Given the choice and variety of locations that we have available to us in Europe for wilderness bike-packing excursions – Why visit the same location for a third time..?
Well I guess there are a few reasons:
1. I failed to complete the full route on the two previous visits – due to getting mud-bound (these were both in Winter)
2. The dramatic geography, coupled with an abundance of interesting Flora and Fauna
3. The mountain bike riding is some of the best, as in the most off-road and there is a high percentage of single track riding, certainly far more than any other long distance route that I have done
4. The interesting history and number of historic features to explore
5. The local hospitality and number of refugios available
6. This time I was riding with a friend and introducing them to the delights of the region was a great pleasure to share.
As mentioned above – the UK and Europe has a lot to offer the bike-packer and while more far-flung excursions always tempt me, such as the Silk Road Route in Kyrgyzstan, or the Tour Divide in the US, or Patagonia …the list goes on..! However I am very conscious of trying to do my ‘little endeavours’ in a sustainable way. To that end, I have not cut out flying altogether (yet), but I am not that keen on doing long-haul stuff, or doing more than a couple of of EU return flights each year, I aim to keep my carbon emissions to less than 10 tonnes/year (the UK average is around 11.5 tonnes/person).
Lets talk about the Bosques del Sur…
From the two map extracts below, its location in south-east Spain can be identified. It also makes you realise how big Spain actually is! While on the subject of Spain, as a country it has made great progress in the last two to three decades and has a good travel infrastructure, a huge number of protected areas and national parks, also all the small towns and villages retain their key amenities, like shop, bar, bakery, school etc. with thriving communities, also the drivers are respectful and patient – as you head east in Europe this all changes – especially as bicycle rider! As it happened on this ride we only did a handful of kms on surfaced roads and on most of these roads we barely saw a vehicle.
Back to the route..! The normal start for the GR247 is in the north at a town called Siles, however for us arriving to the area from the south the town of Cazorla made more sense, also it is a far better place to base yourself from as it has a lot more going on and more options for accommodation, as well as being a stunning town in its architecture and geographic location.
The GR247 drops into the town from an adjacent village just above called Iruela, the route also exits the town on a steep track that is very sustained climbing to gain a vertical 400m in 4-5km – a bit of a baptism of fire! The outlook forecast for us was mixed, but looked to improve, it was early November, so you can’t expect it to be perfect, as it happens this area of south Spain is the wettest (but still dry by UK standards). After an hour or so of hard grinding our view was taken away from us by the cloud, this was a shame as we missed the spectacular vistas and the cliffs of El Chorro. Due to the late morning start, we had not planned too much distance, 50-70km was a rough target for us.
The whole route involves a lot of ascent, but this southern section was relentless, barely a single flat section – you were either in the granny ring grinding away, or hurtling down a stone-spitting descent. The cloud persisted while we we at 900 to 1200m, but we eventually dropped to 700m and arrived at the small medieval village of Tiscar early afternoon and ready for some lunch. Here we found a sun trap in a courtyard of an Abbey and under the lofty castle high above, the warming sun was a pleasure, as was the bread, tomato, cheese and bananas – it was good to eat the food and lighten our bike loads! We were not in a rush to leave and explored both the old castle high, high above and the canyon of hidden waterfalls far, far below. Both these features were well worth the time and effort, we had also started to notice that everything seemed so deserted, even on a Saturday, so few people about and no one on the actual route either – this would continue for the remainder of the trip.
Time to get moving, always at the start of the journey, there is an anxiousness to make progress and not drop behind schedule. In the past we have both been ambitious and often bitten off more than we can chew, so this time we set our goals quite low – around 60-80km per day, that would allow 6 days or so to complete 430km – a typical days riding was from around 9am to 6 pm and it came light around 7:30 and dark around 6:30. It is worth explaining here that ‘our’ GR247 route has been ‘pimped’ somewhat, its usual length is 340km, however we have added in some additional sections – the Barrosa Canyon, the Segura Canyon and the Guadelentin Canyon – you’ll see as this journey unfolds that these are worthwhile and quite bike-able excursions (…well sort-of!).
As per usual on a ride, the camping or refugios never come up when you need them, we had in mind a small refugio for the night, but it was still some distance away and our plan was to strike camp before darkness. After another endless section of climbs through some very wild terrain, we began the mother of all descents – steep and rocky. It was so good to descend as the temps warmed up, up on high it was single figures, moist and windy – we were keen for a comfortable night on day one…
We learnt that the name translated to ‘refugio with no windows or door’, suffice to say we chose to sleep in our tents that night and just used the refugio for the warm comforting fire, to cook in and then enjoy a beer – a hard earned beer. It had also start to rain, but the woodland felt cosy and warm. By morning our tents had dried and no sign of the evenings rain.
