steeper. It was a normal final segment of a mountain, the top never seems to get any nearer. You reach what you think is the top only to find there is another bit to climb. The incline was affecting Moira and she was gasping for breath, she had a rest and a couple of puffs from her ventilin inhaler. I had carried on up until it flattened and waited there until Moira caught up. She was much better after the puffs of her 'pipe'. The rocky summit was in the middle of the plateau but there was a track round the perimeter before going to the trig point on the top. The flat surface was sectioned off into what had been terraces, but now just desolate stretches of lava rock. As we walked round we were rewarded with magnificent views. Along the coast there were the resorts of Las Americas and Los Cristianos, from the side we could see Adeje and as as far as the cliffs overlooking Los Gigantes. Inland were the mountains we had walked over a few weeks ago and behind that the snowy peak of El Teide. When we got to the trig point I took a couple of 'selfies' then we found a rock to sit on for a cup of coffee and a mini coconut chocolate bar. As we climbed up we were the only ones on the mountain but now others were arriving and as we made our way down there were lots more coming up the trail.

 

I thought that we might struggle on the way down with painful knees but it turned out to be easy going. The path wasn't too rocky and we made very good time. It had been pleasant on the top where the breeze was cool but as we dropped it heated up and in the drop into the gorge it was like a sun trap, it was boiling. We were covered in sweat and our tops were soaked. As we got to Arona there was a wall In the shade of some trees, an ideal place for lunch. We had our sandwiches and coffee before heading into the town for the bus.

 

The bus we were catching was a local one and started from the terminus in the town somewhere. We stopped at a bar and asked for directions to the 'Estacion de autobus', the woman replied in English with a strong Scots accent. She was from Stirling and told us to carry on to the end of the street and turn right down to the bus stop. We found, when we got there, that we had just missed one and the next was not for another hour. We found a seat in the shade of a tree and Moira went to the supermarket for a couple of beers. We sat there where it was cool, drank out beers while I worked on my diary. I had brought the iPad with me this morning.

 

We went over to the bus stop early to make sure we didn't miss the bus. It arrived 10 minutes early but didn't leave until the advertised time of 2:35pm. It didn't take the direct route that the express El Teide express took this morning but went 'round the houses' to get to Los Cristianos. This one also took a detour to the hospital where it picked up a lot of people. There was an express 477 bus on the timetable at 3 pm from Los Cristianos to Los Gigantes and we thought we were going to just miss that one as well but fortunately it was late. I worked on yesterday's crossword in the 'Telegraph' on the way back and managed to finish it without the aid of my electronic dictionary.

 

It was nearly 4:30 pm when we got back to the complex and the pool area was crowded. It was also very warm so I decided to have a swim before showering. The pool was lovely and the water has heated up a lot from when we arrived 3 months ago. I did about half a dozen lengths then walked round the pool perimeter to dry off before going upstairs and having a shower. When I was finished it was time for the quizzes on the TV but the first one was interrupted when Suzy phoned on FaceTime. As usual Hollie was busy eating but wanted the TV on to watch Pippa Pig, that used to be Ewan's favourite and now a hit with Hollie. Suzy arranged to meet us at Prestwick Airport when we arrive on Wednesday afternoon to save us having to catch a train. This will also allow us to drop her home on the way back then we can take the car.

 

After dinner we watched the news on Channel 4. It is now full of the electioneering by all the parties. We are going to have to suffer this for the next month. BBC also messed about with programme times and we had to miss 'Only Connect' as we wanted to see the drama 'The Ark' about Noah and the Flood which was on at the same time on the other BBC channel. It was the final of the quiz as well, hopefully I will get it on BBC iPlayer when we get home. The drama wasn't that good. We got to bed at our normal time of 10 pm.

 

 

ROQUE del CONDE PHOTO ALBUM.

 

 

 

Barranco del Rey

 

 

Descent into the barranco.

 

 

Los Cristianos & Las Americas

 

 

 

El Teide

 

 

View from the plateau.

 

 

 

Moira heading for the summit.

 

 

We made it to the trig point.

 

 

 

Leaving the rocky summit.

 

 

Mountain cactus.

 

 

 

View to the south.

 

 

 

Roque Imoque.

 

 

 

Looking down a side street in Arona.

 

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It's sunny and hot again on TENERIFE.

Sunday 29 March.

 

The clocks went forward last night to British Summer Time and it was now 8 am when we wakened. I got up and a made a cup of tea which we had in bed while I read the paper. Moira got up half an hour later and made our 'full English' breakfast. There wasn't any 'Match of the Day' due to the Premier League games being off to release players for the Internationals. Scotland play Gibraltar tonight in a European Cup Qualifier, they should win that one.

