Now I Understand Denbah Bah, Memories of The Gambia

We met Denbah Bah on a beach in The Gambia after we’d decided to go for a romantic stroll along the soft sand in the moonlight.

Denbah was a police officer assigned to ensuring that dozy tourists didn’t get themselves into trouble…whilst walking along a beach in Africa in the dark no doubt.

On a balmy night under a glittering African sky we wore light clothes whilst Denbah was wrapped up as if he were on ski training in Finland…in winter.
“Because it’s cold,” he answered when we asked about the need for a khaki cagoule and long trousers.
We told him that if he felt the cold in those tropical surroundings, he’d die if he ever visited Britain.

We struck up a friendship with Denbah over the next couple of days and he invited us to travel with him to his home in a village inland whose name I can’t remember – if I ever knew it in the first place.

First stop was the village shop. Coarse sacks of rice acted as surprisingly comfortable chairs as we were introduced to the shopkeeper and Denbah’s younger brother. The shopkeeper’s hospitality threw up an awkward moment as he brought us water to drink in brightly coloured, scratched Tupperware bowls.
Water from an unknown source in Africa, do you drink or not? Being British there was only one answer; the risk of causing offence is worse than the risk of catching some tropical disease.

After the shop Denbah took us to his home and en route told us about the scourge of Africa, green tea, which he made sound as though it some narcotic qualities which rotted the brain and made you sloth-like.

His small home was filled to bursting with family and friends, no doubt curious to see the two naïve tourists dressed in clothes more suited to a Greek beach.
As we sat and chatted, tiny hand after tiny hand reached through a curtain that acted as a door to the back of the small house and stroked my leg.

“They’ve never seen a white person before,” Denbah explained. “And your leg is so hairy. It feels funny to them.”

The children queuing outside to take turns in touching my alien body giggled.

Then it was Andy’s turn to be the object of attention.

“What age are you?” Denbah asked in an openly direct manner that made Andy squirm and me laugh.

“My God,” he exclaimed when Andy told him…after making seasonal adjustments of course (clearly I’m being a gentleman here and not saying). “But your skin is still like a young chicken.”

I guess he meant it as a compliment.

Anyway we had a fascinating and unforgettable day, including getting caught up in a jail break, and I could ramble on about it forever. But there’s a reason why Denbah Bah popped into my head.

Last night whilst talking on the phone to my mum in Scotland last night she asked what the weather was like.
“Not so great,” I told her. “It’s just started chucking it down. It was sunny most of the day but the temperatures have dropped to around 22C. So it’s a bit cool.”

“Twenty two degrees, twenty two degrees,” she laughed. “You think that’s cool?”

At that point I realised that sometime over the last seven years I’d become Denbah Bah. Anything under 24/25C feels on the fresh side to me.

If I ever have to return to Britain outside of summer, and maybe even during, I’m going to die.

Don’t Believe What Anyone Says, This is a Tropical Storm on Tenerife

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, the chances are…

I’ve been reading with amazement in EL Dia newspaper that the winds accompanying the storm that is sweeping across the Canary Islands have not been as bad as expected.

I’ve just read comments on a forum which more or less amounted to saying it was a lot of fuss about nothing.

I’ve also read comments from people in the UK on the same forum asking if people on Tenerife wanted to swap places with them as its minus plus and snowing there.

And I’ve heard people saying they look forward to these storms.

This took out some roof tiles on its way down

Me, I’m just thankful that we seem to have survived one of the most terrifying nights of my life.  All night we’ve lain in bed as the wind roared violently, wondering what the crashes and bangs were as unseen things scraped across the roof

We’ve just been able to have a quick tour of the devastation outside our door after racing for cover twice when the high winds picked up again after a lull.

Huge branches litter our terrace. Tiles have gone from the roof. But it’s not as bad as next door. As well as a tree down they’ve lost lots of tiles from their roof. Worst of all is the golf course. It is completely devastated. There’s a huge tree upended. Tables and chairs are scattered everywhere and the driving range is a disaster zone. I haven’t been able to see how bad the banana plantation behind us has been affected.

Damage on the golf course - it was much worse beyond the tree

This has felt as bad, if not worse than tropical storm Delta five years ago and the devastation around me seems to confirm that.

So no, it wasn’t much ado about nothing – check Canarian TV and you’ll see that.

And no, I really don’t look forward to these storms and I reckon the farmers and local business people who are now taking stock of the damage feel the same.

But most of all would I swap last night for minus degrees weather and snow? Damn right I would…in the blink of an eye.

