Off Road in Spain

ADVENTURE BIKING

Having decided to fullfill a lifelong ambitionto ride a motorcycle across the SaharaDeseRt, Alun Davies sets off to the Sierra

Nevada Mountains in Southern Spain to getsome off-road tips from the experts.

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Now, here’s a novelty. After nearly15 years of throwing myself offmountains, jumping into ragingtorrents and generally abusing theold bod in some of the remotestcorners of the world, I’m sitting herehaving a new and exciting physicalexperience. This is the first featureI’ve ever written where the pain feltwhilst typing is on a par with thegrunt experienced on the trip.

Can you feel it? I guess not, soyou’ll have to take my word for it.But let me tell you, a hand fracturedin three places plays up like hellwhen tapping on a keyboard. Andthen there’s untold bumps andbruises and a weirdly swollen legthat’s had me on deep vein

thrombosis watch for a couple ofweeks. I could go on; but then youmay get the wrong idea. So, let’smake one thing clear; I’ve just hadone of the most exciting, scary andfun packed adventure travelexperiences to date and given thechoice, I’d go back for more of thesame right now.

God damn it, I loved it andgetting a smashed up comes with abig upside. For example I’m gettingheaps of sympathy and lots of nicethings done for me as I feign thisstate of near death. With any luck,none of those currently mopping mybrow will be reading this (lord knowsthey’ve read enough of my stuff toknow better) and the nursing will

continueuntil I can goback and do itall again.

So, how thehell did I end up insuch a state? And,what about this curiouslump on my lower legwhich a doctor diagnosed asthe most serious snake bite injuryhe’d seen until I pointed out therewas no flesh wound and no snakeswere involved, just a motorcycle,great company and heaps of fun.More on the lump later, and maybeI’ll also tell you how difficult is wasto change doctors, but for now let’sjust stick with the bikes and fun.

As regularreaders of Adventure Travel willknow I’m riding a motorbike toTimbuktu in January 2009. It’s theculmination of a trip I started out onback in the late 1970’s and it’s still

VIA SPAIN

ADVENTURE BIKING

www.atmagazine.co.uk November/December 2008 73

High up in the SierraNevada of southern Spain

Mick Extance, theUK's most

successful DakarRally rider

Honda enduro bikes and aremote forestry trail –

off-road heaven


ADVENTURE BIKING


asked them who they were in theairport, was that the couple of‘Honda guys’ were actually four ofthe company’s top sponsored riders;the crème de la crème of the UKSuperbike and Superstock circuits.Leon Haslam, Cal Crutchlow, SteveBrogan and James Ellison.

Oh, and then there was anunassuming chap called MickExtance, a guy who’s re-mortgagedhis house three times to finance hisdesire to become the UK’s mostsuccessful Dakar Ralley rider of alltime, which he is. There was nodoubting I’d learn something valuablein such company though I wasn’texpecting anything more thandiscovering how many spectacularways I could break bones whilstriding through the Sahara Desert. Iwasn’t disappointed.

On arrival in a blisteringly hotMalaga airport we were picked upby Ian, an expat and the owner ofRed Tread. Soon after, we werewhisked away into the dusty,scorched brown hills overlooking theshimmering Mediterranean and themasses of unsold, empty holidayapartments lining the shore. I kid younot, there are enough empty flats injust this small region of southernSpain to house the world’shomeless.

Ian is one of those people youget to like very quickly. He’spassionate and knowledgeable about

ongoing. There have been a fewmajor diversions along the way, suchas marriage, a career, children anddivorce. Now, though, I’m back ontrack, or to be more precise, flat onmy back. Mind you, I’m fullyexpecting to be fit enough tocontinue come the new year. I justneed heaps more sympathy andbrow mopping and I’ll be fine.

As part of my preparation for theride to Timbuktu I’d been luckyenough to be invited by Honda on a

trip to the Sierra Nevadamountains in Southern

Spain. Deep in thefoothills known as

the SierraAlmijara, near

Malaga,reside RedTread, aspecialistoff-roadcompanysponsored

by Honda.The trip was

all aboutputting the

company’s latestenduro bikes through

their paces and havingthe opportunity to ride with

some of the finest of the Britishbiking press and a couple of Hondaguys.

What I hadn’t realised, until I

Great scenery, great company, great bikes and a 24 hour bar to look forward to at the end of the day. Great

Where's my back wheel? -punctures come with theterritory


ADVENTURE BIKING


what he does, in a way that onlysomeone who’s sold up at home andgone to live the dream overseas canbe. He also owns a bar with a signhanging on the wall stating ‘open 24hours’. He’s a great guy alright.

I’m not usually one for writinggushing plugs about the places I’vestayed on my travels but I’m goingto make an exception here. RedTread have been offering off-roadmotorbike riding holidays in thespectacular Sierra Nevada for anumber of years and Ian, along withhis wife Sal, have it off to a tee. TheRed Tread complex is essentially thecouple’s (rather large) home situatedon the side of a hill overlooking themountain village of Competa, withviews stretching from the highmountains to the coast. There’s aswimming pool, sun deck, barbequearea, bar and a second building withen-suite rooms for paying guests. Ifyou think of a small, well stockedcomfortable hotel with the warmfeel of a friendly home and lots ofnice motorcycles parked in the lockup, that’s Red Tread. An off-roadrider’s dream.

