stories

An escape from the British rain with a trip to Malaga

Snow, rain, gale force winds and general misery prevailed in North Wales. But did we care? No, cos were heading for a Spain for a long weekends riding in Andalucia. With cheap easyjet flights from Liverpool to Malaga, the plan was to hop onto a plane after the rush on Friday, and be back for work at crack of dawn on Tuesday. Saturday morning we woke up late. It was dark and cold. Aah! The covers had fallen off and the shutters were closed, throwing them open, the sun poured in to the room. Five minutes later we were breakfasting on a roof terrace in the middle of the little village of Alora near Malaga.

Jim, our guide and owner of Seasonally Unadjusted the company we were staying with for the weekend arrived mid-breakfast to see what we fancied for the day. A good ride, stretch our legs, get some sun, and siesta and beers in the bar at lunchtime, we said. Job done, the first days riding was nothing too technical. We headed straight out of the village on a dirt road and were soon taking in some scenery on a rolling ridge line on the valley rim. Dusty riding took us up and down the ridge for an hour or so, before a quick descent to the pre-ordered beer and siestas in the valley. After lunch and evil pull straight back up the hill took us up to the massive statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe which dominates the hillside. The trail down from here was a fun packed series of rolling narrow dirt paths and switchbacks.

Day two, and legs warmed up, we requested a slightly longer ride and a visit to El Chorro, a climbing area just up the road that we had spent loads of time in the past. This time, we took the van up the hill. Parking high up at the Guadalhorce lakes, it was only a short trip along the road before we were into a gentle warm up descent through the trees, followed by some fast berms and log hopping down to the first lake. As I hit the sand by the lake shore, my front wheel stopped dead and I did a classic superman over the front to grab a facefull of sand. A beer was needed and lunch gave us time to recover before heading over the hill and down the Arab Steps into the wild west village of El Chorro. The trail seemed to go on for ever, hours of pure heaven down totally natural narrow tracks, rocky drop offs, switchbacks and finally fast swooping riding into the village. Leaving us at he Station Bar, Jim nobly rode all the way back up the hill to collect the van.

The last day of our trip and we felt like we had been there a week. For our final ride, we headed high up into the Sierra Nieves. In the distance Jim pointed out a thin windy line snaking its way faintly through the scrub and dropping steeply into the valley. Thats our trail he said. Its a footpath really but you can ride pretty much anywhere here. Jim had obviously saved the best till last. The path was amazing. A combination of highly technical rocky riding, steep loose switchbacks and weaving through the trees had us all working hard and Jims guru status went up a notch or two as he rode it effortlessly. To cap it all off the superbly fast dirt track at the end, had all of us whooping in delight as we got plenty of air off the unintended dirt jumps that had been built to divert the rain from the trail.

Tuesday morning sat at my desk and still grinning from ear to ear, Spain felt like a dream, but the aching legs and faint tan were definitely real.

For more info on mountain biking around Malaga and El Chorro

Mountain Bike Southern Spain - a collection of beat the british winter fair weather rides in Southern Spain

Seasonally Unadjusted - for mtb hols and guiding from Malaga in Southern Spain.