The Trekkers visited Tenerife in 2013 and enjoyed the experience greatly, the warm pleasant weather, the scenery, relaxing environment was much appreciated. The leaders Shay Murran and Mary Murray decided to revisit the Island and to walk to many of the locations we had not previously been. Due to the demand for walking holidays in Tenerife the planning for this holiday commenced six months prior to departure.

So we travelled from 26th February to 5th March 2014, the group comprising Mary and Tom Murray, Dympna Thunder, Richelle Crowley, Pat Chapman, Eudie Power, Geraldine Boland, Shay Murran.

Day 1 Wednesday 26th February

We assembled at the Starbucks Café in the airside walk of Terminal 1 at 5 am to check the list of participants and to introduce members who had not travelled previously. The Flight with Ryanair left Dublin at 6.25 am and we arrived in Tenerife at 10.15 am a little earlier than expected.

We were met by our agent and guide for the week Martin O'Connor who is from Cork and lives in Tenerife for 6 months of each year with the other six months back in Cork. After arriving at our villas in the Sunningdale complex near Los Cristianos, we settled in, had lunch and assembled for our first walk at 2.30pm.

Martin had decided to take us on a coastal walk to allow us to acclimatise to walking at higher than usual temperatures. There were two cars available to us for the week and we used them to get to and from the venues.

We drove to Cotton Beach, PalMar, which is on the coast and climbed up the cliff face at the beach area for around 50 metres. We walked along and around the headland through scrub land and along stony paths to get used to the temperature and to absorb the atmosphere. The view of Los Christianos and the surrounding countryside was magnificent. We walked back to the cars at the top of PalMar and drove back to our villas. The temperature that afternoon was 22 degrees and very pleasant, we had walked 6 km for 3.5 hours with a height gain of 60 mts. Dinner that night was very enjoyable in the balmy weather and the restaurant provided entertainment with Spanish dancing and Spanish guitar music. It was an excellent start to the week.

Day 2 Thursday 27th February

The procedure agreed upon for the next week was that we assemble at 9.00am at the cars and we drove to the starting point for the walk as agreed with the leaders. Each day we prepared a packed lunch and brought plenty of liquids. We drove to the village of Adele which is inland at the western part of the island and we parked our cars just outside the village. Our target was to walk around the Barranco del Inferno which is a large rocky valley covered in trees, bushes and shrubs.

This was our first taste of the changing landscape and foliage of the interior of the Island. The scenery was wonderful with Canarian pine trees all around with rocky outcrops and sections of forest which had been burnt in a recent fire. The amount of wild life is limited in Tenerife but we came across two partridges on the ground in the forest which I understand are a protected species there and who seemed unperturbed by our presence. Indeed this was the first time many of us had seen partridges up close and they are very colourful. Lunch was had out in the forest protected from the sun. We finished the afternoon section of the walk in similar terrain and drove back to the villas, freshened up and had drinks at Martins villa and retired for a very enjoyable dinner at a local restaurant.

Distance covered 9.5 mts, height gained 1000 mts, duration 5.5 Hrs.

Day 3 Friday 28th February

We assembled and drove to an area called Chinyera which is very popular with walkers and our guide Martin. We commenced at the Tero Mountains which are in the north west of Tenerife. The foliage, plants and even the weeds in this area were in full bloom and provided a wonderful colourful background. We moved on to lava fields and on through the black sand to an extinct volcano at Cherno. This area is known as the Areas Negra Mountain (Black Sand) and we had a wonderful view of the extinct volcano at Negra with the snow and ice covered Mount Teidi in the background.

In all a wonderful walk filled with spectacular views and countryside, very special to Tenerife.

Distance covered 9 km, height gained 550 mts, duration 5.5 hrs.

Day 4 Saturday 1st March.

