Just 25 kilometres off the South coast of Tenerife lies La Gomera; one of the archipelago's smallest and most unspoiled islands and seemingly a million miles from the crowds of its northern neighbour known locally as the isla redonda (the round island), La Gomera is just 22km from North to South and 25km from East to West and is the least active of the Canary Islands, volcanically speaking. Visited mainly by day-trippers, the island's lack of beaches and difficult terrain has curbed the onslaught of mass tourism and La Gomera still remains a haven of tranquillity, ideal for re-charging the batteries with a good bit of R & R.

Although there is now a small airport on the island, most people arrive by boat from nearby Tenerife into the capital and main port of San Sebastián. The small town's main claim to fame is that Christopher Columbus dropped by in 1492. His last stop in the known world (El Hierro, west of Gomera was said to mark the end of the flat earth), Columbus took a fancy to a local girl and after proving the world spherical, he returned to Gomera on subsequent voyages of discovery. There are a few old mansions in the town worth a visit and if you are a Columbus fanatic, check out the Pozo de la Aguada behind the tourist office, the water drawn from this well is said to have baptised America!

My erstwhile colleague had dutifully shown up at the port to meet me with a trusty steed - namely an old Honda - to transport me to Playa de Santiago, where I was assured, a lunch of fresh fish and chilled wine awaited. My first impression of the island was therefore derived from clinging precariously to the back of a motorbike wearing a helmet that would have fitted the largest head on the planet and trying to restrain my bag from its frequent bids for freedom. Although only small, the island rises to a height of 1,487 metres in its centre and across the centre one must go to get anywhere else on the island. From the central peak of Garajonay, steep sided valleys, or barrancos as they are known, radiate outwards and tumble in jagged ranges to the ocean, softened only by terraces cut into the barranco sides and the black roads which snake their way in lazy switchbacks across the peaks and troughs of the valleys. The incredible grandeur of the scenery took what little breath I had left clean away; no photograph could ever capture the sheer magnitude of it all. It reminded me of the island in Jurassic Park, a land that time seems to have forgotten. I half expected to see a tyrannosaurus rex stroll across our path, but as looked out towards the ocean, only the perfect peak of Tenerife's Mount Teide loomed majestically from the horizon.

There are two main tourist areas on Gomera, one is Valle Gran Rey on the west coast, the other is Playa de Santiago in the South of the island and our base. A small fishing village, Playa de Santiago has a small beach of the black pebbly variety, a few guesthouses and restaurants and a little fishing harbour. At one end of the bay, perched high atop the cliff is the Hotel de Jardin Tecnica, an ideal base should you decide to stay on the island. Owned by Fred Olsen (of Timex watch fame), the hotel has 434 rooms (tastefully spread out), three restaurants, five swimming pools and even its own elevator, which cuts through the cliff to transport you to the beach club and diving centre. Squash, tennis, nature walks through the gardens, bridge and a whole range of other activities can keep you busy and car hire can be arranged directly from the hotel to get you around the island.

La Gomera is a nature lover's paradise and if hiking and biking are your thing then you will be in heaven. Not being a keen hiker, I opted for the biking, but of the motorised variety. Our trusty Honda was therefore exchanged for a 750 CC trial bike and off we went exploring the island. As mentioned earlier, to get anywhere, one must head inland and invariably pass through the National Park of Garajonay. Named after the stars of an ancient legend (Gara and Jonay, who fled to the safety of the park from Tenerife only to be pierced through their hearts in a final embrace) the park covers an area of 4000 hectares and is home to some of the world's most ancient forest land, with as many as 400 species of flora. Designated a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1981, the park is thankfully protected and rare laurel and long toed pigeons might make an appearance if you are lucky. The park is the roof of the island and be warned, it's cold up there! It is also quite eerie as the cool trade winds blowing in off the Atlantic and warmer breezes clash to create mists which float through the dense forest. These mists actually keep the park going. There are few streams and not much rain so the mist provides a valuable source of moisture as well as feeding the island's springs. Most visitors head for the Alto de Garajonay in the park which affords spectacular views over the island, and La Laguna Grande, a large grassy area with barbeques and benches scattered around and an ideal stop for a picnic.

Arriving along the winding road into Valle Gran Rey is a beautiful sight. The valley's steep sides cut from ancient island rock rise up from the fertile floor and terraces are cut high up the valley's walls. Little white houses dot the valley floor along with some more prosperous villas and the valley sweeps down to meet banana and papaya plantations, palm trees and the ocean. Banana terees are a common sight in La Gomera. In 1997 they produced a staggering 9 million kilos! Valle Gran Rey itself is the largest concentration of tourist accommodation on the island benefiting from some sandy beaches and amenities such as car and bike hire.

We headed out of Valle Gran Rey and at my insistence took a small road to Chipude, I had seen the sign and thought it a great name and therefore worth a visit. The drive was lovely; we passed through small hamlets of white washed houses and more and more terraces, reminiscent of the rice paddy terraces in Bali, some so small that I wondered whether it was really worth creating them. Chipude is a one-horse town with a 16th Century church and a surprising number of bars! We counted and decided that we liked the village immediately. Near Chipude is the village of El Cercado where we stopped to look at some of the local pottery, produced here for centuries. Also traditional in La Gomera is whistling. The terrain being as it is, before the arrival of decent roads or telephones, the islanders discovered that whistles carried much further than shouting, up to 4 kilometres in fact. So popular was it, that it developed into a whole language and a study in 1940 identified nearly 3,000 different words. Today only a few locals whistle and that the language survives at all is mainly due to tourists.

We explored more of La Gomera, this time driving north to Hermigua. We would pick a route and then take smaller tracks to discover the island. At the end of one of these tracks we discovered a beautiful beach - Playa de la Caleta, pebble and black sand with huge rock formations jutting out of the shoreline and Mount Teide, ever present, rising out of the heat haze on nearby Tenerife. The waves crashed in turning a million stones and as I lay back and looked up at an azure sky I wondered what life must have been like here years ago. Guanches were the original inhabitants of all the Canary Islands and for their descendants and the immigrant Spanish, life was tough. Agriculture was the main occupation but with poor soil and tricky terrain, it was a meagre existence and not surprisingly the islanders have a long tradition of emigration. Although in recent years, Tenerife has attracted a fair few emigrating Gomeros, most left for Venezuela and Uruguay reflected in a variety of ways in Gomeran life today - the radio stations for example play lots of hip jiggling Latin American music.

El Cedro, Agulo, Las Rosas and Vallermoso were all ticked off on our island tour, pretty villages all surrounded by incredible scenery. Valley floors covered in banana trees giving way to the steep sided barrancos with impossible terracing rising up to the heart of the island and Garajonay. Near Vallermoso is the amazing cliffscape of Los Organos. Rising vertically from the ocean floor, the clusters of basalt rock resemble a huge church organ and can only be viewed by boat. One leaves Playa Santiago every day, weather permitting, stopping at Valle Gran Rey and circles the island taking in Los Organos en route - if you're lucky you may also see dolphins.

For lovers of the underwater world, La Gomera offers some good diving - not comparable to the Red Sea or the Australian barrier reef of course, but the water is clear and fish from the Caribbean, the Mediterranean an the Northern Atlantic can be found in the warm waters. I enjoyed the diving off the Southern coast; there are prolific numbers of fish and the barrancos continue into the ocean depths creating caves and swim-throughs.

All in all the island of La Gomera is perfect for a day trip or even better a long weekend break from one of the other islands. The scenery I could never rave about enough - it is some of the most spectacular I have ever seen, the people are friendly and inviting and the food is fabulous - all the elements one needs for a good getaway in my opinion!