Tenerife

Hi Si, the temperatures down at sea level are in the low 20s, very comfortable, not too hot but warm enough. We went out into the Mt Teide national park again today and you soon start to feel the temperature drop when you get above about 800 metres, I would guess that when we were at over 2000 metres it was less than double figures,

We both have very light duck down jackets which fit under our biking jackets which we put on at our first stop at a viewing point at less than 1000 metres up, I also swapped my gloves for a warmer pair.

We have taken our Hein Gerick Summer textile trousers but we are both wearing cycling shorts underneath which fit almost to the knee to give the thighs an extra layer, a pair of long johns would do the trick also. I took my BMW desert rally jacket with just a Goretex liner, no thermal liner, which is perfectly adequate when riding at sea level with just a t-shirt underneath. Alena took her Weise blouson jacket with a thermal liner, but she is always colder than I am. I have two pairs of gloves, some leather Summer gloves, again perfect for riding the lower roads, and a Halverssons pair of mid-season gloves for higher up. We have a neck tube each and both wore our walking boots to travel in and they double up for riding the bike.

Your Klim jacket with a down undervest should do the trick and you could always double up on t-shirts. Thick biking jeans will again be sufficient. Basically, come prepared for warm weather riding but pack some thermal layers for when you decide to go up the mountains, your rental bike should have a topbox to put them in.

We road the TF21 from PDLC through the Teide valley, what a stunning and hugely enjoyable road, totally enjoyed it. The geology of the valley is so varied and fascinating and the history of the volcano, creation of the island and the different rocks and metals it spewed out is really well explained in a museum at the visitor centre at El Portillo on the TF21. The traffic is really light so if you do get caught behind the odd tourist driving a hire car like Miss Daisy on the mountain roads you soon get a chance to overtake. I am finding the Versys 650 to be a great little bike and perfect for what we are doing, much lighter than the GSA and now I've got the feel for it I'm really starting to chuck it around, felt my foot rub the tarmac on a few occasions!

The next plan is to go west from PDLC and then south on the coastal as has been recommended, although there is still more of the Teide park we want to discover.
Good stuff LS, enjoyed those roads in the past as well..... strangely enough I've decided on a mini tour of some of my oft traveled Scottish roads in the Highlands and west coast for a few days.... in January mild ( well 4 or 5 degrees ) and sunny, roads are filthy, full of gravel and shit but who cares enjoy your trip in the warmth
 
Yesterday we went out with some friends in their car and in the Teide National Park I noticed the temperature readout in the car was 6C! I thought it was below double figures and this confirms it so be aware. A local custom I have spotted is that drivers will put their left indicator on when slowing down - go figure. So, if the driver in front is indicating left don't assume he is about to turn off and start looking for a chance to go round him on the right.

They call it eh island of contrasts and we had a great example of that today. We headed W and then picked up the TF82 to Santiago Del Teide; we left in lovely warm sunshine at 22C. As ususal, as we climbed the temp did drop a bit. We then picked up the TF47 going south towards Los Gigantes and Puerto De Santiago for a coffee stop, again the weather was great as we had dropped down to the coast again. Our plan was to get to Arona and then turn north towards Villaflor and onwards to the national park again but this would take us in on a different road which again was marked green as a scenic on my map. As we headed north we could see the mountains shrouded in cloud, the higher we climbed gthe more dense it got until eventually the visibillty was often less than 30-40 metres, it was pretty horrible to be honest. We stuck it out until we got to Villaflor at about 1500 metres and pulled in to a garage to make a decison. I filled the bike up, we had done 252 kms since the last one and this took only 10 litres, an average mpg of 70! Well, given the fact that we could not even see the mountains any longer due to the fog/cloud we decided to head back down to the coast and the blue skies and sunlight. Sure enough, as we descended we could see the sunlight dappling over the sea and before we knew it we were back at sea level in over 20C and having to stop and take some layers off. Some contrast! We back tracked our route out and covered 223 kilometres today. It being Sunday there were a lot of local bikers out and the traffic was heavier with local families obviously out for the day.
 
Sounds like a great trip LS. No pics ?
 
Sounds like a great trip LS. No pics ?

Hi DC, it was our last day on the bike today, the mississ has taken loads of pics and I will ask her to send me a selection and I will load up a few over the next day or so.
 
Hi DC, it was our last day on the bike today, the mississ has taken loads of pics and I will ask her to send me a selection and I will load up a few over the next day or so.
Perfect .....enjoy the last few days and have a safe trip back .
 
Just arrived in Puerto de la Cruz which is where I believe his lordship is resident . Nice hotel in the centre, very reasonable price
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More to do on a rainy day…


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Just arrived in Puerto de la Cruz which is where I believe his lordship is resident . Nice hotel in the centre, very reasonable price
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More to do on a rainy day…


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Si, I've sat on the bench in front of that church in the last week while wifey took photos. You are just a few minutes walk from where we are in hotel H10 Tenerife Playa.
 
Report of final ride, a bit long

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.
 

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Si, I've sat on the bench in front of that church in the last week while wifey took photos. You are just a few minutes walk from where we are in hotel H10 Tenerife Playa.

Well if it stops pouring I am sure we could meet halfway for a cuppa ☕️! May spend a second night here as I like the vibe but will try to break through the clouds tomorrow


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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.

I like your route and was busy loading it on my GPS, listening to Spanish news and trying to ignore the torrential rain, when I heard them saying there was heavy snow falling this afternoon on Teide! Should be an interesting outing
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Wow Si, that's a big day out on these twisty roads, hope you accomplish it.

I've decided that there is no point in looking at the weather forecasts. Just look out the window and make a decision on which direction to head in. Today was forecast for rain all day yet by 10am the skies had cleared and the sun was out. We have been out all day walking around and had lunch sat outside in the sun in shirt sleeves near the statue of the fisher girl.
 

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More pics
 

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You are heavily influenced by the Giles’ School of Photography, I see.

Either that or you’ve been on the vino.
 
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You are heavily influenced by the Giles’ School of Photography, I see.

Either that or you’ve been on the vino.

That's the wife taking pics from the pillion seat whilst I'm carving corners on my steed of awesomeness!


PS. Met up with Si Dippenhall last night at a liquid refreshment emporium called the Cafe De Paris, Sam did not play it again sadly, but it was great to meet up and make his acquaintance.
 


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