What’s the Weather Like in Tenerife? Finding the Answer makes the CIA seem like Choirboys

If anyone was to compile a list of the most popular question asked about Tenerife, I’m willing to bet that ‘What’s the weather like?’ would be head and shoulders above every other question.

What people don’t realise is that by asking that question they could be entering a murky world of intrigue, subterfuge, double bluff, misdirection and deception where it’s difficult to know who you can trust?

If you really want to know the truth about Tenerife’s weather, tighten the trench coat, light a Lucky Strike and allow me to introduce you to the players.

Tenerife Weather from Travel Agents
Firstly it’s easy to weasel out who you can’t trust – and that’s anyone selling you a location. The simple rule is anywhere they have accommodation, the weather will be fab. Anywhere they don’t will no doubt be cold and wet.
Always, always seek a second opinion.

Tenerife Weather from Official Forecasts
You can trust official forecasts…yes? Absolutely Not. Any report that gives one forecast for Tenerife should be completely ignored. The island is made up of a series of micro climates and weather patterns in different parts of the island vary considerably, as does the climate between the coast and the hills.
I know a hamlet where it can be raining on one side of the village and bone dry on the other – and it’s not a big place.

Therefore, weather forecasts from somewhere like the BBC for example have limited, or no value. The most reliable forecasts are ones like AEMet (the Spanish Met Office) which break down their predictions into separate municipalities on Tenerife. But even then, many readings are taken at a few hundred metres rather than the coast, so in winter forecasted temps will be lower than the coast and in summer might be higher.
But as we’ve discovered with our weather check on Walking Tenerife, even AEMet aren’t infallible.

Tenerife Weather from Webcam Images
The camera can’t lie? Damn right it can. You’d think that a quick check of the webcam for the area would show you exactly what the weather is like, but it ain’t necessarily so.

First of all there’s the spin. The webcam picture which always shows unbroken sunshine. I’ve clocked a couple of webcams on Tenerife that do this. With these you have to actually click on the image to see a live stream – dastardly, eh?
On the other hand, there are a couple of webcams that unfortunately broke on a cloudy day. At the moment Los Gigantes and El Socorro look as though they’ve been under perpetual cloud for weeks. The people in these places don’t know how to play the weather game.

The other thing about webcams is their position. Point a webcam out to sea on Tenerife and more often than not, you’re going to see blue skies – doesn’t matter whether you’re in the south or the north. The reality is that the image on screen is not always a true picture of what the weather’s actually like.

Not having your webcam in a ‘smart’ position can work against a place. Look at this webcam looking towards Puerto de la Cruz…

…and a photograph taken in Puerto at the same time.

Weather Reports from Someone Who is on Tenerife
So that leaves on the spot reports of the weather from someone who’s actually there. That has to be accurate and trustworthy doesn’t it?

Firstly, like official weather forecasts, you can immediately dismiss anyone who says ‘I’m on Tenerife and the weather is…’ and then simply gives one umbrella report.
But then, putting the people who think that Tenerife is only the two streets around where they live aside, we enter a really confusing world.

A few weeks ago on different forum sites there were varying views from different people in and around Las Américas about the same week . Two people commented on the fact that it rained; one questioned what was up with the weather as it was cloudy then sunny and the last remarked that it had been a lovely week.
I’ve read forums where people in the same town have argued over each other’s take on the weather.
I’ve seen people report on disappointing weather in the north during their holiday in a week where the sun shone most of the time.

I’ve sat beside someone who was telling a friend on the phone that the weather was glorious when actually I thought it was quite overcast.

What it seems to boil down to is this: one person’s sunny with a bit of cloud is another person’s cloudy with a bit of sun.

To be fair, the weather here can change in no time. So depending on where someone was and what they were doing at certain times of the day, it is feasible that two people in the same place can experience different weather. But that doesn’t account for all the variations.

All of this would make it terribly confusing for anyone trying to find out what the weather is like on Tenerife and who they can trust…except for one important factor.

The default setting for weather on Tenerife – all coastal areas of Tenerife – is warm and sunny changing to hot, hot, hot and sunny in the summer months.

Clearly there can be variations and sometimes cloud and rain, but Tenerife has been known for its year round good weather for centuries and that hasn’t changed one iota.

You can trust me on this…then again, can you?

Tornado Tears Across Los Cristianos Beach: Blogging About a Day on Tenerife Part 1

A sensationalist headline? Maybe…but it’s true. However, more of that in a bit.

Someone asked me recently if I thought I’d run out of things to write about Tenerife. You’ve got to be joking. Just about every time I leave the house I end up with enough material to fill any number of blogs. Some of it I write, some I forget, some I file away for later and some I’ll wait until I’ve left the island before I write them.

