Off Road in Spain

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ADVENTURE BIKING

Having decided to fullfill a lifelong ambition to ride a motorcycle across the Sahara DeseRt, Alun Davies sets off to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Southern Spain to get some off-road tips from the experts.

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ADVENTURE BIKING

VIA SPAIN

Mick Extance, the UK's most successful Dakar Rally rider

High up in the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain

Now, here’s a novelty. After nearly 15 years of throwing myself off mountains, jumping into raging torrents and generally abusing the old bod in some of the remotest corners of the world, I’m sitting here having a new and exciting physical experience. This is the first feature I’ve ever written where the pain felt whilst typing is on a par with the grunt experienced on the trip.

Can you feel it? I guess not, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

But let me tell you, a hand fractured in three places plays up like hell when tapping on a keyboard. And then there’s untold bumps and bruises and a weirdly swollen leg that’s had me on deep vein

thrombosis watch for a couple of weeks. I could go on; but then you may get the wrong idea. So, let’s make one thing clear; I’ve just had one of the most exciting, scary and fun packed adventure travel experiences to date and given the choice, I’d go back for more of the same right now.

God damn it, I loved it and getting a smashed up comes with a big upside. For example I’m getting heaps of sympathy and lots of nice things done for me as I feign this state of near death. With any luck, none of those currently mopping my brow will be reading this (lord knows they’ve read enough of my stuff to know better) and the nursing will

continue until I can go back and do it all again.

So, how the hell did I end up in such a state? And, what about this curious lump on my lower leg which a doctor diagnosed as the most serious snake bite injury he’d seen until I pointed out there was no flesh wound and no snakes were involved, just a motorcycle, great company and heaps of fun.

More on the lump later, and maybe I’ll also tell you how difficult is was to change doctors, but for now let’s just stick with the bikes and fun.

Honda enduro bikes and a remote forestry trail – off-road heaven

As regular readers of Adventure Travel will know I’m riding a motorbike to Timbuktu in January 2009. It’s the culmination of a trip I started out on back in the late 1970’s and it’s still

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ADVENTURE BIKING 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 the territory

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ongoing. There have been a few major diversions along the way, such as marriage, a career, children and divorce. Now, though, I’m back on track, or to be more precise, flat on my back. Mind you, I’m fully expecting to be fit enough to continue come the new year. I just need heaps more sympathy and brow mopping and I’ll be fine.

As part of my preparation for the ride to Timbuktu I’d been lucky enough to be invited by Honda on a trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains in Southern Spain. Deep in the foothills known as the Sierra Almijara, near Malaga, reside Red Tread, a specialist off-road company sponsored

by Honda.

The trip was all about putting the company’s latest enduro bikes through their paces and having the opportunity to ride with some of the finest of the British biking press and a couple of Honda guys.

What I hadn’t realised, until I

asked them who they were in the airport, was that the couple of ‘Honda guys’ were actually four of the company’s top sponsored riders; the crème de la crème of the UK Superbike and Superstock circuits.

Leon Haslam, Cal Crutchlow, Steve Brogan and James Ellison.

Oh, and then there was an unassuming chap called Mick Extance, a guy who’s re-mortgaged his house three times to finance his desire to become the UK’s most successful Dakar Ralley rider of all time, which he is. There was no doubting I’d learn something valuable in such company though I wasn’t expecting anything more than discovering how many spectacular ways I could break bones whilst riding through the Sahara Desert. I wasn’t disappointed.

On arrival in a blisteringly hot Malaga airport we were picked up

by Ian, an expat and the owner of Red Tread. Soon after, we were whisked away into the dusty, scorched brown hills overlooking the shimmering Mediterranean and the masses of unsold, empty holiday apartments lining the shore. I kid you not, there are enough empty flats in just this small region of southern Spain to house the world’s homeless.

Ian is one of those people you get to like very quickly. He’s passionate and knowledgeable about

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ADVENTURE BIKING what he does, in a way that only someone who’s sold up at home and gone to live the dream overseas can be. He also owns a bar with a sign hanging on the wall stating ‘open 24 hours’. He’s a great guy alright.

I’m not usually one for writing gushing plugs about the places I’ve stayed on my travels but I’m going to make an exception here. Red Tread have been offering off-road motorbike riding holidays in the spectacular Sierra Nevada for a number of years and Ian, along with his wife Sal, have it off to a tee. The Red Tread complex is essentially the couple’s (rather large) home situated on the side of a hill overlooking the mountain village of Competa, with views stretching from the high mountains to the coast. There’s a swimming pool, sun deck, barbeque area, bar and a second building with en-suite rooms for paying guests. If you think of a small, well stocked comfortable hotel with the warm feel of a friendly home and lots of nice motorcycles parked in the lock up, that’s Red Tread. An off-road rider’s dream.

