We are up at 02:30, possibly the earliest ever in all our adventures! By 03:00 we’re on the road, grabbing just a pre-prepared fruit salad, conveniently using up left-overs. The drive across the Woodhead is calm, almost pedestrian, as a taxi two cars ahead is so slow we wonder if it is early for it’s fare, but later when we pass it there are passengers, so presumably it’s a nervous customer. Definitely not taxi-like anyway.
Despite this we dump the car at T3 Meet & Greet at 04:03, walk up to arrivals, drop our bag, pass security and we’re in the lounge by 04:22. How good is that? Four weeks ago to the day it took over an hour just to get into security. Plenty of time for coffees, breakfast and two hours of very productive work.
The flight is delayed slightly but only by a few minutes, something to do with Portuguese air traffic controllers, soon we’re on our way. The flight is busy, we observe a new process, whereby when the flight-crew want to come out they put the seatbelt sign on to clear their way - never seen this before - twice we observe this, each time after a few minutes coming for coffee refills!
Compared to the traditional rain at Manchester, it’s baking when we land at Tenerife South, and we park close today so no bus - straight into security and as we’re amongst the first off, straight through the biometric machines. Of course this means luggage isn’t here but I track it so know it’s just around the corner.
Our driver is waiting and in 21 minutes we’re home - no sensitive driving on this leg - 45 minutes from plane door to front door, it must be a record. After opening the house and unpacking we need to sort out our car-hires - plans have changed since we booked then in June and we need to pay some more to the nearby agency. They are pleased to see us (we’re probably their best customer of 2022) but the lady I’ve been WhatsApp-ing isn’t on yet so we plan to return later in the day.
A quick shop for basics for making lunch, but we don’t get to eat until we’ve washed away eight weeks of the Sahara from pretty much every hard surface around the garden - pathways, chair and sofa frames, day bed, dining table and chairs - it gets everywhere.
After lunch more chores - reading meters, checking the postbox, setting my office (hubby’s is built each day on the outside dining table) and then doing our weekly menu plan, shopping list etc. we had planned to go out for dinner but we decide to use the lasagne in the freezer. So I make extra béchamel to bolster it and save for later. The pool beckons by this time.
Our evening walkies takes us around the town, past the three big hotels and on to Roca Negra Sunset bar, where we resist stopping for a drinkie on this occasion, pop back to the rental agency, and as we return we pass Chez Lola and make a booking for his crazy dinner-drag show next Thursday.
After a “welcome home” bottle of cava we enjoy the lasagne - it’s just perfect - and a slightly early night after a very long day.
Saturday starts with the car-hire delivery, this weekend it’s a new(ish) Hyundai i20 automatic, complete with AirPlay - quite cute and nippy. We drive the four km to Mercadona - we could easily walk, but the return with a week’s shopping would not be fun! We’ve got to the stage where we know where everything is so a very quick shop later and we’re back home, unpacked and making lunch, which we enjoy in the garden, before heading back out.
Today’s plan is to drive to La Caleta and then do our regular walk along the Costa Adeje. It’s as tireless as any of our regular Cawthorne walks, one we know intimately and yet never get bored - the sights change each time, including some surprising closures, we’ll watch with interest to see what happens at the Jardin Tropical beach club, Tony Roma’s and the Sheraton Adeje to name a few.
We pop into a restaurant to book for a future date, and blindly walk past our little car, but soon work out our mistake and back-track, then return to prep ourselves and dinner - tonight chorizo and mozzarella in red-pepper and tomato sauce.
Sunday starts with melon and home-made hot-cross-buns, an hour’s FaceTime back to Yorkshire, then a drive nearly back to the airport. Regular readers will know we concluded our long-term “round island” walk at Las Galettas nine weekends ago, so we start from here today. Google maps led me to think we’d be entirely coastal today, but twice we discover sections we can’t traverse, and have to go inland to get round, but for the most part it’s six miles of close-to-sea walking.
As we approach the marina at Golf Sur we see a “submarine” departing - no more a proper U-boat than the one we saw in Bandol three weeks ago but great for non-divers! We enjoy lunch on a wall, before heading back via the straighter inland route. Interesting flowers on a cactus - like dog biscuits! The geology is amazing, I’d love to know more about the meaning of strata like these, below the lava top.
We fill up the car for it’s collection tomorrow morning, then pool time beckons. Sunday roast is chicken.
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