Take Thursday for example. We were in the south of the island to take photographs, attend a Tenerife Magazine meeting and for the launch of Pirate FM. Apart from those, there were three incidents which in turn amazed, amused and had me swearing like a trooper.

Tornado in Tenerife
The first was the tornado in Los Cristianos. I’d just finished taking photos at Meson Castellano and we were filling the time before our Tenerife Magazine meeting by sitting on the promenade soaking up some rays. That was the plan, but the sun was being shy and had disappeared behind a bank of clouds (adding to my record of it rarely being full sunshine when I visit the south to take photos). Not only that but a cool wind whipped up sending a sand storm across the promenade.

It seemed to have died down when a sizeable tornado formed right in front of our eyes – I kid you not. I’ve never seen a tornado first hand before and was completely transfixed as the whirling column of sand reached into the sky, did a shimmy and then made off across the beach in the direction of the sea. It was clearly a considerate tornado as it chose a path which took it between the rows of sunbeds, missing the cloud-bathers completely…apart from one woman who was right in its path. She spotted it coming and tried to run out of its way, but as it reached her, it changed direction and went straight for her. It was bizarre – as it passed through her it looked as though she’d been turned upside down and everything she was holding was blown sky wards. Luckily it didn’t linger and carried on its way till it reached the sea where it just sort of dissipated.

Had I been Quick Enough There Would Be a Tornado Just to the Right of These Sun Loungers

It was an amazing sight and lasted about ten seconds in all.  I carry my camera everywhere, so did I take a photo? Did I buggery – I was hypnotised by the damn thing. I waited and waited hoping another would form, but with no luck and no evidence of the tornado on Los Cristianos beach. But if you don’t believe me ask Colin Kirby, it turned out he also witnessed it.

Weather on Tenerife – Another Storm Warning for Tenerife

Just when we thought it was all over, we get another storm warning for high winds. The worst were due to be at high altitudes, but gusts of 80 kph were forecast for the coast.

Whilst we tweeted about gloriously hot weather all week and oodles of sunshine, to scepticism from certain southern quarters who shall remain nameless, we waited for the inclement weather to hit, reading reports of rain in various parts of the island.

Well the inclement weather hit last night in the form of a loud howling wind which made sleep a bit of a fantasy. In truth the gusts were nowhere as strong as February’s, but what they lacked in strength, they made up for in noise aided and abetted by the cat’s accompanying wailing – ‘let me innnnnn, let me innnnnnn…’

Because of the direction the wind was coming from (SW) it was also hot and the sky was crystal clear showing a busy sea of sparkling stars. If I hadn’t been so knackered I might have appreciated their beauty a bit more at 4am.

This morning we woke to sunshine again, the lightest of April showers despite there being hardly any clouds (although to the west we could see some quite angry formations lingering), a rainbow arcing from Los Realejos to the sea and fresh snow on Teide.

And for all those doubters out there, here are the photos to prove that it is still sunny in Puerto de la Cruz.

Now if only I could find that pot of gold...

April and more snow on Teide

Weather on Tenerife: The Aftermath of Cyclone Xynthia

The devastation took us by complete surprise; it was if a nuclear wind had ripped through the forest. Where there had once been a dense wall of pines, there were bare totem poles; the naked trees had been stripped of their branches.

At first we thought there must have been a fire, but the trunks weren’t blackened. Many of them looked as though they’d simply been snapped in two as though some immense force had broken them in half as easy as if they’d been matchsticks.

And then realization dawned. This was the aftermath of cyclone Xynthia hitting Tenerife; this shredded forest was her doing.

We hadn’t driven on the road from Puerto de la Cruz to Mount Teide since the storms in February, but time was long overdue for us to complete the research for the last walk for our Teide National Park walking routes. Although we’d known that the road had been shut because of the damage, we were unprepared for the extent of the destruction. An area of forest between Aguamansa and Teide National Park looked like a post apocalyptic landscape. The misty cloud drifting between the bare trees only added to a dramatic scene which had the impact of a fist to the solar plexus.

Further evidence of Xynthia’s malevolent attack was provided by the metal crash barrier bordering the road. Every few feet it was buckled and squashed where huge trees had fallen, or been thrown against it.

In reality the damage seemed to be constrained to one particular area. Like the fire a couple of years ago, the winds had chosen a very clearly defined path through the forest; so much of the beautiful carpet of trees in the La Orotava Valley remains intact. But that one area…wow.

It was an incredible scene and all credit to the authorities for clearing the roads as fast as they did.

