El Guincho-Teide-El Guincho
Tenerife
We wanted to leave at 6 a.m., but as always we took a long time getting ready and left later.
It takes an hour to drive from the hotel to the start of the trail up Teide.
When we arrived, it was around 8 a.m.; the parking lot near the trailhead is small, and by that time there were no spaces left. We had to park a little farther away, a kilometer off.
And so we began the ascent. Volchy was carrying three 1.5-liter bottles of water. I felt sorry for him. I thought we didn’t need that much water and started persuading him to hide one of the bottles somewhere. After 20 minutes, we hid the water under a bush.
Volchy trudged ahead, and I walked behind. I wasn’t thinking about anything. I just walked. The sun was shining brightly.
At first the trail was wide, like a dirt road. Almost flat, with only small climbs here and there. A jeep had driven along it. Around us were picturesque yellow-orange hills.
At the beginning of the ascent
We walked through a valley strewn with huge black lava boulders, called “Teide eggs.” They were formed when a piece of lava that had already solidified rolled down the steep slope of the volcano over lava that had not yet solidified, creating these enormous lava snowballs.
Lava Snowballs
And then the real ordeal began. The trail turned into a narrow path that rose steeply uphill. The path went through a lava flow. A beautiful view opened up. It was hard to walk. I kept wanting to drink all the time. People were coming down toward us — probably they had watched the sunrise on Teide.
Path through the lava field
Among the rocks, there were balls of little flowers—daisies and violets. It was very beautiful and somehow unreal—flowers amid this lifeless landscape.
Daisies
The summit finally came into view
I had almost reached the upper station of the cable car when I caught up with Volchy. He was walking very slowly. Together we made our way to the cable car station. It was very windy there, but we sheltered behind the station building, in the sunshine.
It was time to eat the tuna pie. We lay down for a little rest right on the tiles. We had only a little way left to climb to the crater itself.
Vacation
The path to the crater was even narrower and in places very steep. It got cold because of the strong wind. I put on a fleece and a jacket. I pulled the hood over my head. The crater turned out to be small. It smelled of sulfur here, the ground was covered with yellow-green patches, and warmth was rising from the earth.
We sat a little at the very top. The advantage of the pandemic was that we were completely alone here. And we met very few people on the trail. Complete unity with nature.
We’re at the top!
Yes, usually there is a cable car operating here, which will take you almost to the very top of the volcano in 8 minutes. We made this journey in 5 hours. But now, because of the pandemic, the cable car wasn’t working. And I think that’s why there was almost no one there. Only the most desperate ones like us…)
Sulfur patches in the volcano crater, smells like rotten eggs
Descending was not as easy as we would have liked. We walked slowly. In the evening it was even more beautiful here — the colors around us became richer. Our water supplies ran out. Volchiy took our water, which we had hidden.
Descent
We reached the parking lot at the start of the trail, where Volchiy left me and went to get the car. I sat on the parapet and drank water with cookies. We did it… Somehow it still didn’t seem real. We had spent almost 10 hours walking there among the vast expanses…. It was worth it. I felt very tired, but strong.
