Tenerife '25 Day 5

 

My data roaming ran out at this point and Wi-Fi at Los Claveles was intermittent at best. More beach. Managed to shift the hangover. 

 

 

25/5 Sunday 

Early evening myself and my parents found the meeting point for Tenerife Stars, a stargazing tour on Mount Teide. 

Tour guide Ozzy, a trilingual and hugely passionate astronomer, took us on a coach up the mountain, and explained the history of the island beginning with the smashing of 2 tectonic plated millions of years ago, forcing the volcano upwards out of the seabed of the Mediterranean and forming what is now the third biggest volcano in the world. NASA, he tells us, calls it ‘The Gate to Heaven,’ the peak of which having risen up from inside the middle of the original volcano.

 

Eventually, the coach having wound its way through numerous high-lying rustic villages, we arrive at a vineyard with a giant wine press. 

 

 

 

 

The tables are pre-laid and we sit, meet other tour guests, and the staff serve up some exquisite pumpkin soup, chicken and Canarian potatoes (new potatoes with a generous salt coating). 

 

 

 

After an opportunity to eat and wander the grounds, we’re ushered back on the coach and we continue the climb. 

Teide, Ozzy tells us, last erupted in 1798 (Google suggests it did again in 1909.) Star Wars and Star Trek have filmed there among the alien-looking spiky rocks. Listen to them crunch underfoot. 

 

 

 

We reach twilight on the journey, and by the time we arrive at the viewing platform it’s already pitch black. It’s a clear night. There’s no moon, but the celestial hemisphere is in full view.   

 

Ozzy describes the different stars and constellations, pointing them out in the sky with a laser pen. He explains how long it would theoretically take us to get there travelling at the speed of light. A couple of large telescopes have been set up on tripods on the cobbles, and we queue to look. Through the first, a distant galaxy, millions of light years away, appears as a streak of light as we’re looking at it side-on. At the second telescope, 2 visible white dots are actually a double star – 2 balls of gas burning in proximity. A constellation through the third telescope displays as a frosted glass effect – millions of stars against the void.   

Food and hot drinks are available at this point.   

Finally there’s a photo op against the cosmos. I paid for this one.

 

What an experience. Well recommended.