Adventure for the BIKERS
What makes a good biking road? Well, there's a saying among motorcyclists that driving a car is like watching a movie, whereas riding a motorbike is like being in one. And I guess it can all distil down to that: open to the elements and without a metal box around you, the feeling of vulnerability and danger merely serving to heighten the senses, you really do feel part of the world around you. A great biking road should have twists and turns so you can get your knee down and your heart rate up, certainly. If it's got a smooth surface and has good visibility, all the better. Add in an epic landscape and a real sense of adventure and you've got biking nirvana.
1. The Cat and Fiddle run - A537, Buxton-Macclesfield, England
This 11km-long strip of tarmac in the Peak District is a rite of passage for bikers - but beware: the RAC have labelled it in the past as Britain's Most Dangerous Road. A 50mph speed restriction has helped with the spills, but one ride of it will tell you why bikers keep coming back. Depart at the Macclesfield end, but watch the early section. Concentration is key as the corners just keep coming, getting progressively tighter. Up on to the moors and the bends open up, low stonewalls giving great views and good visibility for hazards ahead. The road hugs the hillside and dives left and right before ending up at the Cat and Fiddle pub for coffee and a note-swapping chat with the hundreds of bikers who flock there.
2. The Amalfi Coast Road - Naples to Salerno, Italy
Never attempt this ride in summer as you'll spend most of your time stuck in the tourist traffic that chokes the narrow road. Leaving behind the vehicular anarchy of Naples and sweeping round the bay, you'll soon pass Sorrento and be firmly into the Rat Pack songsheet: past the Isle of Capri, and gliding through Positano, Ravello and Amalfi itself. The 50km-long corniche twists and turns, dives and climbs (it's not called The Road of a Thousand Bends for nothing), inducing paroxysms of whooping at every ancient Moorish town, every vertical crag plunging into the cobalt sea and each fingernail of beach nestling below.
3. The Transfagarasan Highway - Sibiu to Curtea de Arges, Transylvania, Romania
Constructed at Nicolae Ceaucescu's behest in the 1970s as part of his megalomanic zeal to conquer nature, the Transfagarasan runs across the highest mountains in Romania for 35kms. Do it in summer (it's closed in winter) and you'll leave the baking plains of Transylvania and, 20 minutes and dozens of razor sharp hairpins later, be riding across a rocky lunar landscape before emerging on to the snow-covered plateau. Plunge through an unlit tunnel at the pass and come out at the top of the lush, verdant Arges Valley, where monasteries and gothic castles line the route. Here, you'll look down at the Transfagarasan, snaking its way in sweeping, fast bends and drool at the prospect of living out your Valentino Rossi fantasies. Beware oxen-drawn carts and ancient Dacias. The best biking road I've ever ridden.
4. Bergen to Geiranger, Norway
Probably best done in a couple of days, to better appreciate the mind-blowing scenery. Head north out of Bergen on the E39, and soon you'll be rolling your bike on and off the ferries that act as floating bridges across the myriad fjords. All around is a landscape of drowned glacial valleys, with sheer 1,000m cliffs plunging into inky depths. Cross the Sognefjorden, Norway's longest and deepest fjord, then continue past glaciers and through tunnels that go on for miles, until you arrive above the Unesco-listed Geirangerfjord, a vast axe-wound of a fjord. Make your way down the Trollstigen, an intestinal tract of road that zigzags down to the water and put your bike on the ferry that plies the Geirangerfjord, watching in awe as you slide past the giant foaming slashes of the Seven Sisters and Bridal Veil waterfalls.
5. Trabzon to Savsat, Eastern Turkey
Head east along the coast road. At Hopa, on the Georgian border (you'll recognise it: all the women will be wearing vivid red and maroon striped shawls), head inland and upwards, through lush tea plantations reminiscent of Darjeeling. Once over the pass, the difference is instant and dramatic; in the space of 100 metres the cool, damp air gives way to the furnace of Eastern Anatolia and green becomes brown as far as the eye can see. Drop into the town of Artvin - romantically called "one large brothel" by my guidebook - then climb the loose-gravel road out of the dust bowl, twisting in between the overladen trucks. At the next pass, all becomes green and cool once more, with lush meadows filled with Alpine flowers and Swiss-style timber chalets. Only 300kms, but it feels like you've crossed several continents.