In order to get in sync with our proposed camp/refugio stops, we now had either a short day – 40km or a very long day -120km, doing the later was totally daft, so we came up with another plan to do an additional 25km excursion south, also allowing the opportunity to go to a cafe for coffee and breakfast.
Olives as far as the eye can see (photocredit Mark Wildsmith).
If you don’t find keep looking – the village we had headed to looked like it had 3-4 cafe/bars, it was a Sunday so we knew there may be some closures, but the three in the centre were all shut, everything was shut and they was even some ‘tumbleweed’ rolling down the street. We headed out in the other direction and found the forth, it looked shut, but actually was open, it had some people in it and did a super coffee and omelette sandwich, this got the morning off to a good start, also the weather was sunny. Back on the dirt tracks we pedalled through a few kms of olive plantations – probably the main crop farmed in Andalucia, they stretched as far as the eye could see – another great example of mono-cultures, introduced by humans and maximising every bit of land possible.
We were now heading north on the eastern leg of the route, being presented with ever changing landscapes, occasionally passing a deserted building or two.
These buildings were apparently cleared of their occupants in the 1950-60s to allow the area to be used for hunting, thankfully the hunting is now more limited, but it is sad to see these lost communities and you will pass many of these on the journey.
The Bosques del Sur offers a broad range of woodlands and some of it is akin to Scotland, also due to the high rainfall that this area receives it is quite vegetated and damp looking – we even found Apple trees, not to mention a good range of fungi.
Regugio Fuete Acero was the first of the official park refugios that we stayed in. All the refugios are pretty basic, but functional and always clean, designed to sleep up to 10 persons, but 6 comfortably. We would use a number of this on this tour, out of the four we stopped in two had other guests staying, it made for a good evening here the tales of others travels and escapades. This particular stop we met a Slovakian couple who were bike-packing with their doggos – in fact the doggos had done more bike-packing than any average bike-packer having travelled from Alaska to Patagonia – Incredible! As well as the lovely social, we were buzzing about the day ahead, as we had our first deviation which was the mighty Barrosa Canyon.
The pictures will now tell the story of the next part…
The Barrosa has to be one of my all time favourite canyons, so pretty, interesting – and rideable! We had dropped about 900m from the point of entry, whilst we had a bit of flat (ish) to come we would be soon having to pay back all this fun with a 1200m plus climb to get us back to the plateau, however next priority was a cafe for breakfast and a shop to restock our supplies – the village of Coto would supply this …in theory..!
The reality was not to be – it was a Monday and the three cafe/bars were all closed, however there was a shop (like in almost all the villages) and it was open – so we blitzed it for cakes, nuts and other supplies.
The climb back up took most of the afternoon to complete, however this included a detour to the village pictured – one building out of the whole village remains habitable (although no one present on this occasion). The lunch stop here was quiet and cool and it felt like there was a ‘presence’, seeing all these old homes, once a thriving, but basic community …and not really all that long ago.
We filled our bottles and launched into a short section of Hike-a-Bike (this was a short-cut on the map, reality was it probably took us a while longer, but it was a hoot). The dirt road had given way to single track heaven!
The freedom that bike-packing affords you – Cruisin’ down the open trails, carefree and content. These easier sections allows you to explore the views and yet another interesting landscape that we find ourselves in.
We met a crazy French man, he was on his way from his home in Lyon to Senegal – a real character, a free spirit, a font of all biking knowledge and a jolly good Monsieur to spend a night in the hut with – we could have done with some more beers or a bottle of wine. Gilles rated Spain very highly for the bike-packing traveller and like the others we met had some fascinating and inspiring travel stories.
Our next section would be 40km across the high plateau to the village of Pontones for a late breakfast.
The village of Pontones, marks the end of the Sierra Cazorla and the start of the Sierra Segura. There is a resurgence ‘eye’ here, but sadly it was dry, and given the recent rain it was surprising not to see the blue water – like a tear. Our excitement was soon restored and instead we had a huge slab to cycle over. More importantly Pontones would provide breakfast, coffee and ongoing supplies.