 

At 10 am I left for the gym, Moira stayed in to do some house work in preparation of leaving the flat clean and tidy when we depart on Wednesday. It was a lovely day, the sun was shining and the sky a deep blue as I strolled through the town to the gym. It wasn't very busy, probably a lot of people had forgotten to put their clocks forward an hour. I began with 2 laps round the perimeter carrying 2x12 kg dumbbells. I then did my light dumbbell routine for biceps and deltoids. Now I was thoroughly warmed up I used big weights today, trying to manage 12 reps a couple of times for each exercise. I did, tricep push downs, lat pull downs, bench flies, bench dumbbell presses, upright rowing on the Smith m/c, shrugs on the Smith m/c, chest press m/c, wide arm pull up frame, and leg extensions. I did 20 reps of knee raises on the hip extension frame 6 times interspersed between the other exercises. It was another good session.

 

I walked back to the flat in the now very warm sunshine. The pool area was very crowded at the flat, lots of kids were in swimming; they were probably on holiday for the school's Easter break. They even had a life guard wandering around the swimming area in case of accidents now it is getting busy and crowded. I had put the radio on through the iPad before I left and Moira was out on the veranda listening to it. I made a cup of coffee and joined her. We spent the day out there in the shade of the awning and it was just right not too hot and not too cold. We had our lunch there and I did the crossword ( not successfully) while listening to the music. We even had our dinner outside as, with the change in the clocks, it was still warm at our dinner time.

 

The TV was good tonight. After 'Countryfile' there was another in the series of canal journeys that we had watched on Channel 4 last week. It is Timothy West and Prunella Scales touring different canals in a hired river cruiser. This week it was on part of the Canal Midi in France. This was the one I cycled along a few years ago and I recognised some of the parts. It was very realistic at times, like when he keeps banging the boat into bridges and the bank or when she was offered snails and braised sheep's brains at a restaurant, she made disgusting noises after one taste. The usual response when they cook someone something is 'Oohs' and 'Ahs' and 'How Marvellous'. After that we had the next instalment of 'Poldark' which is becoming quite enjoyable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Forest and mountain route from Erjos on TENERIFE.

Saturday 28 March.

 

We caught the bus at 8:30 am this morning over the pass to Erjos. The weather wasn't bad when we left but as usual on the other side it was cloudy and a low mist covered the tops. I had the iPad with me again and read the newspaper on the bus and managed a few clues in the prize crossword.

 

 

 

At Erjos we picked up the TF52 marked trail. This was the route we came along, in the other direction, when we walked up from Los Silos a few weeks ago. It was a lovely flat wide forest track for 4 km to the junction where we had come up from Los Silos. The track had a few people out early, a couple of large parties walking and lots of joggers using the route for training. The views weren't very good because of the mist and all we could basically see was the path through the trees in front of us. There were plenty of wild flowers to admire and the main one was a bush with yellow flowers that resembles dandelions. When we reached the junction to Los Silos we carried straight, still on the TF52, for another 7 km to Las Portelas. The track remained wide and flat so we were making excellent time, about 5km/hr pace. When we neared Las Portelas the trees thinned and cleared giving good views of the ridge to Teno and down the valley to El Palmar and Buenavista on the coast. When we reached Las Portelas it was at the junction with the route up from Buenavista, another route we had come up a few weeks ago. At this point there was a picnic area where we had a stop for a cup of coffee and a Magdalena cake.

 

 

 

 

 

At this junction one route the TF51 went up the hillside to the junction that went down to Masca, this was the way we went when coming up from Buenavista. This time we went on the TF56 which reached the ridge by another route and came out at the junction with the threshing circle over the hill from Santiago del Teide. It was only 4 km but it was up and up and up. We began climbing on the tar lane right from the start and it was steep. We passed an albergue, the Bolico, but it wasn't the type we were used to on the Caminos, it looked posh and a lot more expensive. Once the signposts pointed us away from the tarred lane it wasn't so steep but still climbing. It was still misty but we got a few good views of the mountain ridge when it cleared at times. Our pace now dropped from the earlier 5kph to a much slower 3kph. When we got to the threshing circle it was lunchtime and we sat on the rocks there for our sandwiches and coffee.

 

 

 

We were now on familiar territory as we made our way along the TF51 to the col between the peaks of Cruz de Gala and Pico Verde. As we have become used to, the mist cleared as we neared the col and now got magnificent views of the peaks and ridges, and the gorge running all the way down to Masca. Also El Teide was beautifully clear with a large splattering of snow on the sides of its cone. There were a couple of large walking groups coming down as we made our way up, the first were very friendly and we got 'Holas' from them all, whereas the second lot went by without a word and grumpy faces. From the col it was a short distance to the junction with the path down to Santiago del Teide. It was now the third time we had descended by this route and although it was getting easier it still took the normal 30 minutes. Near the bottom we met a German couple who were here for a short holiday and looking for walks, we told them about the best ones in the area. They were staying in Icod and the weather there had been disappointing for them and they found it much better on their visit to this side of the ridge.

