Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Cruising Tenerife on a motorcycle

As long as you aren't concentrating too hard on leaning into the bends on your computer chair, you'll be able to enjoy some brilliant scenery around the Anaga mountains above Santa Cruz in the north east of Tenerife.

BEFORE you watch the video below, first watch part 1 here (don't worry, we'll wait for you), which is the start of the journey from San Andres, climbing up the winding mountain roads into the Anaga mountains.

Done that already? I think you you must've been speeding! :)

OK, now we can continue on part 2 of the adrenalin trip - where it really gets rocking and not just from the well chosen ACDC sound track either. Along more winding, mountain roads, through a tunnel, then hold on as we come down the vertiginous roller-coaster descent past the village of Taganana and on to Roque de las Bodegas (easily distinguished because there's a roque (rock), actually several of them, there in the sea) and, beyond to Benijo.

Just on the right, where the motorcyclist overtakes a dark blue van on the pedestrian crossing (Yeah, someone parked on a pedestrian crossing. Pretty normal here), on the sea front are a couple of fish restaurants. The big one, that gets coaches in, is average. There was - last time I was there - another one, just a few doors down, that was family run and much nicer. Menu is, unidentified "catch of the day", served with wrinkled potatoes and salad.

At the end of the film, our two wheel chauffeur, HellRhythm, turns off and parks overlooking the sea. If you were to carry on, up that road a little further, you come to another restaurant, up a dirt track, with a terrace hanging off the cliff and amazing views out to sea. There, a couple of years ago, we were served something about the size of a small dolphin on an oval platter for next to nothing, with a smile too. Well worth the extra few hundred yards.

I'll be honest, anything faster than a push bike on 2 wheels scares the poo-poo out of me, but watching this was really fun and, I can now understand why we get a lot of serious bikers (a club, I think) who come up this end of the island to similar roads and scenery most Sundays.

This map will show you roughly where you've been:

See larger map | Google Earth

Link to video for feed readers Via: Wolfgang Lonien