Last
night’s meeting has spurred me into action!
Ruth and I haven’t done any exciting rides recently – apart from island
hopping along the Dalmatian coast in Croatia, where we failed to take
any photos! So I thought I’d tell you
about the ascent of Mt Teide, Tenerife in
2003. This is one of the very few places
in the world where you can cycle and walk from sea level to 12,000 ft and back
in one day – at least that was the plan.
We’d hire bikes and cycle up from the coast to 7,700 ft then walk the
rest.
We
hired nice Scott bikes and set off early but soon found that, though the bikes
were good, the saddles were torture so we had to keep getting off and walking
for a while until the pain subsided! So
we were late setting off on the walking part and, by the time we reached a
mountain refuge at 10,700 ft, we realised we had to stop there for the night.
The
next morning we set off at 6 a.m. in the dark and managed to be on the summit for
the sunrise at 7:30 – 24 hours after we set off.
So
we did manage the ascent in “one day” but will have to go back sometime to do
up and down in a day. See all the pictures
at www.prwatson.co.uk/trekking.htm and
click on the link “Mount
Teide ascent 2003".
PS
– No, we didn’t do it in pirates fancy dress - Ruth’s eye patch was because she
was having trouble with her corneal graft at the time.
