ethics and sustainability

This is the sort of stuff that some people are interested in, and others not at all. We fall happily into the first category, so figured we'd share our thoughts with those of you who are interested. This isn't about recycling cans and not dropping litter (a given, surely?) but instead about why we work the way we do.

Working With Our Neighbours

Here in the Alpujarra the local economy is based almost entirely on rural tourism, with a small amount of smallholding and subsistence farming. We tend to think of it like the West Coast of Scotland, with a similar visitor profile: mostly domestic visitors (Spanish in this case!) here for weekends, with some Brits, Dutch and Germans coming for longer stays.

This means that many of the local business are based around tourism, such as bars, restaurants, hotels and gift shops. These small enterprises are the lifeblood of the area, providing income and opportunities to local people. Of course, they can only be successful if there are people to use them - and that's where we come in.

Accommodation

If you've read our holidays section you'll have noticed that we use various village houses and hostals for our accomodation. This not only provides you with a bit of variety and choice, it also means that some of your hard earned dinero is going directly into the local community. We're also more outdoors folks than indoors, and keeping house has never been one of our strong points - best have your home comforts provided by someone who knows their hospital corners from their oxford pillowcases.

Catering

You'll also have seen that we don't provide an evening meal as part of your package. Again, we would prefer you to be out and about in the village being fed by some of the great bars and restaurants we have here. Eating out is not expensive here. You can get a 3 course meal for under €20, a pizza for less than €7 and burger in the local bar for €5. Alternatively you can go Spanish and fill up on tapas and raciones. Tapas come free with your beer (great for immediate post-ride snacking), raciones are larger portions that come in around €6.

Think of what you'd miss out on if you were committed to a pre-paid catering package?

Oh, and a beer costs you €1,50 for a half pint. We don't drink pints here; not only do they warm up too fast, it means you cut your tapa allocation in two! And of course waiter service in the bars means you don't even need to get up when it's time for a refill.

Looking After our Back Yard

Crikey, we have the best back yard going, the Sierra Nevada National Park. And we don't even have to do any gardening. However, what we do have to do is protect the abundance of greenery and wildlife that we share our lives with, otherwise our home wouldn't be nearly so special.

Rather than riding prescriptive trails we employ our own little "share the love" policy. In other words, we ride all over the area all the time. This means we don't continually ride the same trails and bed in erosion on the sweet line choice. We ride them once a month instead of once a week and avoid vulnerable trails on the rare, but damaging, wet days. Yes, this makes life more difficult for us, but it also keeps us on our toes and works out best for you guys. Different people like different trails, and the more we explore the more we have to offer.