On arrival, the first instruction from Ian and Sal was to make ourselves feel at home. And so we did; the superstar riders stripped off, flexed some muscle, preened a little

and then dived in the pool. The journalists, professionals to a man, took over the bar and reminisced about past press trips where we’d sat around in bars talking about press trips prior to that.

And it probably would have stayed that way if it were not for the fact that we were there to ride bikes in the morning and the sun was already threatening the horizon.

It had been a long time since I’d ridden a motorcycle off-road and even then I’d always been more into the slower trials type competitions rather than the blood thirsty thrash and blast of enduro and motocross.

For those not in the know, when you take a bike off-road and onto loose ground, other than the basics, most things you’ve learned when riding on tarmac are of limited use. The dynamics of off-road

Steve Brogan (left) and Leon Haslam superstars of the UK racing scene 76 www.atmagazine.co.uk November/December 2008

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ADVENTURE BIKING

bikes are different, as is the riding style.

The common denominator is that it hurts when you fall off.

And so to the following morning and the off. After a quick talk by Ian and an introduction to a spanking Honda CFR450X we were on the move. A quick glance ahead confirmed what I’d thought would be the case. ‘The Honda lads’ would be spending most of the two days with either one wheel in the air or no wheels in the air.

Man these were some riders.

After a couple of miles getting used to the flickability and power of the Honda I was picking up speed and gaining a huge smile as I opened the throttle just enough to get the first, tiny feel of a power slide whilst emerging out of corners.

The plan was to follow a mountain trail to a practice offroad circuit where we’d spend a few hours having instruction from Ian (a former motocross champ and, I’ll mention this again, a man with a 24 hour bar) before heading back

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into the hills on sandy forestry trails and rock strewn smugglers paths up to an altitude of almost 6000ft.

I quickly realised on these twisty, cliff hugging mountain trails that if I was going to lose control and fall off then I’d better pray it was on the side without the drop. In my mind, having your body introduced at speed to a cliff face was a good choice when the alternative was flying over a void. Leon Haslam, one of the superstars and an all round good guy, obviously favoured flying.

Riding up close behind him and giving it all I’d got, I was an open mouthed spectator as he braked late going into a sharp bend and flew off the trail in a cloud of dust.

Fearing the worst, I pulled up at the edge and looked over and there was Leon scrambling back up with a slightly concerned look on his face and the bike way below stuck in the branches of an olive tree.

Leon set the tone for the first day with Cal Crutchlow performing a similar Red Arrows manoeuvre later in the afternoon and James Ellison taking a bounce down a rocky path during the particularly scary descent of a twisty trail known as the corkscrew.

Day two we took to the high trails through stunning mountain scenery fresh with the scent of lavender, sage and thyme. The riding was far more challenging, especially through the ‘Gorge of Death’, a rock strewn descent with the odd deep sand trap to keep the mind

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

Remarkably, after two days of riding in challenging conditions I found myself sat under a tree with my new best pals at the top of the ‘Gorge of Death’ not having fallen once. It had been a fantastic two day experience and as the sun sat low in the sky it was time to head back to the ranch and the 24 hour bar and swimming pool.

We set off at speed kicking up a wall of dust whilst riding into the low blinding sun. I didn’t even see it until I was laid on my back facing the direction I’d just flown from.

There in the middle of the trail, some 10 meters away, was a rock the size of a small printer. I’d been accelerating at the point of impact and thrown off the bike into a hard rock face. My hand hurt like hell, my mind was confused though my first thought was could I move my legs. I could and I did, and got straight up.

Shaken and mildly concussed I brushed myself down and remounted the bike – the Honda didn’t even have a scratch. Not wanting to wimp it I rode the five or so miles back to Competa with no strength in my fingers to operate the front brake. After a few relaxers by the pool the incident was forgotten until my hand and leg had swollen to balloon status and the sympathy, brow mopping and huge, huge grin kicked in at the memories back at home. ■

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LIVE AND LET LIVE There’s a huge difference in outdoor culture and tolerance between the UK and Spain. In Britain riding bikes through the mountains would be frowned upon, whilst in Spain everyone is welcome in the outdoors as long as respect is

shown. We passed hikers who smiled, waved and clapped as we rode by at respectful speeds; Ian has a great relationship with a nearby horse riding centre and once again mutual respect is prime.

It was a pleasure to behold.

RED TREAD Red Tread hold off-road riding courses in the Sierra Nevada mountains of Spain and are introducing adventure biking trips through Morocco in 2009.

Ian and the crew are vastly experienced and if you’re lucky you also get to ride with the UK’s most successful Dakar entry Mick Extance. The cost of the three night, two

day course is £495 including bikes, tuition, clothing, accommodation, food and airport pickups. A number of low cost airlines fly into Malaga including Easyjet with prices ranging from £50 return.

www.redtread.com www.easyjet.com