Had I sleep walked in the night to set the scene in Santiago del Teide? I don´t think so, but the Tenerife town was pretty near perfect as I hopped off the 460 Titsa bus from Costa Adeje bus station. The church clock chimed 11 am, and whispy clouds edged across the tops of the pine forest as the sun burst through for a very acceptable 17 degrees.

A coffee and cake in Bar Soto set me up nicely for a stroll down the main street, flower crosses survived from the recent Day of the Cross, even Meatloaf vowing to do Anything For Love from a nearby bar seemed to fit in with the romantic setting. The unpretentious opening to the Camino Real walk drew me in, this old trading route had seen my plodding feet before. Each 6.7 km walk down to Puerto de Santiago had been different due to season, time, and weather, and this one followed that pattern. The first part of the stroll was just a few feet away from the main road but felt like another timeless kingdom, serenely quiet with tunnel vision to the high mountain my bus had skirted around and down. Faint bird song, gently swaying grasses, and beaming flowers competed for my attention.

The trickle of water in rubber clad pipes led me gently down to the first crossroads where two elderly locals sat chewing the fat at the base of a sign post pointing up to Roque Blanco. I gave the hour long detour a miss this time and followed the steep descent down to the old water pumping station. Tamaimo lay ahead in the distance, the sound of mobile PA announcements for the Adeje rally that would pass through later drifted across on the breeze. I passed a party of around 20 French walkers as they were taking a short breather, normally it´s not a busy route but maybe it had picked up a few that had found out in Santiago del Teide that their Masca barranco destination was temporarily closed.

The art of stone wall building dominated the route and guided me onwards and down through the dry river bed near the Tamiamo exit. I have never seen anything more than a few mini gulleys of water through this stretch, just as well, it needed some nimble footing to follow the marked signs through the rough stone floor. A few stray cats seemed quite at home leaping from rock to rock but their claws looked none too friendly. Further down the coast loomed into distant view, stretching through Playa del a Arena and on to Alcala. The steep sided valley showed openings for old cave dwellings, and on the other side the barranco funnelled water doen to sets of ever larger reservoirs that fed farms. Four ostrich’s wandered aimlessly in one yard far below, I bet the cats keep well away from them.

The final leg involved a slight descent to a commercial banana plantation, as the route skirted around the edge of netting covered groves before emerging just above Puerto de Santiago, around three hours after my start. The afternoon heat was stronger nearer the coast but the thought of a cold Dorada encouraged me to push on down past the Mirador over looking Los Gigantes.

Like the first cuckoo of spring, the UK tabloids have rehashed their annual story about a mega eruption threatening Tenerife, and throwing the people into a state of panic. Sadly their scientific knowledge is so poor, they probably think that Mount Teide and the eruptions is a 60’s soul band. Having lived here for 17 years, I have witnessed these scare mongering tales before, 2009 was a particularly fertile year for rumours as it was 100 years since the last eruption just above Chinyero. The current reality is we are not even on the lowest stage of alert, the flurry of small seismic tremors in the underwater trench between Tenerife and Gran Canaria is nothing new.

The volcanic nature of Tenerife make it a fascinating place to explore, there are plenty of ways to enjoy learning about what makes the island tick. I recently made a return visit to the Santiago del Teide visitors centre at the lower end of the road into the town, to see their free exhibition about that famous last eruption and the range of volcanic outlets around the island. There was six months of growing rumbling before the vent in the side of Mount Teide erupted for ten days. It was of course a stressful time, especially with so many farming communities in the area, but no one was killed or even badly injured. Once the eruption stopped, enterprising locals even started running kart trips up to see the affected area. The flow of lava was heading for the village of Chinyero, the locals preyed and wheeled out the statue of the virgen to the edge of the church plaza, the lava halted just short. This perceived miracle is now celebrated every year. The visitors centre is open 9 am to 2 pm on week days.

The lava fields are easily accessed these days, I have enjoyed several walks across them, a choice of routes are shown on boards in the Santiago del Teide church plaza. My favourite is the almost circular route to Arguayo, this passes the cross and shrine at Chinyero and takes a marked path through the moon like lava flow. In early spring it becomes the almond blossom walk as the trees are laden down with fantastic pink and white cascades of blossom. Mount Teide is also very clear from this walk, an absolute beauty when winter rains give it a dazzling white gown of snow. The Santiago del Teide visitors centre has a separate section showing walking routes, and the tourist at the edge of the church plaza will also give you advice and maps.

The Tenerife government backed Volcano Teide programme offers various guided excursions with a volcanic flavour, from sunset and stars,to observatory visits, and walking routes in Teide National Park. These will give you a great insight into the volcanic history of Tenerife. If you want to really delve into how a volcano works, the Cueva del Viento just above Icod de Los Vinos, is an amazing place to visit. You can go down into a small section of underground lava tubes formed 27,000 years ago. In total, three layers of tubes cover 2.7 kms, the longest stretch in Europe. The tour is guided, complete with safety helmets fitted with lights, and before you set out, the visitors centre will explain about different types of volcanos around the world.

Tremors in and around the Canary Islands are a daily happening, mainly on the lowest end of the scale, and far from being a big secret, you can access technical information on past tremors and the most recent ones. A team of volcanic experts are based at ITER, the renewable energy centre on the coast of Granadilla, down by the wind turbimes. Sensors implanted in and around Mount Teide ensure it is fully monitored at all times, There is also an authority called Involcan, that monitors safety issues and updates evacuation plans in case of any happenings. All this expertise is reassuring and better still, previous seismic activity over thousands of years has created some incredible sights to visit. Teide is the peak of the interest but you will see smaller volcanic peaks every day as you tour around Tenerife. Enjoy.