On arrival, the first instructionfrom Ian and Sal was to makeourselves feel at home. And so wedid; the superstar riders stripped off,flexed some muscle, preened a little

and then dived in the pool. Thejournalists, professionals to aman, took over the bar andreminisced about pastpress trips where we’dsat around in barstalking about presstrips prior to that.And it probably wouldhave stayed that wayif it were not for thefact that we werethere to ride bikes inthe morning and thesun was alreadythreatening the horizon.

It had been a longtime since I’d ridden amotorcycle off-road andeven then I’d always beenmore into the slower trialstype competitions ratherthan the blood thirstythrash and blast ofenduro and motocross.For those not in theknow, when you takea bike off-road andonto loose ground,other than the basics,most things you’velearned when ridingon tarmac are oflimited use. Thedynamics of off-road

Steve Brogan (left) and Leon Haslam superstars of the UK racing scene


bikes aredifferent, as isthe riding style.The commondenominator isthat it hurtswhen you falloff.

And so to thefollowing

morning and theoff. After a quick

talk by Ian and anintroduction to a

spanking HondaCFR450X we were on the

move. A quick glance aheadconfirmed what I’d thought

would be the case. ‘The Hondalads’ would be spending most of the

two days with either one wheel inthe air or no wheels in the air.

Man these were some riders. After a couple of miles

getting used to theflickability and power ofthe Honda I was pickingup speed and gaining ahuge smile as I openedthe throttle just enoughto get the first, tiny feel of

a power slide whilstemerging out of corners.

The plan was to follow amountain trail to a practice off-

road circuit where we’d spend afew hours having instruction from

Ian (a former motocross champ and,I’ll mention this again, a man with a24 hour bar) before heading back

into the hills on sandy forestrytrails and rock strewn

smugglers paths up to analtitude of almost 6000ft.

I quicklyrealised on thesetwisty, cliff huggingmountain trails that ifI was going to losecontrol and fall offthen I’d better prayit was on the sidewithout the drop. Inmy mind, havingyour body introducedat speed to a cliff

face was a goodchoice when the

alternative was flyingover a void. Leon Haslam,

one of the superstars andan all round good guy,

obviously favoured flying.Riding up close behind him and

giving it all I’d got, I was an openmouthed spectator as he braked lategoing into a sharp bend and flew offthe trail in a cloud of dust.

Fearing the worst, I pulled up atthe edge and looked over and therewas Leon scrambling back up with aslightly concerned look on his faceand the bike way below stuck in thebranches of an olive tree.

Leon set the tone for the firstday with Cal Crutchlow performing asimilar Red Arrows manoeuvre laterin the afternoon and James Ellisontaking a bounce down a rocky pathduring the particularly scary descentof a twisty trail known as thecorkscrew.

Day two we took to the hightrails through stunning mountainscenery fresh with the scent oflavender, sage and thyme. The ridingwas far more challenging, especiallythrough the ‘Gorge of Death’, arock strewn descent withthe odd deep sandtrap to keep themind

focused. We then stopped for lunch,took some time to chill in the sun;rode a little more, hung out somemore and then mounted up again togo back the way we’d come.

Remarkably, after two days ofriding in challenging conditions Ifound myself sat under a tree withmy new best pals at the top of the‘Gorge of Death’ not having fallenonce. It had been a fantastic twoday experience and as the sun satlow in the sky it was time to headback to the ranch and the 24 hourbar and swimming pool.

We set off at speed kicking up awall of dust whilst riding into thelow blinding sun. I didn’t even see ituntil I was laid on my back facingthe direction I’d just flown from.There in the middle of the trail,some 10 meters away, was a rockthe size of a small printer. I’d beenaccelerating at the point of impactand thrown off the bike into a hardrock face. My hand hurt like hell, mymind was confused though my firstthought was could I move my legs. Icould and I did, and got straight up.

Shaken and mildly concussed Ibrushed myself down andremounted the bike – the Hondadidn’t even have a scratch. Notwanting to wimp it I rode the five orso miles back to Competa with nostrength in my fingers to operate thefront brake. After a few relaxers bythe pool the incident was forgottenuntil my hand and leg had swollento balloon status and thesympathy, brow moppingand huge, huge grinkicked in at thememories back athome. ■

ADVENTURE BIKING



LIVE AND LET LIVE

There’s a huge difference inoutdoor culture and tolerancebetween the UK and Spain. InBritain riding bikes throughthe mountains would befrowned upon, whilst in Spaineveryone is welcome in theoutdoors as long as respect is

shown. We passed hikers whosmiled, waved and clapped aswe rode by at respectfulspeeds; Ian has a greatrelationship with a nearbyhorse riding centre and onceagain mutual respect is prime.It was a pleasure to behold.

RED TREAD

Red Tread hold off-road ridingcourses in the Sierra Nevadamountains of Spain and areintroducing adventure bikingtrips through Morocco in 2009.Ian and the crew are vastlyexperienced and if you’relucky you also get to ride withthe UK’s most successfulDakar entry Mick Extance. Thecost of the three night, two

day course is £495 includingbikes, tuition, clothing,accommodation, food andairport pickups. A number oflow cost airlines fly intoMalaga including Easyjet withprices ranging from £50return.

www.redtread.comwww.easyjet.com


Off Road in Spain

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