Tenerife, April 4 2013
We have been told that it is possible to ride on the motorway which was started about 8 years ago, but since the project ran out of money, has lain unfinished and closed to traffic. When we see it, we find that it is indeed a complete motorway, surfaced and velvety smooth, with lane markings and slip roads and central reservations all in place. We ride down the slip road, look right and left and we’re off. It is a fantastic experience, so fast, downhill all the way with a strong wind at our backs. We are probably travelling about 40 miles an hour. In a while we encounter some joins in the road that are not properly connected and realize that the surface is not guaranteed so go a bit more cautiously. After about 10 miles we come to an unsurfaced stretch and have to walk for about half a kilometer, until we meet workmen on a bridge, like a group of old retainers who have not heard the news that the project has been abandoned. They call the English speaker over and he says that the motorway finished here (nothing about being illegal or prohibited) We can see that it goes through a tunnel into the hillside and seems continuous but as a rough track. They direct us up a steep stony track to re-join the main road at the top which whizz down this for a while until another road that with a spot of scrambling takes us to a more finished section of the motorway.
not at home 