 

 

 

 

 

We had been wearing our fleeces all day as it hadn't been particularly warm, but now with a clear sky and the sun shining it was time to strip off as we walked along the road into Santiago del Teide. It was 2:30 pm and we had nearly 2 hours to wait for our bus. We spent most of the time in the pub and had a couple of drinks. I got the iPad out and worked on the crossword managing a few more clues. We headed for the bus stop just before 4 pm and had 15 minutes more to wait. There was a couple from Wales also waiting they were who here for just a week and staying in Los Gigantes. They asked at their hotel for walks but didn't get much information from them. They came up by bus but couldn't find any of the routes, we told them where to go for the one down the hill to Puerto Santiago and the other good ones about here. I didn't think we have any special talent but we seem to be able to find out things to do and where to go without a great deal of difficulty.

 

The bus was more or less on time and we got back to the flat just before 5 pm. I put the TV on for the football results but they weren't on, the top leagues are not playing due to Internationals taking place this week. Morton was playing but they don't warrant a programme to tell us the result. I checked on the web and they beat Dunfermline 4-0. It was a good win but didn't help them much as their main rivals Stranraer and Forfar both won.

 

After dinner we watched a 'Dad's Army' that surprisingly we hadn't seen before. It was very good. After that there wasn't anything on we wanted to watch so I checked out the Freeview recorder. There was a new version of the film 'Little Women' that I had recorded and it was very good.

 

 

FLOWERS ALONG TODAY'S ROUTE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A normal day on TENERIFE.

 

Friday 27 March.

 

We went out today shortly after 9am. I went to the gym and Moira continued on to the supermarket to get some shopping. She had counted up the food for meals she had in the freezer and was two dinners short before we leave on Wednesday morning so she went to Mercadona for mince for a couple of spaghetti Bolognese dishes.

 

The weather was much better today, warm and lovely blue skies. I had just over an hour in the gym and this was the contents of my workout.

 

 

Gym today:

 

300 sit-ups and stretching

4 laps round the basketball court curling 2x4 kg dumbbells.

After that I did 1 set of 60 reps with weights that were much lighter than my last workout. The exercises were :

Bench flies, bench dumbbell pullovers, tricep pull downs, upright rowing, bicep curls, incline leg press, leg extensions, lat pull downs, shoulder presses, heel raises.

I finished off with 3 super sets of 1 minute planks and 20 back raise reps.

 

It again turned out to be a hard session and even though the weights were light I struggled with the last few reps on some of the exercises.

 

I had left the computer on overnight and while I was out to upload the photographs of Loro Parque to Google+ but there was some fault and only a couple of dozen out of over 100 were captured on the cloud. I will try again tonight. I wrote up an account of our trip and it just needs the photos for me to post it on my blog. Moira investigated on the web about how to get different pages on the blog menu, like one for VF and another for Tenerife rather than having to visit a different blog or web site. She found a video on YouTube and it turned out to be quite easy but I'll wait until we get home before doing it. There is better WiFi there and it is easier using the Notebook with all the facilities in our study.

 

In the afternoon once lunch and Jeremy Vine was finished Moira worked on her VF photo album and it's nearly ready to get Lidl to print it. She will order it before we leave here and hopefully it will be waiting for us when we get back to Scotland. I worked on a couple of crosswords and was successful except for a couple of clues, when I checked the results they were again very obscure and I can't figure them out even when I know the answers.

 

In the evening after the easy quizzes at dinner time there was the final of 'Mastermind'. It was an hour long tonight as they had to do a profile on all the contestants. For some reason they decided to move the start time to 9 pm this week which coincided with the 'Musketeers' on the other channel. We settled for 'Mastermind' and I hope to be able to get the 'Musketeers' on iPlayer next week when we get back to Scotland. The general knowledge questions were much harder this week, probably because it was the final, and I struggled to answer many of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Visit to Loro Parque on TENERIFE.

Thursday 26 March.

 

The weather was looking cloudy again and it wasn't very warm. We were heading over to the other side of the island to the zoo, Loro Parque, in Puerto de la Cruz. As the weather there tends to be wetter and cooler than where we are, we wore trousers and our fleeces and had the rain jackets in the daypack. We left after breakfast and caught the usual bus at 8:20 am up to Santiago del Teide and down the other side to Puerto de la Cruz. It was very warm on the bus, the driver didn't have the air-con on and it made feel a bit sick. I recovered in the fresh air when we got off and walked to the zoo.

