Keeping the sunshine rides alive

One lucky Tredz employee went on a cycling holiday this month. He was so impressed we placed a banner for them on TredzTalk (a first for us). As they say, here is his story….

We spent a week in an amazing part of Andalucia, Southern Spain near the awesome El Chorro gorge.  The gorge is a popular destination for climbers, but the whole area is equally brilliant for a superb mountain bike holiday. Check out the photos here.

Blazing Trails offer comfortable self-catering accommodation for 2-3 (4 at a push) in a purpose built ‘casita’ which is built away from the host’s main house. It’s within 10 minutes of El Chorro village and 15 minutes to the Ardales lakes. They have an 8mx4m pool with terrace and welcome sun loungers for guests, which is just what we needed after a hard ride.  The views from both the casita and pool were really spectacular.

John, the Blazing Trails guide, has a great knowledge of local rides, most of which were reached directly from the casita.  He charges 70€ per day – well worth it to sample some of the great trails and familiarise ourselves with the surroundings.

The first route we attempted was ‘The Hippo Trail’ with leads down from ancient ruins at Bobastro.  You drop off the winding road very soon after leaving ‘home’ and down fats singletrack through pine trees, following an ancient Moorish pathway with some challenging sections. The weird rock formations in this natural park have given this route its name. After a ride over a slick rock section you pass the mouth of the ‘hippo’ before dropping to the forest track and descending to the bottom of the valley.

Another wood we tackled was the amazing singletrack through El Chorro woods.  After a challenging climb, we emerged at the top of a spectacular pine forest, with vultures circling above us, we decided to move on.  The ride had everything we hoped for, starting with a forest track through the woods, then singletrack over small rocks, followed by more singletrack sweeping through the forest which seems to go on forever. We finished at the bottom grinning from ear to ear!

There were plenty more routes and opportunities to keep us pedalling and smiling all week.  We usually stopped for a bite to eat in El Chorro or at one of the restaurants alongside the lakes.  You can get a decent meal plus drink for around 6€ a head.  The lakes are pretty spectacular, with beaches for lazing, swimming and non-powered water sports.  Blazing Trails have a canoe and wind surf for hire if you fancy a change from the saddle.

To get there we hired a car from Malaga airport – it took us around 50 mins to reach Blazing Trails and we managed to fit the bike bags in the back, although John will do an airport pick-up if required (forgot to ask how much, sorry).

If you don’t have transport to access the local restaurants in the evening or are just lazy like us and would prefer to be fed, then Blazing Trails offer an optional B&B/evening meal service for 15€ per person, per day.

We were really surprised at the diverse range of riding available within such easy reach of the Mediterranean coast. With an annual average of 300 days sunshine in this part of Spain, Blazing Trails is a great location for a superb holiday. Personally, I vote the Tredz Christmas party gets held here!

Posted by Mostyn