So, when we got to the hotel, we were told of various things around the island that we could do, of which one which is called "Roque de Los Muchachos" - Rock of the little boys (don't ask me why it's called that, I have no idea!) but this place, it is the highest point of the island - 2426m. And from there you can see 3 of the other 6 Canary Islands. It's quite something.
We were given a leaflet of various trekkings, by a company called "natuur trekking" (yes, they are flemish) and basically they do 9 different trekkings around the island (3are easy, 3are medium and 3are hard).
The one we chose to do was a medium - 4hours of walking.
We didn't actually realise what it entailed, and weren't really ready for it! but we managed anyway.
So, we bought the tickets, and on the Tuesday, we woke up early, got ready : packed 2 bags with water and food and suncream and caps and a towel and various other things we needed.
Got on the bus at 8:30am, and we had to cross the island to another hotel to get another bunch of people - took an hour.
So at 9:45 we left the other hotel and started going up the road to the top of the mountain - apparently that road has 420bends in it!
And as people had rented cars, they went up by themselves to a point where we stopped to have a drink and go to the toilet and meet up with the other people who then joined on the bus as they didn't have permission to go to the top (I think).
Oh and when I say toilet, I mean bushes for which to go behind.
Anyway, by then it was about 11am, so we continued up to the top, where there is the observatory
"The seeing statistics make it the second best location for optical and infrared astronomy in the Northern Hemisphere, after Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. The site has some of the premier astronomical facilities in the Northern Hemisphere, including the adaptive optics corrected Swedish Solar Telescope which provides the highest resolution solar imaging of any telescope"
Then we got to the top, to the Roque and we got off the bus and continued on foot. We arrived there at about 11:45.
The route, well, path, was very rocky, and sometimes very steep! it was EXHAUSTING!
We finished at about 3:30pm and got back to the hotel at 6pm.
I was sunburnt! Being so high up and near the sun, no clouds, hardly any wind.
This is a view from google maps of what we did. I mean, if it took us nearly 4hours, you can imagine just how much it was. I think they said it was about 6-7kms of walking.There was one amazing thing about the place. When you stopped moving/making noise. There was this silence. No birds, no wind, no talking, no cars, no nothing.
Just silence.
Just nature
Just nature