Oh and by the way if anyone needs firewood…

Hoop, Hoop, Hooray – Spring on Tenerife

Is it, or isn’t it? We all knew that the calima a couple of weeks ago was a false indicator regarding what the spring temperatures actually were. Thirty degrees isn’t the norm for this time of year, not even in the driest of the southern areas of Tenerife.

Hibiscus - nature's restaurant for bees

Sweet smelling fresias

So when calima left, temperatures dropped again, but this time only to the low twenties – hardly a hardship. The pattern for the weather on the coastal areas of Tenerife seems to have been pretty much the same over the last few days. Clear blue skies and hot in the morning with some clouds rolling in by around mid day/ one-ish then (clearly the sun likes its siesta too) then by around five in the afternoon the sun appears again to make evening strolls a very pleasant affair.

Destined for the kitchen - Lemon Grass & Oregano

Geraniums - always reliable for that splash of vibrant colour

This morning we awoke to a very distinctive sign that spring might be here to stay. The morning chorus of canaries twittering, doves cooing and the Pavarottis of the lot, the little capirotes singing for all they were worth were joined by another voice; the ‘hoop, hoop, hoop’ of the aptly named hoopoe bird. He’s a wonderful little guy, a bit like a cross between a woodpecker and a roadrunner. Unfortunately I’ve never managed to take a decent picture of him as he tends to avoid our garden and sticks to rummaging around in the verge on the single road which links our house with civilisation.  I usually spot him we’re in the car and by the time I whip my camera out, he’s gone.

Lavender - another favourite with the bees

Bouganvillea - delicate flowers and deadly branches

Anyway, his song inspired me to take a wander around the garden and see what was happening in the flower display department. As you can see, we don’t subscribe to the ‘Mary, Mary quite contrary’ approach when it comes to gardening. Personally I prefer gardens which are a bit wilder and are allowed to do their own thing to a certain extent (which reading between the lines means an excuse for less mowing and pruning).

Queen of the plants - the bird of paradise

Some people believe that there aren’t seasons as such on Tenerife and in some ways, depending on where you live, there’s not a great variation in how the landscape looks between summer and winter. Puerto de la Cruz and the north of Tenerife’s payoff for having more rain during the winter is that, come spring the landscape blooms in spectacular fashion. Even in our garden, between Puerto and La Orotava, jasmine and freesias and wild lavender contribute sweetly perfumed scents, whilst the bougainvillea, geraniums and hibiscus add splashes of vivid colour. However, none of them can match the rainbow coloured elegance of the regal bird of paradise plant.

The hoopoe didn’t put in an appearance during my stroll around the garden, but I noticed a few other folks who were, like me, enjoying the warm morning sunshine.

Woody the woodpigeon

This guy sunbathing on a leaf

...and the king of the sunbathers, Whiskas

Tenerife’s Weather – North or South?

In the words of the great lizard king himself, Jim Morrison, people are strange. Being British, what the weather is doing is never far away from any topic of conversation. So much so that when talking to non Brits I have to make a concerted effort not to automatically blurt out as an opener.

“What a beautiful day,” or “It’s a cold one today, it’s like Britain in the summer.” (That should give you an idea what a cold one here amounts to). All of which confirms to my Canarian and Spanish neighbours that the British are indeed weather obsessed.

This can't be real - clouds in Costa Adeje...

The Saturday before last was a particularly cool day and as we walked into the Beehive Bar where we watch Man Utd Andy commented to Carlos the barman:

“It’s really cold today,” (In Andy’s defence it was an unusually cool day for Tenerife)

Carlos’ response was to roll his eyes and turn his back and walk away.

“I guess you’ve heard that a lot today?” I added.

“Only from every person who’s come into the bar,” Carlos smiled even though he must have been bored senseless by hearing the same remark over and over. “One woman even asked me what I’d done to the weather.”

The weather is understandably at the top of many people’s ‘things I want to know about Tenerife’ list and features prominently on the travel advisory forum, Tripadvisor. This winter has opened my eyes to a particularly odd way in which the differences in the weather between the north and the south is perceived by some visitors.

The simplistic summary of the weather is: south – hot and dry, north – cooler and prone to rain in winter. Not 100% accurate, but it’s what everyone believes, so there’s no point going over old ground. I have to admit to being defensive about the weather in the north. Every time I read ‘the north’s always cold and cloudy,’ I want to scream at the screen. “DO YOU THINK I WOULD BE LIVING HERE IF THAT WAS THE CASE?”

One comment especially on Tripadvisor had me shaking my head last week and realisation dawned on me that it’s almost impossible to change perceptions even when little things such as facts get in the way. The comment was from someone who’d been staying at a resort in the south and had ventured north one day; it was this:

...and sun in the north. Surely these must be fake!!!!

