Thank you again to all those who responded with helpful advice on Mt Teide last November.
I have just returned from the island and we did go up Teide on Wednesday, although we used the cable car to the top station and did the final walk up to the summit on foot. The weather was fantastic and we could clearly see La Palma, La Gamera and Gran Canaria. The summit rim was steaming noticeably and venting sulphur fumes giving it a surreal atmosphere. The walk on up from the top station took 40 mins. The permit system was working well resulting in our meeting only about 20 other people doing it, whereas the cable car and top station terrace was teeming with day trippers. We had the summit rim to ourselves.
We had intended to walk down via the Visitor Centre but abandoned that idea due to the volume of traffic using the road from it to the lower station, particularly coaches which would have made it an unpleasant and potentially dangerous road to walk along back to the lower station. It was bad enough just walking the few hundred meters from the visitor centre to the Portillo cafe ;(
We were quite surprised just how much the altitude affected us having driven straight up from sea level to the bottom station, then straight up on the cable car. ( +21 degrees to -4 degrees) The final climb of 160 odd meters to the summit was a killer ! One of our party decided to stay at the top station and go straight down again as he had rapidly developed a splitting head ache. There was at least one ambulance administering oxygen to someone else in the car park!
We also spent another couple of days prior to this following the various hiking trails in the desert/larva fields on the lower slopes of Teide.
Unfortunately we found the observatory to be closed.
This was my fifth winter visit to the Canaries for tall ship sailing and walking, and I would say that the walking on La Palma is probably the best and most adventurous, followed closely by Gran Canaria, and La Gomera. I found the walking on Tenerife to be more disjointed than the other islands I've visited there, although it's very varied from forest to desert. It's a great walking destination to get away from our increasingly wet and horrible winters, and air fares compare favourably for the 4 hours flight with other nearer European destinations.
