Ankle surgery at the end of 2014 meant that my holiday leave at work had started to pile up and I would have to use it by the end of March. I normally head up to Scotland at this time of year to go mountaineering and ice climbing but with a dodgy ankle that didn’t seem like such a good idea this year, so instead I looked for something a little different and the “Isla de la Eternal Primavera” – the Island of Eternal Spring – started to appeal.

Tenerife is the largest of the seven Canary Islands and lies about 186 miles off the west African coast. The island is about 60 miles long and 30 miles wide tapering to 10 miles and is dominated from the centre by the volcano of Mount Teide which stands at 3718m and is tall enough to effect the climate of the island, the North side being wetter, cloudier and greener and the southern side more arid and dry.

For the first week I was staying with Geoff who runs cyclingtenerife.com and has a villa in San Miguel which is about a 20 min drive from the southern airport at an altitude of 550m, well above the busy roads around Los Christianos and the coastal motorway. I decided to bring my own bike with me but it is possible to hire good quality bikes here too, Bike Point has shops in El Medano and Los Christianos. This was my first visit to Tenerife and I decided to come here at short notice and didn’t really know much about the place, I must admit I was surprised at how tough and seriously hilly the cycling is here, for example the road from Los Christianos up to Mount Teide cable car at 2300m is about 40km long and practically all of it is uphill! If climbing for hours on end is not your thing you can cheat a little….. the local green Titsa coach bus leaves Los Christianos at 9.30 every morning and you can get a bike in where the suitcases normally go, and then enjoy a fantastic descent. The Pro cycling teams use Tenerife a lot and often stay at the Parador hotel in Teide National Park and it easy to see why they come, the climate is great in the winter, the scenery is varied and spectacular and the cycling is challenging and they can choose the altitude they wish to train at (train low, sleep high) and up in the Teide National park once all the tourists go in late afternoon , there is privacy, quiet and no distractions.

The second week I was based at El Medano, a charming coastal resort town near to the southern airport and stayed at the cheap and cheerful Casa Grande Surf Hostel. The town has excellent long beaches and has a very laid back atmosphere to it, however it is a notoriously windy place and is a Mecca for sea sports , with people coming from all over the world to go surfing and kite boarding, I contented myself with swimming in the sea which at 18 degrees was chilly to start with but fine once you were in. From the top of the nearby Montana Roja, which is a very pleasant walk from town, you get a great overview of the surrounding area.

I was very impressed with Mount Teide National Park and its stunning natural scenery so I booked online an overnight stay at the Altavista mountain refuge (3279m) . To climb to the top of Teide itself you need a permit (which is free but you need to apply online), however if you stay at the hut it is included in the deal. I got the bus from Los Christianos up to the Parador Hotel where there is a good cafe and information centre and spent sometime exploring the easy trail around the impressive rock formations of the Roques de Garcia and then walked the 4km or so through a desert like landscape to the base of the Teleferico (2356m) and took the last ride up to the top station situated at 3555m, from here it’s a 40 min or so hike down to the Altavista hut which can sleep 51 people though was only about half full when I was there. You can buy water here (expensive!) but you need to bring your own food. The next morning I and a few other set off at 5.20am in total darkness using our head torches to trek back up to the Teleferico top station and then continue on the rocky path up to the cone of Teide itself, past the steaming fumaroles and smell of sulphur, right to the summit itself and we stopped there an hour waiting for the sun to rise. I saw the greener North side and its blanket of clouds, the observatory in the distance and Pico Viejo ( the old volcano) not too far away with some of the other Canary islands seemingly floating in the sea of clouds above it. I walked back down to Parador via the stunning Pico Viejo path (which is quite rough and difficult in places as it crosses a couple of lava flow sections) you can actually go right up to the lip of the old volcano (3135m) and peer down into its crater and Martian like terrain and try to imagine what it must have been like when active.

After these few days exploring the beaches of El Medano and Mount Teide Park I returned to stay at Geoff’s place in San Miguel again, as he said he had a challenging ride for me if I fancied it… The route headed north on the TF-565 to La Escolona and turning right to Vilaflor, the highest village in Spain. The road steepens a little as it winds its way through the Coronal pine Forrest, eventually the trees start to thin out and you emerge onto the edge of Mount Teide National Park and drop down to the huge sunken crater with its amazing colours and rock formations and great views of the cone of Teide itself. A steady climb brings you up to the Parador Hotel where there is a good restaurant and information centre, a further deceptively hard drag up brings you to the base station of the Teleferico at about 2300m. This is then followed by a fast section through the lava fields and extensive views of Teide and the surrounding area before swooping down to El Portillo. There is a very nice restaurant here right on the junction of the TF-24 and I stopped here for the dish of the day, not quite realising it was a substantial 3 course meal with wine. The route turns right here and follows the TF-24 up to the Teide Observatory, Geoff described this section as undulating but after that  massive lunch I found it a bit of a struggle! There are great views along this road of the Observatories ahead and looking back to Teide itself before eventually the roads descends and through the forest you need to keep a look out for a right turn, the TF-523 to Arafo and Guimar. This section is an absolutely fantastic descent with mile after mile of sweeping bends and fast straights with hardly any traffic at all, it would be a real struggle coming up this way, it was chilly descending near the top but you could feel the heat rising up as you got nearer the bottom. At Guimar I picked up the TF-28 for the 30 miles or so back to San Miguel, for me this was the toughest part of the ride, firstly there is a longish climb back out of Guimar then the road undulates through Fasnia, Arico and Granadilla, crossing numerous ravines (barrancos) which involves the road cutting inland and descending before crossing the ravine and then climbing back up the other side. Eventually I rolled back into San Miguel at 6.40pm and 95 miles on the clock, it had been a tough tiring day in the saddle.

I really enjoyed my two weeks in Tenerife, the weather was great, the scenery varied, there was some great hiking up in Mount Teide National Park and the cycling was very tough with lots more to do and the beaches were great for relaxing on afterwards. I look forward to coming back sometime and exploring more of the island particularly around Masca and the North side.