There’s been hardly any statistics on your journey so far. Alas, dear reader, I sense your eyes glazing over at the merest mention of the ‘s’ word, so I will be gentle.
As well as the youngest El Hierro is the smallest, as long as one ignores the hiccough that is La Graciosa, a contentious contender for number eight. So we will indeed ignore it.
That leaves us looking at the size of El Hierro compared to the largest Island – it’s possible to fit seven and half El Hierros into Tenerife. Another way of looking at it, for Britains anyway, is that it is 2/3 the size of the Isle of Wight. Either way, and whilst small, that is still 105 square miles or 258 square km to explore.
We start by heading up through the capital Villa de Valverde and on to the road which will take us up into the mountains. Another statistic is that the highest peak is 1501m above sea-level. Not so high by Tenerife standards but a satisfying number anyway. Before that we drive through cloud and roadblocks, which as yet don’t impede our progress – it looks suspiciously like a disaster training exercise is being enacted today.
We stop as soon as the cloud breaks up, to enjoy the sunshine as well as the vista we don’t know we are missing, it’s only another few km to our destination. This turns out to be on a rough road but we continue anyway, eventually ending up at the summit of Píco Malpaso, the highest point. We are all alone here, it is a surreal experience and we enjoy the tranquility.
We start to wind our way back down the mountain, but run into a problem where the emergency services have closed our intended road, so have to make a substantial route-change as we descend to the West coast and our next destination La Frontera. We take a walk through the second town of the island, and get lunch in a street café.
Moving on we stop at Poco La Salud, a rather run down little hamlet except for the hotel, but it’s cute, complete with a well and more lovely views. Staying at sea level we move along the coast to find the Arco de la Tosca, and take a short walk around the area.
Ascending once again we snake upwards to the backbone of the island in search of a tree, and we stop at the Virgin of the Kings place of pilgrimage on the way. The area of El Sabinar has strong winds which always blow in one direction, so the aged juniper trees take on a particular shape. An icon of the island is a thousand year old instance which is at the end of yet another rough track.
It takes an hour to wind our way back home, perfectly timed for a Chardonnay. Dinner is good again, although they don’t know their beef cuts and my fillet turns out to be a thin ribeye but it was OK, however the hubster’s goat was great!
