Exploring a landscape fit for titans

GO TENERIFE:Forget the hard-partying reputation – Tenerife is blessed with extraordinary natural beauty, with unique volcanic landscapes making for great hiking terrain, writes AMY LAUGHINGHOUSE

SOUTHERN TENERIFE is famous for its rowdy nightlife and sunburnt lager louts. But dig deeper – beyond the cabaret, karaoke and fried pink flesh of office workers more accustomed to institutionalised fluorescence than solar radiation – and visitors find this isle has a wild side that has nothing to do with slurping body shots from the navel of an 18-year-old.

To discover it for myself, I’ve exchanged my flip-flops for hiking boots and left the desert-like (although hardly deserted) south behind, buckling up for an hour-and-a-half long drive to the lush, greener north.

The highway hugs the coast, weaving between banana plantations on the plains before ascending upwards through tunnels dynamited through the mountains. Along the way, colourful towns with blocky buildings in sherbet shades of mint green, pale blue, and terra cotta spilling down steep hills and fanning out over ancient lava fields towards the Atlantic.

Now and then, I catch a glimpse of Mount Teide, a sleeping volcano that harbours traces of snow at its nipple-shaped peak, which pierces the clouds at 3,718m. For a better understanding of Tenerife’s fiery origins, I strap on a hard hat and miner’s headlamp, prepared to explore the isle’s underbelly with a tour of the Cueva del Viento (the “Cave of the Wind”). The two-hour excursion covers just 250m of the 17km network of lava tubes – the longest system in Europe – although another four kilometres should be open by next year.

A brief orientation at an interpretation centre reveals the lava tubes – which form three levels, a phenomenon that has not been noted anywhere else on Earth – were created 27,000 years ago by an eruption emanating from the Pico Viejo volcano.

Then my friends and I take a short drive to a pine forest, where we continue on foot through fields of wild flowers to a gated metal grate, which our guide, Rayco Gonzalez, unlocks to usher us down a flight of wooden steps into the second level of caverns.

I’m nervous at first, imagining myself slithering through narrow spaces that would barely accommodate an undernourished supermodel (which I decidedly am not) and wading hip-deep through murky water. But blinking in the dim light, I find that we’re in a relatively dry, vast space, perhaps three metres high and as wide across.

As we head deeper into the labyrinth, Gonzalez points out various features of the caves, such as lava stalactites and the buttock-width ledges lining portions of the walls, created when magma stagnated over a long period of time.

The lava tubes are home to 190 known species, including seven unique insects, although only later do I discover that our creepy-crawly companions include giant black spiders and a type of eyeless cockroach. This is probably just as well, since our guide’s favourite party trick is asking us to turn off our headlamps so that we can experience what life is like for the caves other, er, inhabitants.

“Oh . . . my . . . gawd,” a girl gasps beside me as we’re plunged into pitch-black darkness, listening to the grumbling of our stomachs and the steady drip, drip, drip of water seeping through the rock. For a moment, I confess, I envy the masses sizzling beside hotel swimming pools, cracking open their fifth beer of the morning.

Of course, you needn't shun the sun to find a bit of adventure. Sea kayaking is also popular in Tenerife, and we spend an afternoon paddling past the sheer, stony cliffs of la Punta de Teno, sluicing through water so blue it looks like it was spiked with a tanker of Toilet Duck. Cinematographers are apparently equally impressed, as scenes from the upcoming sequel to Clash of the Titansare currently being filmed here.

To truly appreciate the stunning landscape, however, it’s necessary to hit the trails. We rise early one morning to hike the Barranco de Masca, which has been described as one of the most beautiful hikes in Europe.

It begins in the tiny village of Masca, precariously perched beneath jagged peaks in an area so remote that it’s only been accessible by road since the 1970s.

After fortifying ourselves at an al fresco bar with a barraquito (a combination of espresso, condensed milk and liquor, accompanied by a sliver of lemon), we begin the precipitous, three- hour, eight-kilometre-long descent – despite a sign at the head of the trail warning us about landslides and advising that the beach far below is closed. Our guide, Pepe, a laid-back Spanish bloke, shrugs it off, explaining that the sign is outdated, and indeed, a steady parade of hikers and backpackers carries on past us undeterred.

