After a day off from riding to cement a drainage gully, then a lazy evening, Graham & I planned another day out on the trails checking out some trails that head through to the south west down towards Tarifa.
We returned to near Gaucin, traversed around to Colmenar and took a trail that the locals use to get to Las Canillas, the plan after that was a mix of bendy tarmac mountain roads and easy trails down to Tariffa.
We never got that far though... the mapping I had downloaded to navigate by was a bit vague in parts, the trails on the grounds are slightly different and the beautiful cork woodlands are managed by the forestry, so things can be moved / changed or closed as needed to make things more interesting!
We moved pretty well for the most part, the trails themselves were easy, the views stunning, the sky, very big and blue. What a great day to be out...
This area has loads of trails, however there is an area that is completely out of bounds. Its an area of outstanding natural beauty and the cork woodlands are protected both for their crop and their history. Anyone caught in this area is fined very heavily and their vehicles can be confiscated. The rest of the hills are fair game though, there are trails that are used daily and are generally in good condition.
The problems came as we realised we had come off our planned route, a very winding descent and re-assent saw us scratching our heads trying to figure out where we had missed a turn... dead ends seem to be the order of the day here!
We found a couple more trails and tried them out, they either ended in chains across the trail or in one case, the trail became a foot path winding down through the trees into the unknown.
We had decided to retrace our steps back towards Colmenar, fuel was starting to run low, time was marching on etc etc, when we came across a couple of locals working in the forest. A good giggle and a long chat saw them give us the route details, which turned out to be one of the lanes we had tried but it had been gated so we had turned around without checking for locks etc!
When we arrived back at a tarmac road, we turned back towards Gaucin and to where we'd parked the van.
A lovely dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese finished the day off...
Happy days
We returned to near Gaucin, traversed around to Colmenar and took a trail that the locals use to get to Las Canillas, the plan after that was a mix of bendy tarmac mountain roads and easy trails down to Tariffa.
We never got that far though... the mapping I had downloaded to navigate by was a bit vague in parts, the trails on the grounds are slightly different and the beautiful cork woodlands are managed by the forestry, so things can be moved / changed or closed as needed to make things more interesting!
We moved pretty well for the most part, the trails themselves were easy, the views stunning, the sky, very big and blue. What a great day to be out...
This area has loads of trails, however there is an area that is completely out of bounds. Its an area of outstanding natural beauty and the cork woodlands are protected both for their crop and their history. Anyone caught in this area is fined very heavily and their vehicles can be confiscated. The rest of the hills are fair game though, there are trails that are used daily and are generally in good condition.
The problems came as we realised we had come off our planned route, a very winding descent and re-assent saw us scratching our heads trying to figure out where we had missed a turn... dead ends seem to be the order of the day here!
We found a couple more trails and tried them out, they either ended in chains across the trail or in one case, the trail became a foot path winding down through the trees into the unknown.
We had decided to retrace our steps back towards Colmenar, fuel was starting to run low, time was marching on etc etc, when we came across a couple of locals working in the forest. A good giggle and a long chat saw them give us the route details, which turned out to be one of the lanes we had tried but it had been gated so we had turned around without checking for locks etc!
When we arrived back at a tarmac road, we turned back towards Gaucin and to where we'd parked the van.
A lovely dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese finished the day off...
Happy days