Long suffering fans are all too familiar with sudden nose dives in form from CD Tenerife but a 0-0 home draw with relegation haunted Almeria really put the boot in. At least it wasn´t a fourth straight defeat, and the defence stopped leaking goals but it was a depressing, soul less performance that smacked of end of term come early.

Another poor quality ref didn´t help the cause but Tenerife showed little hunger for a win, and had Dani Hernandez to thank for a superb double save in the final minute to save a point. Casadesus headed over from a Luis Perez cross after 10 minutes but it was all down hill from there on. The side pretty much picks itself these days due to the long term injury problems, the forward line was paper thin, midfield was quiet and lacking in ideas, the only attacking flair came from adventurous runs from full backs Luis Perez and fit again Camille. Suso had a couple of early spurts that lacked sharp finishes and Alberto looked strangely tame in the tackle. Almeria goalie Rene had an easy afternoon, his defence exposed him with a poor clearance late in the first half and Carlos Ruiz crashed the ball into his net only to receive a borderline offside call. Luis Milla had a shot deflected wide, and there was a hopeful penalty claim for a sliding defensive tackle on Camille where the ball hit the tacklers hand. These were just brief islands in a sea of boredom, it surely had to get better – didn´t it?

Almeria desperately needed something from the game to stay just above the trap door, and they had a go at the start of the second half. Marreh had a slow shot covered by Dani and Fidel smashed his attempt high over the bar. Malbasic swapped with Alberto to try to stir Tenerife, he tried to squeeze in a shot along the ground but wasn´t quick enough. The big striker did better with his build up for another shot but was fouled by Trujillo, a much stronger case for a penalty but not enough to budge the ref.

The arrival of Paco Montañes for Alex Mula hardly caused any ripples, he went through the motions, well he wasn´t the only one. Big bruising forward Nano was Almeria´s best hope, he tested Dani a couple more times but the home keeper was on his best form. Juan Carlos got a run out for Suso with just over ten minutes left, he managed a weak shot before blending in with his team mates. Bryan Acosta had already picked up one booking when he made took the feet of Pozo and upgraded to a sending off. The 11,378 crowd were praying for the final whistle to end their suffering as Nano burst through and shot at Dani from close range. The keeper got a touch to it on one side of him and twisted back to stop the rebound on the other side.

Tenerife are now 11^th and 7 points from the promotion play off spots with four games to go, but hope has run screaming up the street and there´s a slight edge of desparation creeping in as the season grinds to a halt. On Saturday it´s away to Reus Deportivo at 7.30pm, with Acosta suspended.

This is my weekly report on CD Tenerife from Canarian Weekly, you can see my full sport round up weekly in the newspaper.

Boats bobbed up and down in the Marina del Sur and some mean dark clouds lurked on the horizon, but they were up in the mountains so I had chosen the coastal walk to Malpais de Rasca to nudge me back onto the walking trails of Tenerife. With another Oxfonian, Karen, for company we set out from Las Galletas through the cactus clumps, thorny bushes, and sandy path heading past El Fraile.

There’s was quite a community of alternative dwellers in tents and rough shacks along the first stage of the path, the little coves offer a feast of the seas bounty, and the rising rocks offer shelter from the wind that was blowing in from the sea. Fallen stack formations crumbled at the coves edges, and tangles of wild bushes made us careful of our footing. Natural rock pools lined the waters edge, fish often get trapped in them, years ago people sprinkled the sour poison of tabaiba armaga plants to induce a drunk like state in the fish so they were easy to catch. The jumbled collections of undergrowth gave way to flatter, open space with well tended paths as we approached the palm tree lined tarmac road that separated the sprawling banana plantations from the sheer drops to bigger rock pools in the shadow of large outcrops of splintered and cracked rocks. After about 90 minutes we were at the entrance to the Malpais (badlands) leading up to the tall candy striped modern lighthouse and the small, squat original.

There´s definately something reassuring and stately about these sea guardians, maybe that’s why they attract enthusiasts known as farologists. The smaller building was built in 1898 and included live in accomodation, that was replaced in 1978 by the taller, automatic model that doesn’t need staff, well apart from the odd polish and repaint. They look good together and the narrow walkway and wall overlooking the sea gives great view up and down the coast. We moved down to the slipway beyond to start the walk along the old trade route with its small stone shelters used to shelter goats in days gone by.

The clouds were dispersing at this point but the waves were mighty and rolling as we made steady progress towards Palm Mar, which wasn’t even an architects dream until 1962. Quite a few keen walkers passed us coming the other way and at times other paths meandered inland, it would be easy to get lost, keeping in spitting distance of the shore was a good idea. The big lighthouse is easily visible from Los Cristianos and the reverse is true the opposite way. The fish farm cages were visible a little way out to sea and familar landmarks of Los Cristianos and Las Americas also stood out. Arriving on the edge of Palm Mar, the old stone was a reassuring sight.

Taking a well deserved drinks break at the new luxurious Bahia Beach bar gave us panaramic views of Playa Arenita, the rough beach which has always resisted cosmetic atempts to make it a bathers delight. Montaña Guaza stood proud and we could see the outline of the path up and over to Los Cristianos. Originally there were plans to develop a small jetty in Palm Mar for a shuttle boat to the busy resorts but it has never arrived. A few local fishermen were perched on precarious rocks, the old ways still hold sway in this tucked away cove. For us there was another smaller trek up through the main road out of Palm Mar to the main road and a Titsa bus back to Los Cristianos. Our leisurely stroll had taken around three hours in total and was very enjoyable.