In which Sid and Doris meet Shugi the MX5 and climb Tenerife’s Tiede mountain road in the dark to find the Alta Montana hotel.
Flying from Bournemouth is splendid. No queuing. The wind is in the right direction and we arrive early in Tenerife South, much the same as being on a bicycle.
The car hire is through CarzRent which is something very like Air BnB but with cars. Nobody else had anything fun. CarzRent have been in touch to say our Mazda MX5 has had a bit of a ding and we’ve gone ahead anyway with a price reduction.
Some of you know the condition of cars which Sid and Doris have nursed to a finish (in one case a class podium in a car pushed over the line with the claim that it had just that moment run out of fuel).
After some anxious hunting about (trying not to think have we been scammed) the delivery driver hands over a rather tired little soldier. It is rare for hire cars to have 100,000 kms on the clock and mud in the shuts. On the plus side, as virtually every panel already needs the paint shop we need not worry about being done for scratches.
All S and D cars have names and the Mazda is quickly named Shugi, after a young client fixer andinterpreter we worked with in Tokyo. In a typical bit of Japanese obfuscation Shugi was also named as a deputy fund manager though he was not to research, choose, buy or sell any stocks. But his picture was in the fund presentation to enlarge the team from one to two. A lovely willing lad who is probably still with the same firm 15 years later.
There is no gentle introduction to the car. Fallen palms are scattered around, the wind is up and dark is falling. We are at about 28 degrees North so it falls fast.
From the airport roundabout Mr Google points us immediately uphill on a tiny road with sharp edges, leering ditches and very close walls. Now we know why there is no navigator side mirror. We are going to the Hotel Alta Montana in Vilaflor at 1400 metres, on the way up Mount Tiede (peak at 3700 metres) and there was a clue in the name.
S, the supremely well-traveled mascot, claims not to have been at all afraid – until he opened his eyes.
The Hotel Alta Montana is fine, offering dinner from a rather late German time (6:30) to a rather early Spanish time (9pm). In the morning the views explain the angle of the roads as we look out over the Pasaje Lunar of black lava hills to the sea in the distance.
