The route began at the top of Adeje next to a National Park called Barranca Del Inferno (Hells Ravine). This is the most popular walk in Tenerife following a spectacular ravine, but the route is only a 7km return and only 200 people are allowed on it per day. The route I chose was obviously considerably longer and tougher and I saw only a handful of people all day, all of which were doing walks on small sections of my route. There are no footpath signposts in Tenerife. You occasionally see a white arrow chalked into a rock, but more often you see little pyramid piles of rocks about 6 or 8 inches high that people put on the trail to follow. They are actually very helpful and got me back on route several times when I took a wrong turn.
The walking surface is rough and ragged. Dirt and large rocks, and boulders on the whole trail as the following photo and short video show.
A lady at the National Park centre not far from where I began my route gave me estimates of 2 hours to reach the first cliff face (after gaining 700 metres) and 5 hours to reach the village of Ifoche. Of course she assumed I would be walking, and not walking quickly or running. I ascended the hills at the back of Adeje and took this photo shortly before reaching the summit shown at the top of the picture.
I reached the top of the cliff 700 Metres above in an hour an 5 minutes. Due to the terrain on that section I had to walk all the way up, but I managed 2.7mph using my trekking poles on most of that part. I took this photo from that point. I had climbed from an area that was level with the circular water treatment tank visible near the centre left of the picture.
At this altitude, which was 1100 Metres, the route mostly plateau’s for a few kilometres and turned into pine forest, gaining perhaps another 100 metres in height. I ran the ran as much of the remaining route as it was safe to do so, but due to the nature of the terrain walking was necessary in order to stay alive! I used my poles while running, planting them down with every other step, almost like a cross-country ski action. This worked well, and I skipped over the terrain well. I even used the poles to launch myself upwards when climbing by placing both on the ground and pushing back to jump up sections. It was really quite enjoyable.
Route finding was difficult with criss-crossing trails everywhere as I followed the path from west to east across the top of the map. I missed a turn at one point and trotted out from the trees to be faced with this cliff, which was actually the Barranca de la Fuente Ravine shown in the centre top of the map. I don't know if you can really see the scale but the drop beneath my feet was around 250 metres
I had missed the path which took my around and wound down eventually to the ravine floor, before climbing back up and out around the other side. I retraced my steps and picked up the path. I reached the ravine floor and took this shot. This illustrates what I mean when I say the little pyramid stone piles that mark the route. Usually there is just one every now and again. Looks like in this photo there is a bit of a stone-man party going on. It’s pretty though huh?
I took this at the other side as I was climbing out of the Fuentes ravine.
I reached the village of Ifoche in 2 hours 40 minutes, somewhat quicker that the 5 hours predicted by the tourist office! At this point, technically the first guidebook walk ended and I picked up the second which took me from Ifoche to El Ancon winding around the almost to the summit of, but skirting to the side of and then down the three spectacular peaks Roque Los Brezos, Roque Imonde and Roque Del Condo. These shots were taken during that stretch of the route.
This little peak before the two main ones is called Garcia's nose.
This is Roque Del Condo. You can see the old agricultural terraces on the hillside.
A shot looking across from Del Condo:
This shot is looking back up to Roque Imonde. I had climbed down from practically the very peak of this.
This video shows the whole vista. The first peak is Imonde, and then across to Los Brezos where I had come from, then the final shot is of Del Conde where I was headed.
There was a lot of climbing down into ravines, and then back up the other side. You can see form this shot on a ravine floor where I had come from, up high in the right. I'm not sure how many metres I climbed that day, but I'd estimate around 2000.
I stopped and ate lunch around here, right next to the area marked Hidden Valley on the map. It really was a pretty spot. There was an old almost overgrown threshing circle and the remains of agricultural terraces on the surrounding hills. I topped up my electrolyte at this point too. I eventually reached El Ancon where the second trekking route ended and picked up the next route a kilometre or two down the main road in Arona. My knees were a little sore at this point. I had been out around 4 and half hours at this stage. I had an ibuprofen more an anti inflammatory than a pain killer.
I began my third (and what should have been final) trekking route. This should have taken me back to my hotel at Torviscus Alto, not far from the place on the map (bottom left centre) marked Picos Las Americas. However, this is where things started to go wrong.
I couldn't find my way down to the road. The hill was very steep and I was still at around 800 metres at this point. I took this shot from the peak of this route, just before I descended to try and find my way back. See the white line that runs in the side of the hill; remember that, as it was almost the death of me.
I descended down to 500 metres and then hit that white line, which turned out to be aqueduct carrying water along the hillside. At this stage it was open-topped and was 1 metre high and 1 metre wide, and made of stone. This is known as the Rio Conde, as marked on the map. I looked at the guidebook and decided that since I could not find my way down to my hotel, I would follow a 4th trekking route in the guidebook which followed the line of the Rio Conde. The name of the route in the book was "Adeje Skywalk" - I was soon to find out why. I scanned the route, a little too hastily, and disregarded the warning about a certain part inducing vertigo. Although as it transpired, that section wasn't an issue.
A started to make my way along the path that ran parallel to the Rio Conde. At first it was an easy and obvious path. The drop to my left was not quite gentle, but certainly not steep. However, at the point on the map marked 'difficult water changeover point, this got tougher. I had to clamber up and balance on the walls of the Rio Conde, which was about 3 inches wide. So doing a tightrope act I tip-toed over this meeting of several aqueducts. The other side the water in the duct had gone, to be replaced with a 18 inch diameter plastic pipe that sat at the bottom of the rock aqueduct. So, it looks to have been reused for some modern purpose. Then soon after the Rio Conde gained a concrete top, the path to its left vanished into the slope and I had to mount the Rio Conde itself as use it as a walking surface, which is what the guidebook indicated. This metre wide surface became my path for the next 4 miles. You can see it below.
