off-road in Andalusia

If your idea of a perfect break in Málaga is lying on the beach, turning brown and pausing only for food and drink, stop reading right now. Put this magazine over your face and go to sleep.

But if you want something more active, something that gets you up into those mountains that tower over the beach and makes your heart beat faster than six cups of café solo, we’ve got a whole new way for you to see the wild side of Málaga. Get off the beaten track and off the road and head into the Sierras – on a motorbike.

On New Year’s Day this year, when most of us were just emerging from a hangover, Málaga rang with the sound of hundreds of engines – motorbikes, trucks and cars on their way to cross the African desert in the legendary Dakar Rally. Among the entrants was actor and bike nut Charley Boorman (famous for partnering Ewan McGregor on the motorcycle road trip featured in Long Way Round).

But you don’t have to take on a rally, because in the mountains above Málaga, off-road biking to suit anyone from Boorman to a softie like me is on offer all year round.

sometimes, the only way is up
It’s hard to believe there’s so much wilderness this close to the bustle of the coast, but you could easily get lost on the trails that wind through the mountains. Luckily, there’s an English-speaking guide on hand who can kit you out with everything from bike to boots, and lead you along tracks that suit your level. Graham Ross from Trailblazers (www.trailblazers-spain.com) has trained motocross champions, but he’s equally good with scaredy-cats like me.

The kit required for this adventure is my least fl attering holiday outfi t ever: motocross armour that’s protective but not exactly fi gure-hugging. But when my lesson begins with the words “you will fall off – everybody does”, I fi gure it’s worth it.

It’s all very different from my daily ride to work in England. For a start, the bike is much lighter, with rougher tyres. It’s also much higher – I can’t get both feet down except on tiptoes. Suddenly I’m back trying to ride my cousin’s bicycle, aged six – getting moving is the hardest part.

Even the roads between villages are steep and twisty, and dirt tracks are the only way to reach some mountain farms. Clouds of dust rise around the bikes as we pass white houses surrounded by stubby grapevines. I thought those rectangles

for the traveller with an enterprising nature, heading into the mountains around Málaga on a motorcycle can offer you a new perspective on one of the most beautiful areas of southern Spain, not to mention your own sense of adventure by Timandra Harkness clinging to the slopes were for growing vegetables – in fact they’re ready to dry the grapes for the local sweet wine. A few yards past a shepherd sitting on a wall, his fl ock of brown goats scramble out of our way.

Turn off into the National Park (the Park of the Sierras of Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama), and those knobbly tyres suddenly make sense – the trails are rutted, rocky and scattered with stones. But where else can you brush through olive branches as you ride, let the scent of wild fl owers fi ll your nostrils or come careering down a gravelly slope to fi nd the ruins of an eighth-century Moorish fort? I’m amazed to see the village we came from, Cómpeta, a patch of white on a distant slope. Have we already ridden that far?

an archaeological site you’ll dig
While we rest in the scorching sun, two green motorbikes appear down the same track. It’s the Guardia Civil – the Spanish police. Have they come to tell us off for riding in a National Park? No, with great pride they point to the ruins on which they’ve parked their bikes and tell us what an important archaeological site it is.

They’re surprised to see a girl on a motorbike. When I admit to being a slow rider, they have a tip for me: “Cerveza y tapas” – beer and tapas, that’ll sort me out. Then they’re off, stones scattering and engines echoing off the ancient walls.

Trailblazers have been taking off-roaders along these tracks for four years and, if you can ride a motorbike, Graham will teach you the rest. The region offers something for all levels, from tracks not much rougher than a potholed city street, to challenging climbs that look as if only goats should be able to tackle them. Standing up is the best way to control the bike over ruts and boulders, and it eases the bone-rattling ride. But it takes guts to be that far above the ground when it drops away before you more like a lift-shaft than a road. Even when the tracks are wide and solid, the 100-foot drop on one side can feel intimidating.

You don’t have to ride an off-road bike to see these wild places. Trailblazers also organise horseback treks, or paragliding above the hills, or you could just pull on your trekking boots. You’d still enjoy the stark beauty of the landscape, and work up a thirst for the geranium-hung bars that line the village squares. But you’d be missing out on the most unique way to experience the wild beauty of the Sierras around Málaga.

They say off-roading makes you do what you never thought you could. I certainly never saw myself hurtling down something that looks like a dried-up mountain stream.

I try to hold my nerve and let the engine control my speed of descent, but with a hairpin bend coming up too fast, that’s not enough. At this point, if I could bottle out, I would, but that’s no longer an option. I risk some gentle braking. Amazingly, I don’t fl y over the handlebars, I make a clean turn and stay on the path (if you can call it that).

By the end of the day, I’ve only cheated and put my foot down a couple of times. Graham says my technique is good, but I’d fi nd it easier if I went a bit faster. So that’s my challenge for next time. And best of all – I didn’t fall off once!

But if that all sounds a bit too active, don’t worry. The day ends with a long cool drink by the pool and an optional dip, then a retreat to a shady square in the village for that beer and tapas. Try the gambas pil-pil (prawns in garlic and spitting-hot olive oil). Or there’s free wine-tasting in Cómpeta’s Museo del Vino, plus dishes made from local produce. You’re sure of a good night’s sleep before breakfast on the terrace, but the alarm call may surprise you. Woken by hammering below my window, I look out to see a blacksmith at work, shoeing horses with a portable anvil in the hotel car park. Old men stand around, while a puppy sniffs recklessly at the horse’s heels. New ways to travel are welcome here, but the old ones haven’t gone away.

5 reasons to ride in Spain

1 The weather: it hardly ever rains between April and October, and even in winter it’s warmer than the UK

2 The welcoming locals: one lost rider was guided back home by a friendly farmer on a scooter

3 The views: from the snow-capped mountains above to the Mediterranean below, every turn in the road is just crying out to be photographed

4 The food: it’s better and cheaper than you can imagine and after a hard day on the hill (say, like yours truly on the right), you’ll be hungrier than a wolf

5 The beer: see above!

while you’re there

Málaga itself is a bustling, modern city – and along the coast it’s all beaches, bars and restaurants, watersports by day and clubbing by night. But turn off the coast road and it only takes a few minutes to be looking down on the shining sea between prickly pear cactus and olive trees that look as if they date back to when the Moors ruled here in the Middle Ages. Within sight of the modern hotels on the sea front below, villagers still use horses and donkeys to move around, and you can sit in a sunbaked white square hearing nothing but birdsong and the clang of church bells.