Masca Gorge

Near the start, the path winds right around a tree trunk, and from there it follows the gorge all the way to the sea. Walls of dark rock close in on both sides, with palms and green growth along the floor and mountains in every direction.

The rock is worth reading as you go. The walls are stacked Miocene lava flows, most of them under a metre thick, tilted steeply and crossed by dykes that cut through one another. In places a band of broken, mixed rock, the Masca Unconformity, reaches 10 to 15 m thick, as tall as a four-storey house, and dips north at 30 to 60 degrees.

At the bottom the trail meets Masca beach. The day goes on from there by boat.

• The walk runs on a permit with a booked time slot, and you check in at the office before setting off.
• The day is a chain to plan in advance: bus to Masca, the walk, a boat from Masca beach, then another bus.
• There are no toilets or drinking water near the gorge. Fill up before you start.
• The effort is rated anywhere from easy to hard. Allow three to four hours with photo and food stops.

The trail starts in Masca village and finishes at Masca beach, on the shore. The Masca bus stop and two car parks, one of them tarmac, sit about 1.6 km in a straight line from the gorge.

From the village it is 8 km on foot down the length of the gorge, with the path winding around a tree near the start. At the beach a boat picks the day up, and a second bus finishes it. Arrange the boat along with the permit: the chain of bus, walk, boat and bus has to be settled before you set out.

Best: a settled, dry spell of weather.

Avoid: heavy rain and the days just after it.

Rain runs off the steep walls onto the gorge floor and loosens rock from above, so a wet forecast is the one thing that should move the date.

Masca Gorge lies within the Teno Massif, protected as Teno Rural Park, and entry works on a permit tied to a booked time slot: walkers check in at the office before they set off down the trail. Dogs are not allowed.