You can see that although the hill drops off fairly steeply, it's not a sheer drop, so a loss of balance would not result in anything too serious. This continued for the next couple of miles, following the mountain contours, winding in and out of ravines. This shot illustrates nicely.
At several points, the aqueduct became a small bridge, with nothing to the right or left. Perhaps only a 3Metre fall either side, but enough to cause injury. None of this really fazed me, and I ran much of this section as I am pretty sure footed.
I turned a corner and up in the distance I could see the fabled Vertigo-inducing aqueduct over the Barranca Del Aqua (Marked waypoint number 13 'Danger of Vertigo', on the map). I also noted that after the aqueduct (to the left of the picture, the drop to the left of the Rio Conde walkway looks somewhat steeper...)
You can't see it from that photo, but around the corner and before the bridge over the Barranca, the drop to the left steepened a little and there was a sheer rock face on my right. I turned a further corner and my face went ashen when I saw this.
The things wrong with that scene:
1) Rock fall had smashed through 1 to 3 metre sections of my walking surface, the Rio Conde.
2) The scale isn't good, but firstly that's a 5M sheer drop, followed by a short steeper section, then another sheer drop that is not shown in the shot.
3) The cliff to the right of the Rio Conde, overhangs, the only way past is to edge around the mountain sideays. Not a good idea for someone who is wearing a backpack.
4) The plants and cactus had already ‘spined’ me to death in various sections. The overhanging plants are pretty tame here, but got worse later. I was forced to go through them, or go off the cliff.
I edged my way forward and had to climb down inside and into the pipe inside each time I hit broken slabs. There were many-many more of these over the next couple of miles, by the way. I'd already packed away my trekking poles onto my rucksack, but I was concerned they would catch on the cliff as I passed by. I was pretty upset that an respected walking book would put me in such a dangerous situation. Routes like this should just not appear. I later read in their book - "We were surprised that this route didn't appear in anyone else book". Well I think I can answer, that's because they all died whilst scouting it out!
I clung onto what I could of the cliff and edged my way around to the other side. This was seriously scary for me with a fairly large backpack with trekking poles poking out at all angles. I eventially made it past the worst, and I let out a sign of relief, but things got no better the other side. The same broken slabs and sheer cliff face continued. My progress slowed, no more running as you can imagine. Next I reached the aqueduct bridge section over the Barranca Del Agua. You can't really see it, but that's a big drop to each side. Serious injury or death if you fall, about 10 metres I think.
This shot taken as I was crossing it. I should have pointed the camera down to catch the drop, but didn't think about it at the time.
As I said earlier, this didn't both me too much. OK it was a straight drop 10M either side, but that's a metre wide surface to walk on and there was little wind. I think I even ran across it as some kind of bravado stunt.
For the next mile or so, things didn't improve at all. I kept hoping round the next corner would be a path down, but I just kept getting more sheer cliffs, broken slabs and scary walking, as shown here.
It was the overgrown bushes that I had to go through which made it all the tougher. I got ripped to shreds by various cactus plants during this stage.
Something strange happened then. I half questioned if I was imagining things. I swore no one had used this as a route realistically, and that it had not been trodden in months or years. Then I glanced across the ravine from where I had come and I saw a man. He had long black trousers on, no shirt, and had no shoes on as was following behind me on the Rio Conde I'd guess about 2 mins behind. I wondered where he could have come from as there simply was no access. You were effectively a captive of the Rio Conde for 5 miles. The cliff had got less steep to my left anyway, so I turned a corner and broke into a jog again and went around to the next ravine. I slowed up again as I went through some plants, and glanced over the canyon. Around the corner came the man, but now having lost quite a lot of ground to me running. He glanced across at me, stopped for a second, then turned on his heels and walked back around the corner never to be seen again.
This did freak me out a little. Later I was told that there were hermits who lived in the hills. I had visions of the hills have eyes movies.
A mile or so later, and much to my relief the Rio Conde disappeared into a rock face near the Barranca Del Inferno where I had began my walk, and after some clambering down a steep hill, I found the path that wound down into the canyon floor and back up into Adeje. I took this last shot looking back to the end of the Rio Conde, after I reached Adeje.
I completed the last couple of kilometres at pace. Even with the snail-slow progress on the Rio Conde and the lunch stop I averaged 2.4 mph. It had taken over 7 and half hours. Not bad for 19 miles and 2000 Metres of climbing. The most important thing there was 'time on your feet'. Out for 7 hours in warm weather in hassh terrain, just what I need. I called in a lift back to my hotel and retold my story. My sister and her Spanish boyfriend live in Tenerife and they had never heard of anyone walking on the Rio Conde. Nor had any other resident they spoke to. You must be crazy they said. I think they were right.
So I survived a training session that went way above and beyond the call of duty, over harsher terrain that I will ever face on the Marathon Des Sables in Morocco.
The day after I developed a lump on the top of my shin bone, red and raised, and was soon limping badly and could hardly bear any weight on it. 4 days later and now home in England, I can now walk better, but can't run. A physio looked at it and didn't think it was a sports injury. He suspects infection. Maybe I caught a bad cactus spine? I don't know, but if it is not much better tomorrow I'll have to go to the doctors to see what it is.
Apart from that I have no aches or pains of any kind and feel pretty good. Only 8 weeks to La Trans Aqu in France and only 5 weeks of hard training before a small taper. If this shin issue gets resolved quickly, I'm well on track and things are looking good.
I'll return to Tenerife later in the year for more training. It will be much hotter in July or August. The terrain is perfect though, and I will no doubt have plenty more opportunities to frighten myself witless in the mountains.
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