My compañero and I are on another thrilling adventure. Here's the challenge: to gain access and swim in this private and abandoned looking sea pool in Puerto de la Cruz.
The pool is 'owned' by the vast hotel which overlooks it. To get to the entrance we take a twenty minute walk down a steep road. The only access from here is down some steps which are barred by a large, locked steel gate. I'm up for climbing over but my compañero isn't too sure, she may be brave and cheeky but she's not stupido. What we gonna do? At this point a German tourist strolls up the hill, looks at us, says 'Guten morgen', produces a card from her pocket, inserts it in to the lock and opens the gate for us. What a stroke of glücklich. We're in.
We're immediately greeted by danger signs in three different languages and a warning that we're in a zona videovigilada. Great, place to ourselves then I reckon.
We make our way down the crumbling steps. Here's what greets us.
With waves for extra drama and thrills.
With me for extra swimmer appeal.
Lovely, lovely swim. Water is clear and warm. The odd scary wave crashes up over the rocks and in to the pool. It's all part of the adventure. My amigo sees my obvious delight and joins me for a couple of lengths.
Steps carved out from the rocks leading to the pool.
We dry ourselves off in the morning sun before heading back up the steps.
Tenerife, we have a problem. The gate we came through is locked. How do we get out? Now this is where it gets all Famous Five. My friend Anne, or is it Georgina, meets her uncle Quentin who has a seaplane parked in the next bay and we fly off for another adventure in a caravan. No, even better than that, we find an old tunnel that goes under the road which eventually comes out under the hotel. From here we find a service lift which takes us up seventeen floors in to the heart of the hotel reception. 'Walk out like you own the place' she says.