Big drop to the right! (Photocredit Mark Wildsmith)
Entering the Sierra Segura, the mountains had a slightly different feel, perhaps more deeply forested and not quite so craggy and dramatic. From a riding perspective, we noticed we were back on the narrow ‘Camino’ paths and these add to the fun and interest. As you pass the most northerly refugio – Era del Fustal, which is on the roadside you head into dark forest and start to begin a descending journey into the town of Siles, this is the traditional starting point of the GR247. We choose a BnB here as we fancied a clean up and comfy sleep as well as a nice meal. We also had a mechanical to sort – a broken rear spoke on Mark’s bike, fortunately due to the clever hub design, the cassette pulls off – no tools, magic!.
While we had a lovely BnB, Siles didn’t deliver much in the way of bars or eating establishments, however it was a Tuesday and that seems to be one of ‘closed’ days along with Mondays and Wednesdays! …at least off season. On the plus side we found another of those well stocked tiny supermarkets and stocked up with more supplies – our next destination was Segura.
I should mention that the scenery from Siles, while pleasant and forested, is not so jaw-dropping like the earlier ride sections. However… the quality of the single track trails compensate, some impeccable and engaging riding as your contour round the terrain on the old camino’s.
The village of Segura soon meets the eye, sitting way high-up, crowned by a big block of a castle; the hill up to it is a bit of a killer, if your legs are strong ‘n’ fresh then its mostly rideable, however if your feeling the fatigue, it’s a push (but with a view). Segura does not offer much in the way of supplies, or cafes (at least not in November), but the castle was open from 16:00 and we spent a good hour exploring it – all to ourselves. As mentioned earlier everywhere round here was so quiet.
Post the Segura Castle our planned accommodation (above) was about 20km, it should have been around 1:30hr, but due to the descent and then an even bigger ascent, coupled with technical trial it was more like 2:30hr, needless to say we arrived well after dark, but hey it was good to see the starry sky! Like all the others, this refugio was clean and functional, also at 1500m it afforded some warmth, though it was only 9-10 deg inside, so still pretty coolish.
We awoke to not such a nice a nice day, not rainy, but low cloud and dull – basically it would be a good Yorkshire day! Our destination was Hornos, at about 28km away it would make a good breakfast stop and should be quick blast down the hill due to the height differential of 700m. We left our refugio, did a short section on road and was then buzzing down another ‘stone-spitting’ single track, with a view of the Tranco Reservoir in the distance – see pics below…
After leaving the old village of Hornos, the route headed around the abandoned shore line, the waters edge being a few hundred metres away, due to the low water level. It was a pleasant change to ride along a meandering track with little in the way of inclines, the scenery was a mix of old groves and forest, still – with no one around, we were however following some quite fresh bike tracks and wondered if it was the Slovakian couple with dogs that we had met a few days earlier..?
Lunch was taken at a lovely picnic site, again we were the ones there – not a single car or person. This location was the lowest section of the whole route at about 550m, we knew therefore a big climb was to come – about 900m and then another of 400-500m – so a tough shift lay ahead!
We had not expected this section to be so brutal (and I had ridden it before, and could not recall the difficulties), the weather also added to the toughness and we realised we had grossly underestimated this section, in fact we had under-estimated the whole day, we knew it would be another late arrival at the planned refugio – to be our last night on the trail. That said – we were not doing particularly long days in the saddle on this tour.
The last night in this refugio was a special one, rather than the damp cloud it would have been nice to have a starry sky to enjoy, but a roaring fire made up for it instead, this was one of the few refugios that had fire places. We were expecting to find other folk here, but alas it was just ourselves and given how nice this place was, it was a surprise.
We had around 40km to complete the circuit and arrive back in Iruela, we awoke to low cloud, it was a shame as we missed out on one of the finest Andalucian vistas …maybe we come back another year! This next section also afforded some of the finest riding, however it was now tinged with mud instead of dust. Up til now we had stayed pretty clean for the entire journey, ironic that we get a full splatting in the final 20-30km – but its all part of the fun!
At the end of any hard multi-day ride, the memories of the journey remain a bit fragmented, it is usually days/weeks/months after that things start to fall into place. I think we were both ready to finish and enjoy some of the luxuries of ‘normal life’ again. This ride excelled in pre and post ride chill out options, Cazorla has a lot to offer in town and nearby. For the final day we explore the old city of Granada, and that in itself is a city that yielded so much and would be a worthy place to stop for a night or two and soak up the lively buzz and energy, it also looked like ‘foodie’ heaven.
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