Saturday

A 3am start from manchester to Liverpool airport meant we were landing on Tenerife by 10-30am - met by 33C heat and brilliant sunshine - a far cry from Cumbrian weather. By 3-30 we'd travelled by bus to Puerto de la Cruz on the north coast of the island, checked into our hotel and started our first wanderings around to get our bearings, and of course the sun had disappeared. Black sand seems wrong on so many counts but our first foray onto the beach showed us landscape hand-wedged from lots of different clays,with boulders thrown in for good measure then fired by the kiln god .The whole place looks like the product of an overfired anagama.Clinker meets cinder toffee. Just the place for potters on holiday.