Schwann: Once in a lifetime: Chapter 10: The Tenerife experiment

Published: July 23rd 2004Europe » Spain » Canary Islands » Tenerife
July 23rd 2004

The Tenerife Experiment: Download the movie from www.webtrance.co.za/Travelblog/Media/Tenerife-Experiment-July-2004.wmv but because this movie server is in South Africa, please right-click on the link and save the file somewhere you remember on your hard drive before trying to watch it because there are spinning things in the movie which aren't optimized for streaming. 

Tuesday 22 nd June Day 17: Woke up this morning on a mission to IAC, the Spanish observatory perched on a hillside near Mt. Teide, the island's reigning volcano. My mission had started some month ago when I found out that Tenerife had a superior observatory, and that much of the work done there is solar observation. In other words, here is an observatory that functions day and night. I'm fortunate enough to have done some media work for Dr Clifford Nxomani, of SALT (South African Large Telescope) and SAAO (South African Astronomical Observatory) so when I call him and ask him for an intro from SAAO he is happy to help me out, on the understanding that he gets it on DVD.

Some weeks ago I'd mailed a copy of Clifford's letter to Miguel, who runs the Paradise resort on Tenerife for Roy . Miguel is very resourceful and he gets the letter to the right person at IAC and consequently I find myself driving through Teide National Park again, but this time I'm headed for the Teide Observatory and a meeting with Miquel Serra-Riccard, Site Director of IAC. The drive is spectacular. You head up from the coast into the mountains and within a relatively short time, say 40 minutes, you are at an altitude of 2000 metres surrounded by a 230 year old lava flow that the road cuts right through. You have to stay sharp for this part of the drive as there are sheer drops onto needlepoint rocks and no crash rails so if you're like driving with your knees, or changing the CD, it's critical. Making it up to the observatory before I'm expected proves I can navigate and drive, but Mikel is one of those guys that's so hospitable and friendly that he makes it easy for a person to drop right in or maybe he's just a sci-fi fan. He tells me that he likes Asimov and I recommend Iain M. Banks because his book, ‘Consider Phlebas' has to be something I aspire to. Don't know how many languages Iain is published in, but I aim to find out when I hunt him down at the Edinburgh film festival, but time is always in the present so Miquel shows me a grand tour of IAC, including an amazing view from the top of the solar tower. The view of the islands from here is totally panoramic but it doesn't help that I don't like heights. There's too much going down to be able to remember everything, so it sucks that I leave my tripod in the car and have to do the whole thing hand held. Another very interesting thing going on at the observatory is the measuring of cosmic radiation. It's called 'The Tenerife Experiment. Get the science here. Miquel points out two spinning discs from our lofty pearch on the tower. Each one, he tells me, reads a different frequency of background cosmic radiation, or echoes of the Big Bang. This is a place on Earth where the age of our universe is being sought, a place where they're trying to work out when the big bang happened. I find this part of the mountain incredibly fascinating and after Miquel leaves me to it I spend hours wondering around and filming whatever looks interesting, which includes closeups of the spinning cosmic discs. Get the movie of this from the top of the page if you missed the link and see it for yourself. Earlier, Miquel had told me that the 15 years he's spent on the mountain seemed much shorter and thus I'm not surprised to observe that more than four hours passes in what seems like 20 minutes. It is a difficult place to leave, even if it is more than 13,000 ft. and you're dead tired from setting up time after time with still and movie cameras. After commentary at the spinning cosmic discs, I pop back in and swap T-shirts with Miquel before heading back down. It's late when I leave. Driving back at 7.15PM, the sun is still reasonably high in the sky, even if Mount Teide does obscure it for some short time. The shadows are highly defined now and the light show at this altitude makes everything look weird, like you're on another planet. It's not surprising that they shot ‘Planet of the Apes' up here. Descending from 2500 meters takes me through the clouds and suddenly visibility is down to a car's length. I switch on my lights and drop speed from 100+ to 30 kmh but the heavy fog goes on for what seems like forever while the radio only plays weird Spanish music, adding to the surrealism of it all. The clouds never quite go away but the visibility improves after about 20 minutes of nerve wracking hairpin bends. By now it's already 8.30 PM and it's as well that it takes no more than half an hour to get from San Isora to Costa Adeje, where my wife and 4 yo old are anxiously awaiting me. My hearing remains dodgy most of the evening from being half-a-day at a high altitude, but again, what a day! Once in a lifetime continues!

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