Via Verde de la Sierra, Andalucia, Spain

5SueJim126 5:00 PM Jun 11, 2019

Wonderful of road ride and great scenery
The Via Verde de la Sierra is an off road cycle route built on an abandoned railway line. It goes from the disused Olvera railway station to the disused Puerto Serrano railway station. A distance of 23 miles (36.5 km) on dirt tracks and tarmac paths and through some beautiful and very peaceful countryside. A unique thing about the route is that you go through 30 tunnels, some quite short but others quite long. Nearly all are lit but when we went two were not, so you need to take a torch with you. We walked through the unlit tunnels. The route from Olvera to Puerto Serrano is slightly downhill. So if you are a leisure cyclist or someone who rarely cycles I would definitely recommend you cycle this way. Going the other way from Puerto Serrano to Olvera is much harder. We are aged 67 & 69 and occasional leisure cyclists it took us 3.5 hours to cover the 23 miles without too much difficulty, plus another hour for stops. You can hire bikes (child, adult, tandem, electric) at the start of the ride at Olvera Station. We booked them in advance by email: [email protected]. We hired two adult bikes cost 12 Euros each for the day. Some ride to Puerto Serrano and back but that is 46 miles and is for the hard core cyclists. If you just want to go one way from Olvera to Puerto Serrano you can get a taxi with bike trailer to take you back from Puerto Serrano station to Olvera, cost 50 Euros. You can get the taxi numbers from the staff at Olvera Station before you leave. Or your other option is just to cycle part of the way and then turn round and cycle back, remembering that cycling back towards Olvera is harder work. One thing not to miss on route is the Penon de Zaframagon a natural reserve which is home to one of the largest colonies of Griffon Vultures in Europe with 200 pairs of birds. This is situated about 10 miles (16 km) from Olvera as you go towards Puerto Serrano. Zaframagon Station has been turned into a visitor centre with a display about the Vultures and a not to be missed live feed from two camera's strategically placed in the area which show the birds in real time gliding (they don’t fly), sitting on the rocks and on their nests. Unfortunately there is only one member of staff on duty so if she is showing people the live feed there is no one on reception when you enter. But just buy a ticket at the machine, 1 Euro for children, 2 Euros for adults, go through the double doors, browse the displays downstairs in Spanish and English, then walk up the wooden stairs to see more displays and the room where they show the live stream. There are cafes at Olvera Station, Coripe Station 14 miles (22Km) into the ride and at Puerto Serrano station. Coripe Station closes on a Wednesday.

5amdgriggs 5:00 PM Jun 19, 2018

Great trail ride, fine views all the way - but NB closures
The Via Verde is a great trail ride, all 36km of it each way (between Olvera and Puerto Serrano). We followed the good advice of several previous reviewers and started from Puerto Serrano, riding the average 1% uphill gradient to Olvera where we stayed the night and then cycling the gentle downhill back to Puerto Serrano the next day. The surface is mostly gravel and fine for hybrids although most of the few riders we saw were on mountain bikes, with a lot of tarmac the last 5km or so towards Olvera. Be aware that at the moment the last tunnel before Olvera is closed because of a mud slide and landslip, which means a long (2km) ride up a sometimes steep side road into the town of Olvera. If you also book bikes from Olvera station building, or book to stay in the railway-carriage type accommodation they have alongside this, you also then face going down the very steep hill from the town to the station and back up again the next morning. We stayed in the town itself, up on the top of its commanding hill, so the swoop down to the Via Verde track the next morning was a delightful way to start the day. Be aware too that alongside all the lovely views including riding beside the river for several kilometres, the 4 viaducts, the great views, the lookout point from which you can watch griffon vultures and all the rest, that there are a total of 30 tunnels en route (including one now bypassed and another closed, just before the Olvera end), that the longest is around a kilometre long, and that only a minority are illuminated with automatic lighting. The cool in the tunnels was very welcome on a hot day, but you definitely need lights or to be very confident about riding in almost total darkness for a couple of hundred metres at a time. Because of the very wet spring this year and various landslips there'd been a number of limited closures to parts of the Via Verde this year though in practice you can currently ride the whole route apart from the last couple of kilometres into Olvera station - despite the official maps along the route showing several sections as still closed. This official information does mean that no organised groups are cycling the trail at the moment so it's much quieter, and consequently a couple of places are closed en route, notably the birdwatching and ornithology centre and display at Zaframagon (& the associated cafe). The cafe at the midway point at Coripe is still open. You can hire bikes at Olvera or at Puerto Serano, though at the latter there are only a few available and they're basic (no panniers provided, no pumps, no repair kit, and they're not lubricated etc) - all bookable via the Puerto Serrano station building. Overall though this was great fun and we're so pleased to have ridden the Via Verde: we're keen now to ride more of the others across Spain, though this is reputed to be one of the best if not the best.