Wyre Valley Rail trail Part 1 Worcester Foregate St to Droitwich 22/2/25

 There was only one section left to complete the Wyre valley Rail trail  so today was to be the final day. Caught the train to Foregate St then set off northbound. Initially the trail follows the Worcester and Birmingham canal. When the railway line is encountered at Blackpole the  canal is left and the route takes you through the ravenmeadow golf course and Tappenhall until one reaches the other canal, The Droitwich canal at Porters Mill. The canal is then followed past Salwarpe to Droitwich

The route took 3 hours and covered 9.57 miles

The whole route-

Total 30.1 miles

Church Stretton Day 2 1 December 24

 It rained most of the Saturday night but the forecast was good from 1000 to 1500 Sunday so I decided to go and visit Pole Bank, the highest point on Long Myndd.

Leaving Chursh Stretton via Townbrook Valley a lot of mist was encountered but the Pole bank summit was reached in 90 minutes encountering just 2 sheep, 1 dog and 2 humans!

Townbrook Valley

The Summit at Pole Bank

Coming down Ashes hollow, wading was needed to go Right to Left!

Church Stretton Day 1 30 Nov 24

 I was taking a 3 night stay at HF Holidays property at Church Stretton (again) in one of their cutprice deals. I decided to visit a couple of new places.As the weather forecast for the Saturday was better than Sunday I decided to go and visit the Wrekin while I could

One of the HF guests had done a tour of the wrekin a month earlier so he let me have his gpx file to follow. He pointed out that the starting point was not the usually used one and was free!

I drove from Church Stretton to Ercall near the Wrekin. It took 35 minutes, the lane ended at the conclusion of a one way system in the opposite direction!

The route was very wet, with many of the footpaths having been turned into babbling brooks by the recent rain. The ascent from the southernmost point up small hill (misrepresented!) was challenging and very windy. Once the summit was reached the gentle descent was very relaxing

At the bottom I noticed the map showed a quarry which I recognised from Megs OU studies as a fine example of non conformity so i just had to visit. It was as good as expected. The descent from the quarry back to the car was very wet and slippery and a number of deviations from the footpath were needed.

The view South from Small hill

The Approach to the summit from the South

The Malverns briefly appeared

The approach to the Summit from the North

The view North during the descent

The Ercall nonconformity (pink on the left, grey volcanic extreme right)

The interpretive board

The route covered 9.7 miles taking 4.5 hours

Route Profile

Tenerife Day 7 16 Nov 2024

The holiday had to end eventually! 

We left the totel at the north end of the island (near tenerife airport TFN which only does domestic flights) at 0900 (Tenerife taxi time 0920 GMT!) to drive to Tenerife South airport (TFS) which has the international flights. It took 45 minutes as traffic was light

Checkin was efficient, passport checking was done after security near the groups of departure gates

The route just clipped Portugal then approached birmingham up the bristol channel . Flight time was 3h50m

 

Tenerife Day 6 15 Nov 2024

 Originally Ramblers were offering a cateory 4 and category 6 walk to the coast, but the category 4 was corrupted to a "forest " walk so i had to take the category 6

The route started at Cruz del Carmen and descended down to Punta del Hidalgo 8.9 miles in 5 hours walking

The initial descent

The Final descent

The end in sight

The Lighthouse

Tenerife Day 5 14 Nov 2024

 Todays walk started at Taganana after a taxi ride, the approach road was exciting:-

Road into Taganama

The morning walk was along the cliffs through the vineyards and the old winepresses 3.5 miles

Morning Route

Morning profile

Looking back along the morning route from the beach

The beach, not a friendly paddle. time for lunch

Afternoon view back to the beach

A dyke across the gorge

Caves

The walk ended at a small bar in arfur before the taxi back to the hotel

Tenerife day 4 13 Nov 2024

This was a day off according to one published schedule and a walk day in another schedule, Tim and Julie organised a trip to the bustling seaside town of Puerto de la cruz. We caught the bus from the local bus station for the 1 hour journey

The main beach was closed due to a sewarge leak but we had a coffee before starting the walk

The closed beach with Teide in the distance

The view back to town across the banana terrace

Bananas do grow!

The coast view away from town

The old Harbour

After getting back to the old harbour we stopped at a beachside cafe for a relaxed lunch. On the way back to the bus ststion we visited a highly recommended ice cram shop which made wonderful pistachio ice cream in a freshly made cone

Tenerife Day 3 12 Nov 2024 TEIDE

 The highlight of the tour was to happen today, going up the Mount Teide Volcano

We were collected by the coach (which we had for the day) and headed for the El Portillo Vistor Centre at 6500 feet. We got to briefly tour the botanical gardens and see Mt Teide in the distance

El Portillo walk

Teide from El Portillo

We then continued to the Teide lower cable car cable station at 2356m 

The cable car route

Our cable car reservation was at 1130 cable car booking. We were issued with wrist bands and sent up the 7 minute ride to the top cable car station at 3555m  

Cable car top station at the left, the summit straight ahead

The cable car top station is the highest you can go, you need a permit (takes 2-6 months) to go up the additional 150m to the summit Upon arrival we were met by our guide who led us a tour 

Next door was Pico Viejo, the second highest volcano in the Canary Island

Pico Viejo

He pointed out El Chinero, a smallish mount where the last eruption on Tenerife happened in 1909, We also got to see the extent of the Caldera (Teide is NOT in the centre)

The Caldera wall with Gran Canaria in the Distance

We came back down after the allocated hour. The next stop was at the Canada Blanca visitor centre, but we were given the option of walking there rather than going on the bus, which i took. very different walk across a variety of surfaces including a sand dune. 3.21 miles in 1 hour 7 minutes at 7550 feet

Lunchtime walk 

The view from the top of the sand dune

The view back to Teide

After the delayed luch we continued on our 3.05 mile afternoon walk around the Roques de Garcia which was very scenic

The afternoon walk

Pillow Lava

Teide from the Roques

The Roques

We returned on the coach to the hotel at 1740 for a well deserved dinner in the total