Saturday was a day for relaxing and to visit places of interest. We decided to drive to a small village and beach resort called El Medino which is a very popular wind surfing resort combined with a village atmosphere. It was enjoyable to watch the wind surfers in and around the beach area. The village had a small market and some of the group enjoyed a ramble around the event. We enjoyed watching the artists on the prom and walking along the harbour and market. We assembled later for a late lunch and found a pleasant restaurant at the waterfront. The restaurant specialised in tapas and we had a very pleasant range of tapas with many items we could not get at home. The lunch was made more interesting as we were at the sea front and the sea which was very rough at that time was continuously beating and banging off the restaurant wall. The power of the sea cannot be underestimated.

On arrival back home some of the group adjourned to the pool and enjoyed a swim. We continued with our arrangements for dinner in new restaurant that night. Pat Chapman had decided to borrow a bike from Martin for the day and he toured around the area and went down to Los Christanos, had a good lunch and explored the local sights.

Day 5 Sunday 2nd March

We drove to Barranco Seco near Tamiano at the southern end of the Tamiano Mountains, in the North West area of the Island. We commenced with a climb of 300 mts and walked along the rim of Barranco Seco with wonderful views of the sea, cliffs and mountains. This area has a number of tunnels in the mountains which are used to collect water from springs and runoff from the mountains. The amount of water coming from the springs is surprising and interesting to watch. We had lunch at the bottom of a gorge and then scrambled up a shale face for 100 mts to the mouth of a tunnel. It was our plan to walk through the tunnel and we had torches with us for safety purposes. The tunnel is about 1.5 km in length and 1.5mt in height. It took us 31 minutes to walk through the tunnel as it was pitch black inside and the ground was uneven on occasions. This proved to be an exciting experience as many of our group had not walked through a tunnel of this type previously.

We finished back at Barranco Seco and drove back to the villas concluding with a very pleasant dinner.

Distance 6 km, height gained 500 mts, duration 6.5 hrs.

Day 6, Monday 3rd March

The weather that morning was overcast and a little cold therefore we decided to take a tour in the cars of some of the mountain villages which are very attractive and unique. We drove around a circuit of the Roque de Taborno otherwise known as the Matterhorn of Tenerife. The weather improved later in the morning and we decided to undertake a cliff path walk around Tamerno. The walk was very demanding and challenging walking along cliff and mountain paths and a large degree of skill and courage was required. We came across two shepherds with a large herd of goats which they milk and sell on to the local shops. Indeed it is possible to eat goat's meat in some of the restaurants there. We finished off in a small mountain village which had a tiny bar in one room looked after by an eccentric Canarian who proceeded to serve us slowly with drinks and stale cake. He was an interesting character he wore a pink boa scarf and a frilly hat which was highly unusual however it enhanced the adventure as the bar was very unique. Back home and off to dinner. We had a great day as we undertook a demanding and on occasions a tricky walk which we enjoyed greatly.

Distance covered 8 km, height gained 1000 mts, duration 7 hrs.

Day 7 Tuesday 4th March

We drove to a village called Vilaflor which is the highest village in Tenerife at 1566 mts. We commenced the walk in a dense Canarian pine wooded area which had been affected by a recent forest fire. The fire swept through the pines very quickly burning the outer bark but notkilling the trees. We came across a good sized modern cabin in the woods which had been occupied prior to the fire and which had been burned down completely.Walking through the forest was very pleasant as the pines provided shade from the sun. At the half way point of the walk we split up into two groups. Both groups had very enjoyable walks and we finished back at a country bar in an isolated area.

There was a local festival on in the area and a large group of locals in the bar were dressed up in an assortment of costumes celebrating the occasion. This was our final day and an excellent walk to finish on.

Distance covered 10 km, height gained 500 mts, duration 6 hrs.

Day 8 Wednesday 5th March.

We drove to the airport from the villas for the 11.30 am flight back to Dublin. Arrived home at 5.00pm after a very enjoyable walking holiday in Tenerife with a group of tired and happy trekkers.