6. Furka Pass, between Gletsch and Andermatt, Switzerland
Some Turks reckon this looks just like parts of Eastern Anatolia. A road made to order for the boy racers. And I like to think it's named after what bikers generally utter when they first see the ribbon of tarmac snaking its way up the near-vertical mountainside. To add spice, there are few crash barriers. To add extra spice, since 1982, when a tunnel was built at 2,100 metres, bikers have the top section almost to themselves. Many high-speed sections, but beware of ice on the road. Pause at the 2,431m pass and admire the glacier at the summit. Then gaze ahead to the Grimsel Pass in the distance and, if your nerves are still intact, open that throttle again.
7. A2, the Antrim coast road, Northern Ireland
At 60 miles long, this is a frontrunner for the best biking road in the world. It's certainly the most biker-friendly place in the world: the legend that was Joey Dunlop cut his teeth on this road, the NW200 race is staged in the area, and the locals revere all things biking. Head north out of Larne on to the A2. The road twists in and out of pretty fishing villages, often skimming so close to the sea's edge you feel like you're floating on it. Across the North Channel, just 24 miles away, is the Mull of Kintyre. But the views can act as Sirens, as the turns get tighter and the drops tumble into the breakers pounding the cliffs below. At the end? The Giant's Causeway and, after that, the Bushmills distillery. Biking Mecca, Irish whiskey. What's not to love?
8. Bar in Montenegro to Sarajevo in Bosnia
Only about 400km, but a tough day's riding because of the terrain and the road surfaces, and you'll need an enduro bike. Lovely in autumn, when the trees on the slopes of Montenegro's Black Mountains are as colourful as a paint box. At the Bobotov Kuk ski resort, turn left into Durmitor National Park. The road soon becomes a gravel track, threading its way across a vast treeless, boulder-strewn plateau. Take plenty of water for this section - I didn't see a single soul for hours. After the plateau comes the Tara Canyon, at a mile deep and 50 miles long, the second longest in the world. The road clings to the side of the gorge, burrowing through rough-hewn tunnels before expelling you across it on narrow bridges. Finally, you're into Bosnia, passing fields and villages, until, with the light fading, the tungsten glow of Sarajevo will reach out to embrace you.
9. Saranda to Vlora, Albania
Riding a motorcycle in Albania can make you feel like Indiana Jones. In the space of this day's ride, I was attacked by snakes, chased by dogs, had the hairiest near-miss of my life, and got threatened by two youths with AK47s. But what biking country! From the resort town of Saranda in the deep south, make your way (slowly - it is hideously potholed) along the coast road, through olive groves and orchards, from whence ghoulish dummies hang to ward off evil spirits. To your left, there's mile after mile of utterly deserted beach, save for the ubiquitous concrete bunkers Enver Hodza had built to repel all-comers. To your right, jagged peaks trailing snagged clouds. The road meanders through remote Ottoman villages and past abandoned and flyblown submarine bases. Then begins the Longhera Pass, like a Disney ride, taking you from sea level to over 1,000 metres in just a few ear-popping minutes for the best view of the Ionian you'll ever see.
10. Cabo de Gata to Granada, Spain
Another ride covering extreme cultural and climatic changes within its 130 miles. From the heat and stark, volcanic cliffs of Cabo de Gata, through the plastic polybagged fields and greasy-spoon country of Almeria, to the gentle foothills and cleaner, thinner air of Las Alpujarras. Around you now, you enter a hauntingly beautiful canyon land, with giant mesas like molars that'll put you in mind of a spaghetti western - no surprise as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly was filmed here. On the hilltops stand white Moorish villages and, continuing upwards, immense wind turbines start to appear, standing sentinel on the rocky outcrops. Finally, there are the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada, stretching up to over 3,000m, dusted with white. After all that, even the Alhambra feels like an anticlimax.
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