Visiting Mount Teide
The Independent in the UK ran an interesting travel article recently about visiting Mount Teide - they comment:
It takes just eight minutes for the cable car to speed you to the top of Tenerife’s Mount Teide, the highest mountain on Spanish territory and the world’s third-loftiest volcano. Infinitely more rewarding, though, is to pull on your hiking boots, pack water and sunblock and devote five hours to walking up it. The path, called La Rambleta, starts almost apologetically from a lay-by at kilometre 40 on the road (the TR-21) that crosses the Teide National Park. At an altitude of 2,300m, you are already above the tree line, in the middle of a broad, ancient crater, rimmed by red and ochre walls of rock, out of which thrusts the severe and imposing cone of Teide.
If, like most visitors, you’ve travelled up from the coast, be prepared for the thinness of the air and, in the morning at least, a significant drop in temperature. From November until March the higher slopes are snow-covered, while in late autumn (when I did the walk) the first stretch along an undemanding zig-zagging 4×4 track was decorated with ice-covered bushes, which glinted and sparkled in the low sun. The flora of the volcano is sparse, either very hard-wearing like the retama (a species of broom) or very specialised, like the Teide violet, which has adapted to the harsh conditions by spending much of the year underground, emerging in spring to flower and reproduce. To read the full story click here
For more information about Tenerife, including a map of Tenerife visit htytp://www.yourtenerife.net
More details about Tenerife can be found on social media from people who have been there recently, including on the new google buzz
Tags: Tenerife