Ireland day 1125. Sunday 27 October 2024- To La Gomera

Today’s summary	Left the hotel at 4:50 am to catch a 7 am flight from Manchester to Tenerife. The rest of the day was spent first in the air, then transferring our final destination of Vallehermoso in the Canary island of La Gomera. The bus – ferry – taxi transfer from Tenerife airport to hotel was fairly straightforward and took about 5½ hours. Now we are in our hotel in Vallehermoso and it’s time to find somewhere for dinner, and to start planning our activities for the next nine days. Nice to be somewhere warm and sunny!
Today’s weather	Heavy rain overnight in Manchester then cleared in the morning. Strong northerly wind. Appx 7c when we left, 20c at destination.

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Stage two of our journey south started at the ungodly hour of 4:50 am this morning. Thank goodness the clocks went back last night, so at least we got a bonus hour’s sleep before hitting the road again.

Our hotel was actually at Manchester airport so we were through security and airside in just 25 minutes. I was surprised at how busy the airport was considering the early hour. But I suppose it was the first weekend of the school holidays.

Our destination this morning was Tenerife, and despite leaving Manchester half an hour late, we actually arrived a few minutes early at 11:30 (Canarian time is the same as the UK and Ireland). A strong tailwind helped us on our way and we were treated to spectacular views of the El Teide volcano on Tenerife as we approached (see banner image at the top of the page).

Once disembarked, we took a “Mesa” minibus to the port of Los Cristianos and from there an Armas ferry from Tenerife to San Sebastián, the capital of the island of La Gomera. For the final stage of the journey, we caught a taxi courtesy of Dulce Maria Herrera to our hotel in the small town of Vallehermoso, in the north west of the island. The whole journey from Tenerife airport to the hotel took about 5 and a half hours, and about twelve and a half from Manchester.

We are here in La Gomera with a couple of friends, for a nine-day walking holiday. Actually, I think we are looking forward to to seeing some sun and stocking up on pre-winter warmth, as much as the walking!

Anyway, now it’s time to go and find somewhere to eat, and to start planning tomorrows activities. ¡Y tal vez también una buena oportunidad para empezar a practicar mi español!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Train station at Manchester airport. Good to see that air travel here is well connected to the transport network	Waiting to depart in out wet aircraft. It soon cleared up

Looking south on the ascent from Manchester. I think Jodrell Bank is somewhere in the murk, but I’m not certain if I captured it in this photo	On the Armas “Volcan de Teno” ferry from Los Cristianos in Tenerife to San Sebastian in La Gomera. A relatively smooth crossing which took about an hour, although there were a couple of pale faces by the time we docked in San Sebastian!

Tenerife (South) airport. I wish Dublin was like this!	Val relaxing in our room in Hotel Añaverve in Vallehermoso. Here at last!

Vallehermoso village from our hotel room balcony. Quite windy today but beautiful!