I checked the weather forecast before going to bed on Monday night and frankly it did not look good with rain forecast overnight and staying throughout the day. This was our last day of bike rental and we wanted to get back into the mountains for one last hurrah!
On waking we checked outside, it was wet but not drastically so, in fact if anything the rain had stopped. One thing I had learned since being on Tenerife is that the weather systems are very localised so even if he weather forecast is rain for the island there is always somewhere in the sun. After a quick check with my weather guru, Peter, who has been coming to the island for over 20 years he advised us to head West.
We headed East first to pick up the junction for the T5 and then turned West and sure enough now that we were higher up, we could see breaks in the cloud with the sun poking through; well done Pete! The plan was to get to the end of the T5 and pick up the TF82 again heading south towards Santiago Del Teide which once more did not disappoint. The temperature was a few degrees cooler due to the overnight rain, so I had set off with a light sweater on underneath and my down under-jacket and warmer gloves were in the top box ready for when we got much higher.
I was no longer needing to use Google Maps on the phone for navigation, I was just consulting the map, taking note of the road numbers and towns to head for and off we went. It’s a small island and it is very difficult to get totally lost. We arrived in Santiago in sunlight and pulled in at a café and soon we were enjoying sitting in the sun with coffee and pastries. Out came the map as it always does at every stop. The last time we rode the TF82 we turned off it to pick up the TF47 which follows the coast towards Los Gigantos and the southern resorts; this time were going to stay on it as it turned SE so we could pick up the TF38 towards the mountains, this was a road that we have so far not used so we were looking forward to some different views and landscapes. It was not as twisty as other roads as it ran through some lowland valleys in a steady climb. Slowly but surely, we climbed, the scenery was not less dramatic and beguiling that the other scenic routes we had used. As before, as soon as we were above 1000 metres, we started to feel the temperature drop. We had put on our additional layers at the coffee stop in anticipation.
We then hit the cloud cover as we did a few days ago and with the gusting of the wind very often the view ahead was down to 20 metres, the visor was collecting tiny droplets of moisture which refused to run off and it was misting up inside; I raised it to clear, and this only resulted in my glasses becoming covered in droplets of moisture. However, on the occasion we were determined to forge ahead through the difficulties as we knew that further ahead would be some sunlit uplands and we would reap the reward. After approximately 20 minutes we emerged back into sunlight, we were above the cloud canopy approached 2000 metres. It was glorious, chilly, but beautiful in a rocky and rugged way. It was easy to see the different rock strata that had been formed over many hundreds of thousands of years and then as the different plates and immense forces clashed sometimes the strata were pushed up and slightly vertical. The formations were many different colours reflecting the different ores and minerals present. We were on the Western edge of the mountains, and it was a geologists dream; the park is a Unesco World Heritage Site to protect it from mining corporations destroying this incredible moonscape in pursuit of profit. It is also used by scientists and astronomers for experiments as the night skies suffer no light pollution and the clarity of the sky after sunset is beyond compare.
We came to a t-junction and turned left onto the TF21, we have been on this road before but not this section after a couple of miles we came upon one of the many viewing points and we pulled in for a break to warm up, have a sandwich and to take in the stupendous views. Here there were many rock formations coloured light green, a sure sing of malachite ore being present which of course is used to extract copper. When the volcano erupted it spewed huge amounts of different metallic ore all over the island as well as many different types of rock including basalt of differing densities and of course pumice stone which is vey light and actually floats; I always remember as a child we had a piece of pumice stone in the bathroom which was used to rub away hard skin.
We must have stayed at the viewing point for at least an hour. Alena did her usual thing of going walk about clambering up rock formations to get her photo shots. I stayed with the bike and was happy to chat with anybody who would give me the time of day. I met a German couple from Berlin, a Dutch family from near the Belgian border and three Lithuanian lovelies.
They were in a hired Fiat Panda with a retractable roof and one of them was trying to photo her two mates with their heads poking out of the roof so naturally, being a gentleman, I offered to take a photo of all three of them and the conversation started. They obviously took pity on this grizzled, white-haired old boy who could be their granddad! They were very friendly and chatty and were asking what it was like riding the mountains on the bike. One of them lived in London, one in Manchester and the final one lived in Sweden. All spoke perfect English as so often the young from the continent do. We chatted for about 15 minutes before, sadly, they went on their way, I was sad to see my newly adopted grand daughters drive off into the distance.
Alena returned after taking about a hundred photos and we continued. We knew that would be climbing to about 2400-2500 metres before descending. We wee still in sunlight. Our next planned stop was at El Portillo where there is a visitor centre and museum which I had visited a few days ago but Alena didn’t so we would stop, and both have a look around. I also suspected that we would need another warmup.
We hit the cloud cover a lot earlier on the descent and it was also drizzling; once again the visibility dropped alarmingly and I was struggling with my vision, I was having to take my left hand off the bars every few seconds to wipe the moisture off my glasses, not good when you are approaching combinations of sharp bends. Thankfully we came upon a car in front, so I was happy to stay behind him as a pathfinder, I noticed that behind me there was a Park Ranger double cab pickup doing the same with me.
We arrived at the museum, still in thick cloud, and we were both perished, even with warmer gloves on my hands were cold. Luckily, the drizzle was very light and was not penetrating our non-waterproof summer textile trousers. I shoved the gloves onto the engine casings where I could and in we went to spend an hour walking around. I discovered that the Canary Islands are not a separate archipelago but that they are all formed from volcanos and are linked under the sea. If the Atlantic Ocean did not exist, they would be a huge mountain range.
We were now at about 2000 metres, and I knew that in about 20 minutes we would start to clear the cloud base and the temperatures would start to creep up. We just had to hunker down and get through the cloying damp, clinging moisture and poor vision, just take it easy on the wet roads, sometimes we were down to about 20-25 mph in the poor conditions.
I planned to have another stop for a warming coffed at the same restaurant that used on our first day in the mountains at a place called Aguamansa, as it hove into view the fog was clearing and I had been able to pick up the pace for the last few miles. We stopped and were greeted with the glorious site of a blazing log fire; we immediately hogged it as we thawed out. More coffee and pastries later and off we went.
The roads were now drying, it was warmer and once again I was able to enjoy this glorious stretch of road. The Versys always felt surefooted and at no point did it give me cause to concern with the handling and grip, happy days!
Sadly, it was all over far too soon as we arrived in PDLC and the hotel. I dropped the bike back off and walked back. That was the end of our Tenerife adventure, hopefully we will be back again.
Distance covered was 140 kilometres.
I had to fill the bike up before returning it and I calculated that the Versys had returned 72mpg since the last tankful, excellent figures.