 

 

 

There was a little 'troll train' that we could have taken to the park that was free but it was only about a 20 minute walk and it was pleasant strolling along the coast enjoying the huge waves breaking on the beach. It was quite expensive to get in, €34 each, but this was all inclusive and it got us into all the shows. There was a dolphin show on at 11am and we had about 45 minutes to get there. We strolled along in that direction and saw cages of colourful tropical birds, an enclosure with gorillas, another with chimps, there was a rocky place with a waterfall and a white tiger wandering about, next a cage with marmosets then a pool with otters before we reached the large arena with the dolphins.

 

The place was full but there were still plenty of seats. We made our way to the back away from where we could get showered in water with the dolphins splashing. It was a good show and lasted about 30 minutes with the dolphins doing all the usual tricks of jumping out the water, towing the instructors through the water. A small boat with a little girl in it was pulled round the pool and when it finished the dolphin poked its head over the side of the boat to be patted on the nose and kissed.

 

Next we were in time for the Loro Show which was birds, mainly cockatoos, doing tricks and flying about the hall over our heads. When that was over the sea lion show was about to begin so we made for that. It was similar to the dolphins but with sea lions but they swam about balancing balls on their noses. When that finished it was lunch time and we made for the picnic area for out lunch. It was full with a party of school children but we found a bench nearby where we had our coffee and sandwiches.

 

After lunch it was the orca whales. It was again similar to the other displays with the fish doing leaps through the air and splashing into the pool. Here is was important to get well back from the front as these fish caused a huge spray. Some people got soaked while others sat under waterproof sheets that were available. These orcas were enormous and this was quite a remarkable show to experience.

 

It was now 2:30 pm so we were not going to make our usual bus at 3pm so we made our way first to the penguin house then the aquarium. The first part had little Humboult penguins that you get in South Africa and they were waddling about all over the simulated Antarctic setting but the next larger part had big penguins who just stood about unmoving except when they decided to have a swim and then were very fast through the water. The aquarium was very good with a large variety of fish in various tanks. The last section was through a tunnel in the tank with the fish swimming all around and above. Here there were some very large fish and a few sharks.

 

We had about 30 minutes before making for the bus and were heading to see the meerkat enclosure but took a wrong turn and ended up on a tree top walk. This was probably better as we were up with all the colourful birds who were feeding from bowls of food attached to the branches of the trees. When we got down to the ground again it was time to head for the bus station.

 

It took the same 20 minutes to get there and we had about 30 minutes to wait for the bus. I had the iPad with me and we made sure every time we went into the pack to take things out that it was still there afterwards and not lose this one. I sat and worked on my diary while waiting. I read my book on the bus but couldn't concentrate after a while as I was feeling sick again. It was either stuffy and hot, no air-con again, or the twists and bends were making me car sick. It had been cloudy and cool when we were at the zoo but at least there hadn't been any rain. As soon as we crossed the Passa del Erjos the sky cleared and it warmed up, it had obviously been a beautiful day at Peurto Santiago. We now got a beautiful view of El Teide that had a lot more snow around the top probably from the cold wet weather recently.

 

It was 6:30 pm when we got in and I had a cup of coffee while Moira made dinner. I transferred the photographs I had taken today to Picasa. After dinner we went through them and I cropped and touched up some of them before connecting to the Internet and uploading them to Google+. I had taken a few videos of the shows and some came out not bad. Later on TV there was the diet and health programme that was on about sugar last week. This time it was the 'Truth about Calories'. It was another nonsense programme with a lot of dumbed down science that was also highly suspect. We got to bed at 10 pm as usual, tired after a long and enjoyable day.

 

Pond of Koi.

 

Pond of Koi.

LORO PARQUE ANIMALS IN PHOTO

Pond of Koi.

 

Pond of Koi.

 

Pond of Koi.

Pond of Koi.

 

 

Gorilla compound.

Gorilla compound.

 

 

Another two gorillas ?

Another two gorillas ?

 

 

Dolphin thro' a hoop

Dolphin thro' a hoop

 

Balancing act !

Balancing act !

 

Sea lions waiting to perform

 

I don't know what they are?

 

 

An anteater

An anteater

 

White tiger.

White tiger.

 

Orca whale.

Orca whale.

Emperor penguins.

 

Puffins

 

Puffins

Puffins

 

 

Penguins in Antarctic setting.

 

Alligator

 

TREE TOP WALK BIRDS

 

 

 

 

 

 

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