I know this might not be a very tactful thing to say to those of you stuck at home in the cold but these last two days we have had a bit of a problem – it has been too hot!
Yesterdays walk (Monday) involved a climb of 2,500ft to the top of a 6,000ft mountain where there was an elderly German and his wife having a picnic and he was sunbathing without a shirt. They would have had to walk up the same route so are clearly fit, the temperature must have been 26c with hardly any breeze.
The car thermometer showed 34c when we got back to it. It was another spectacular walk, lots more pictures to bore you with on our return but we both found it tough going so today we thought we would do an easier, supposedly level walk mostly along roads. It seemed just as tough. It followed an old route between Santa Cruz and the south, every few miles there was a small shrine with a cross, some were very tatty with plastic flowers but others were a little smarter. It was a one way route and we were very brave, we used the bus to get back, the timetables seem to be quite mysterious but eventually we got home.
Just to emphasise the weather, all the trees are now in blossom, the almond trees are especially picturesque.
I am sure you have all been waiting for an update on Frank the 70 year old transatlantic rower.
In my last report on his progress I said that he was expected to arrive in Antigua on my birthday (March 4th). I suggested to Gill that if I won the £1m premium bond prize this month that we should fly over as a birthday treat to welcome him. Well it is a good job I did not book the flights, he has had a tail wind behind him and he might finish before we get home, an amazing achievement and he has raised £600k for Alzheimer's Research so far (see https://frankrothwell-atlanticchallenge.com/).
We have our covid tests tomorrow, it might be famous last words but we are fairly confident of passing, there are 3 cases per 100,000 in La Palma; Shropshire has over 400! We are not intending to do any more long walks, perhaps three miles tomorrow to a fancy restaurant for a long lunch and then Thursday will be spent clearing up, another nice lunch in our favourite restaurant with the touchy feely waitress and then off to bed early for a 4am start on the journey home during which I will probably write a summary with an amazing statistic of how high we have climbed over the past 8 weeks! Something for you all to look forward to.