...on this wet Bank Holiday Monday here's a few pictures from a walk we did in sunny Tenerife. We've been back a month now and life is hurtling towards the ride2stride festival. Those few days respite are fading as quickly as the tan so before I forget about it completely - here goes.
We caught the bus to Santiago del Teide, a pretty little town perched high above the coast on the west of the island. Most of our fellow passengers were walkers, changing buses in Santiago to make the vertiginous journey down to Masca to walk the famous Barranco de Masca trail. We decided to leave that for another day and explore the hills around Santiago itself. Our original plan was to return to the town to catch a teatime bus back to the coast but we spotted an information board that soon changed our mind. 
An ancient Camino Real track connects Santiago del Teide with Puerto de Santiago on the coast, just a short hop from where we were staying. We could have our day in the hills and walk home. The track was used as a trading route, connecting the fishing families from the coast with the farmers in the hills and produce would be carried the 6 km between the two on a regular basis. Now it's used by local people to take feed to their goats and by walkers like ourselves to see something of Tenerife that's a little off the tourist trap.
We left the town up a short steep path to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary - the Fuente de la Virgen. The route is marked by 14 crosses, each with a plaque marking a stage of the Calvario or Stations of the Cross. The shrine itself is a flower filled bower, clearly well tended, with glorious views across the valley to Mount Teide itself.
The story goes that when the townspeople of Santiago del Teide saw lava heading down the mountain towards them they rushed to the church to pray to the virgin for salvation. At the last minute the lava took a turn to the left and Santiago was saved. Mary got her shrine but the people from the next village still aren't speaking.
After this little detour we headed out on a rocky track which eventually led to a goat farm. No one lives there but apparently an elderly couple still walk up daily to feed their flock.
Ahead of us was Roque Blanco, a near vertical wall of scree which we decided was not for us. Later I glanced back and watched with admiration as a lone walker scrambled to the top. The marked route back to the valley retraced our steps - never my first choice - so when we came across a little goat track that looked as if it followed a ridge south and might just join the main track in the valley bottom we decided to go for it.
It wasn't marked on the map but it did look passable with care and I convinced myself that if it had been in the Lake District I would have clambered down like a shot. It was fantastic, rocky and narrow with occassional drops that meant jumping the last couple of feet and after an hour or so we were back on the Camino Real and an easy walk down through banana plantations back to the coast and a welcome cold beer.
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