Walking on Tenerife - A Glimpse of Rural Life

Last week, I took advantage of the glorious weather and decided to head up to La Caldera on the road to Teide National Park to spend some time communing with nature.
The scent of hot pine needles is one of the most evocative fragrances I know. When I breathe it in deeply I get an enormous sense of well being and joy and I find it almost addictive. So any opportunity to head to the woods on a hot day and I’m there.

Strolling through dappled forest paths, almost hyper-ventilating on the delicious smell, I dropped gradually down hill to the outskirts of Aguamansa and along a path I think of as ‘Flower Lovers’ Lane’. A narrow, winding lane is bordered on both sides by allotments of rich, red earth in which neat rows of potatoes, vines, cabbages and tomatoes flourish.
Lining the path, high hedgerows are ablaze with colour; campanula, cranesbill, foxgloves, daisies, forget-me-nots, trailing geraniums, poppies and wild sweet peas all vying for attention amidst the elegant tall grasses.

Sometimes, walking on Tenerife can transport me back to idyllic days on country lanes in Britain, and dreamily wandering this lane, I could have been in Devon or Cornwall. The illusion continued as I travelled further into the heart of rural Aguamansa passing stone cottages with thatched roofs.

But then I turned a corner and the commanding outline of Mount Teide filled the skyline, its peak shimmering in the heat haze and its shoulders mantled in rich, olive pine forests. I stood to take a photograph and watched an eagle circling the fields on the hot air currents before it landed in the uppermost branch of an enormous fir tree.

On the return route I called in at the trout farm to see the rescued birds of prey and ended my walk where I began; in the hot, pine-scented forest where a cold beer on the terrace of a log cabin bar provided the perfect end to my Tenerife/Devon day.

The La Caldera to Aguamansa route has just been published on PDF and comes with a free copy of ‘Captivating Coastlines’ – the five best coastal walks on Tenerife.