Ireland day 1129. Thursday 31 October 2024- To Agulo

Today’s summary	Another early start with breakfast at 8:30 then we were walking an hour later. Climbed up out of the Vallehermoso valley and over the tops then down to Agulo. Stopped off in the “Juego de bolas” visitor centre midway. Superb walk with amazing views over to the island of Tenerife and El Teide volcano. Dinner in Agulo this evening
Today’s weather	Sunny warm and dry all day. Light northerly wind. Appx 20c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Vallehermoso to Agulo

Commentary

We are enjoying some fantastic walking here in La Gomera. The weather seems to have settled down and we had another day of warm sunshine, vivid blue skies and light breeze today. And after the rain a few days ago, the skies are clear, so the views are amazing, and bright green new vegetation is starting to spring up along the pathside. It’s lovely!

So we started the day with another early breakfast, at 8:30am, before packing our bags and getting them ready to be transferred by taxi to our night’s accommodation (so civilised!). We had finished, checked out and were away by 9:30, or shortly after, conscious that we had quite a long day ahead of us and with a decent amount of climbing thrown in too. So we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get there before nightfall.

The day’s walking started with a stiff climb up out of the Vallehermoso (which is indeed hermoso) and up, skirting the flanks of the giant Roque Cano which seems impenetrable whichever way you look at it. Our guidebook describes this section of our climb as “interminable” and indeed it did feel a bit that way.

But eventually, after about 600m / 2000ft of ascent, we were entering the highlands – which with the laurisilva forest and rolling hills, seems like a bit of a parallel universe. We dropped down to the shores of the practically-empty Presa de la Rosa – which looked to me like it had never been full. I discovered from notices in the town tonight that there is an acute water shortage on La Gomera, to the extent that there may be even be a water cut-off between the hours of 10pm and 8am tonight. Desalination is obviously not compensating for the pressures of drought, tourism and agriculture.

The walk proceeded easily, and we enjoyed lunch in the dappled shade of some pine trees near the highest point of our walk. A little further on, we came to the Juego de Bolas visitor centre, which has a nicely laid out garden of native and endemic plants, and some good interpretive displays. We enjoyed our visit, but weren’t sorry to leave the bus-loads of tourists behind. Quite remarkable, actually, how their giant coaches made it up there on the tiny narrow roads.

The path started a steep winding descent to Agulo soon after the visitor centre, and opened up to reveal stunning views of El Teide to the west. At one point, the whole north-south arcs of both La Palma and Tenerife were visible in a single sweep of the eye. Amazing.

We were soon in Agulo and outside our Casa Rural. There was nobody on duty when we arrived but a quick phone call (in Spanish, por supuesto) saw our keys delivered and us settled into rooms 4 and 5. There was just time for a quick look round the town, a bit of shopping and a couple of beers to be downed before getting ready to head out again, this time for dinner at La Vieja Escuela. It’s said to be good for fish, so we are looking forward to seeing what’s on offer.

I’m writing this from the roof-terrace of our apartment, looking over the straits to Tenerife. The sun has this minute just vanished from the top of 3,700m El Teide, and darkness is rapidly falling. It’s now 6:30pm more or less exactly, so we made it here with at least two hours of daylight to spare. Still, it’s always good to have something left in the bank!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


El Kiosco in Vallehermoso. Our favourite refreshment stop!	Roque Cano close up from our path. Whatever angle you look at it from, it appears pretty unscaleable

Presa de las Rosas. Possibly one of the less successful reservoirs ever constructed. It looks like it has never been full	*The “Juego de Bolas” visitor centre at the entrance to the Garajonay National Park. It’s nicely done, and admission is free.*

Giant Protea in flower in the visitor centre.	Looking over to Agulo, with attractive foreground

The views over to El Teide from our walk today were spectacular