CANARY ISLANDS:WHEN ANDY McCarter and his partner Paddy Margey bought an apartment in La Gomera they envisaged a quiet retirement in the sun. Instead, later this summer they'll be embarking on a fitness routine – six hours of hiking three or four times a week – to prepare themselves for the next season of their winter walking holiday company.
They launched the company last November, bringing over small groups from Ireland and the UK keen to try out some of the hundreds of miles of marked trails criss-crossing the second smallest Canary Island. For though it's only 15 miles across, the landscape is extraordinarily dramatic. There are ancient volcanic peaks rising to over 5,000ft, deep valleys known as barrancosand a Unesco World Heritage site tropical rainforest.
The couple, both in their early 60s, originally picked the place as ideal for sailing, bringing their own boat down by sea from Lough Swilly. Andy had been managing director of Fruit of the Loom in Ireland after it bought his family’s textile company in Buncrana; Paddy had run her designer boutique in Derry.
“Paddy’s always been a walker,” says Andy, “but I have to confess I wasn’t until I came here. I couldn’t face walking in the rain back home.” A visiting friend in the travel business persuaded him that there was a market for hikers who wanted to combine daytime treks with evening comforts.
Andy guides the walks himself, getting his information initially from guide books but increasingly through exploration and conversations with locals. He’s also planning to learn the island’s unique whistling language – still taught in schools – which evolved to enable inhabitants to communicate across the ravines. “It should be good craic,” he says.
Groups are kept to a maximum of eight and the atmosphere, he says, is relaxed. “This is about enjoyment, not endurance, so there’s usually a midday option for people to stop or carry on further as they wish.”
The cost is €699 per person for seven nights in an apartment in San Sebastian, dinners with wine, picnic lunches, five guided walks, transfers from Tenerife airport and ferry crossing. Flights are extra.
* gomerawalking.com