We’re soon swallowed up by steep valley walls, where cactus and palm trees cling for dear life to its nooks and crags. We see evidence of past lava flows, spilling over ledges like frozen fountains of rich, dark chocolate. We clamber down smooth white boulders alongside a crystalline stream and catch the reflection of the sky in placid, green pools. At the end, the path widens to reveal a crescent-shaped pebble beach framed by dramatic bluffs and lapped by the sapphire sea, where we’ll be ferried by boat to the port of Los Gigantes.

It’s the sort of place that holds you captive to its beauty, as Joe Johannes-Przywara, a shirtless, sunburned young German backpacker explains when we encounter him on the path.

“I came here more than a month ago, with just enough food and water for two or three days,” he says, shifting the weight of a red knapsack exploding with clothes and, inexplicably, several lengths of bamboo. “Then I realised I like it here. I hike up to Masca to buy food, and I can drink water from a stream,” explains Johannes-Przywara, who sleeps in a cave. “So far it’s perfect,” he says, with the sort of enthusiasm I personally would reserve for a five-star hotel offering free massage, an open bar and butler service.

THE TEIDE NATIONAL Park is equally popular with cavemen (and women), I learn the next day, when I thumb my nose at Pele (the volcanic goddess, not the soccer player) by planning a hike to the top of Mount Teide and across a crater. Our guide, Juan-Carlos Melian Galvan, produces a notebook featuring movie stills featuring Raquel Welch on the set of One Million Years BC,parts of which were shot here in the park.

“You can see how her fur bikini became shorter,” he notes as he compares images from the filming, revealing a keen eye for detail, particularly where two-piece pelts are concerned.

Welch’s impressive peaks aside, the pinnacle I’m most interested in is Mount Teide, which last erupted in 1909 – and is apparently overdue for another outburst (gulp). We’ve booked ahead to obtain a summit permit via a cable car that will take us within about 200m of the very top, which towers 3,718m above sea level.

Given the altitude, the steepness of the trail, and the shivering temperatures, it’s rough going to reach the summit – but my creaking efforts are put to shame by 82-year-old Anneliese Schueler, who is visiting with a German Alpine society.

“Most of my companions are 15 or 20 years younger than me,” she says, “but one lady is 87 years old.”

So I huff and puff resolutely upwards and am ultimately rewarded by an unparalleled panorama of a barren, Mars-like landscape where puffy white clouds gather on the blue horizon like billowing smoke.

I may be the only person ever to return from Tenerife without a tan – or a hangover – but it’s worth trading a little time by the beach or under a table for a view from the top of the world.

Tenerife where to . . .

Stay

Vincci Seleccion Buenavista Golf Spa, Calle La Finca s/n 38480 Buenavista del Norte, tel: 00-34-922061700 or see hotelvinccibuenavistagolf.com. Built into a hillside overlooking a coastal golf course, this 117-room five-star hotel features spacious accommodation, multiple swimming pools and a spa. Doubles from €215.

La Quinta Roja,Glorieta S.Francisco s/n 38450 Garachico, tel: 0034-922133377 or quintaroja.com. This rosy-walled 16th-century mansion with a sunny central courtyard is located in a central square in the charming seaside town of Garachico. At the terrace restaurant, we feast on tapas, including fried cheese, fresh fish, and the island's famous "papa negra" (black potatoes) and "papa bonita" (pretty potatoes), washed down with easy-drinking local wines. Doubles from €110.

Las Cañadas del Teide Parador,38300 La Orotava (Isla de Tenerife), tel: 0034-922374841 or parador.es. Situated in the heart of the Teide National Park, with spectacular views of the volcano, this 37-room hotel also boasts a heated swimming pool and a glass-walled restaurant serving heaping portions of local Canarian cuisine such as puchero, a hearty stew of vegetables, meat and potatoes. Fans of black pudding will also enjoy the almond-coated morcilla. Twins from €60.

Go

Cueva del Viento,tel: 0034-922815339, cuevadelviento.net. Book in advance to see these caves. Adults: €15. Children ages 5-14 years: €5.

Mount Teide: if you wish to ascend Mount Teide via the "Telesforo Bravo" trail from La Rambleta or via the cable car, you must apply for a permit in the National Park office, tel: 0034-922922371, or check the website at reservasparquesnacionales.es.

Get there

Aer Lingus (aerlingus.com) offers non-stop flights from Dublin and Belfast International Airport to Tenerife’s Sur Reina Sofia airport.

More information

Tenerife Tourism Corporation, tel: 00800-10010100, webtenerife.co.uk.