“Does the north ever see the sun?”

Now had the south of Tenerife been basking in unbroken sunshine and sweltering temperatures during the previous week and the north been shivering under a gloomy sky, this might have been a valid question, but here are some comments from residents which were posted on other Tenerife forums during the same week:

‘Horrible today, I feel sorry for the tourists.’; ‘Cloudy but not raining or windy.’ ‘Cloudy and not very nice.’; ‘Was so cold yesterday, coldest I’ve ever felt in Tenerife.’

And guess where they all lived? In the south of Tenerife. So despite experiencing cloud and temperatures that were cooler than average for the south of Tenerife, is was the fact that, as expected, it was cloudy in the north which registered with the person who asked if we ever saw the sun.

It’s a strange behavioural pattern which I’ve noticed on a regular basis; if it’s cloudy in the south, then that’s okay because the temperatures are still better than the UK. If it’s cloudy in the north, well what do you expect; it’s always cloudy over there.

A classic case of give a dog a bad name…

February on Tenerife

The wind’s been howling like a heartbroken wolf; the weather map on the Spanish met office site has stayed an appropriate canary yellow for most of the last couple of weeks; the waves have been clearing coastal defences like Grand National winners and some divine being keeps emptying his potty over most of the island and it sounds as though there’s a plague of Sammy Davis Juniors on my roof. That can mean only one thing; hold on a sec whilst I turn on my television…..

Just as I thought; channel after channel of people dressed in grotesquely bright costumes with painted faces making kazoo noises whilst they sing a tuneless ditty which lasts for hours; it’s the attack of the ‘murgas’…Carnaval is nearly upon us!

Weather in Tenerife – We’re in a State of Orange Alert

The seething cauldron on Puerto's seafront

For the past few days we’ve been put on a state of alert in Tenerife, with warnings ranging from yellow (low risk) to orange (high enough risk to warrant sitting up and taking notice).

Whilst most of the inclement weather has been confined to high winds and black ice in the highland areas on the cumbres and around Mount Teide, at sea level there’s been very little in the way of noticeable bad weather to report.

In reality what we’ve experienced her on the north west coast was one day which would have been classed as a typical dreary autumn day in the UK.
Although when I mentioned to a Spanish friend that the weather was like a British autumn day, she laughed.

“Not quite,” she corrected me.  “Maybe more like a day at the end of summer, beginning of autumn in England.”

I suppose she had a point. The coldest day was still hovering around the 20 degrees mark.

However, there’s also been an orange band around Tenerife on the weather map on the Spanish Meteorological website and it’s been at the coast where the weather has been at its most spectacular.
The other night we were watching television when I became aware of a loud rumbling. It sounded as though Mount Teide had decided to relocate and had chosen where our house stood as a prime spot.

“What the hell was that?” I jumped up from my seat and went to the front door.

We’re probably about 3 kilometres inland, yet the sound of the waves crashing on the shoreline was deafening. I half expected to see the crest of a Tsunami appearing above the palms (note to self: stop watching ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ during winter months).

Atlantic rollers at Punto del Viento

It was only when we went into Puerto de la Cruz to watch Man United initially coast, then nearly self destruct against Derby in the Carling Cup semi-final last night, that we were able to witness how impressive (or frightening depending on your point of view) the sea was.

The Atlantic was putting on a right old show. Waves which must have been 5-6 metres high were making a mockery of the sea defences and crashing over the seawall which runs the length of the town’s free car park. Understandably there weren’t many cars in the car park, so we were a bit nervous leaving the car.

Incredibly there were plenty of ‘thrillseekers’ walking along the harbour wall to get a closer look at the waves. Most looked liked visitors, clearly unaware that the Atlantic likes the odd sacrifice every now and again and it’s not uncommon for people to be occasionally swept off the wall when the sea is throwing a wobbly.

Even the normally sheltered harbour was a seething cauldron and the little fishing boats which normally spend the night on the pebbly beach had been pulled to higher ground.

The best place to watch the Atlantic when it’s putting on a show like this is at Punto del Viento. Where from the safety of being thirty feet above the sea, you get a free show as huge rollers sweep past Plaza Europa (last night above the level of the plaza itself) and crash into the rocks below where you stand, filling the air all along the promenade with a fine mist.

This is an 'orange' alert?

Thankfully the car hadn’t ‘gone amphibian’ by the time we returned, so with Man U winning and nature putting on a free show it was a good night all round.

The orange alert is still in place this morning, but the sun’s shining and although the waves still look pretty impressive, they don’t look much bigger than they usually do at this time of year…and the surfers at Playa Martiánez seem happy to have some big boys to play with.