Most foreigners in Granada live out in the sticks, enjoying the peace of the countryside… until the weekend scrambling bikes arrive.

Yes, there is nothing quite as peace-shattering as a heard of scramblers pelting up a firebreak without the aid of a decent silencer on their machines.

Well, if like me you have to put up with this, the following is heartening news: the Guardia Civil have closed down an illegal, offroad circuit in the Dehesa de Santa Fe.

The people who had organised this route had included the cattle drove, the Colada de los Leñadores de la Costa and dry gullies like Barranco del Lobo and the Hinojarero one, both in the municipality of Salar.

Seprona from the Guardia Civl stumbled over their existence on social media where it had been announced that a scrambling competition was to be held on the 11th of last month. To put your name down, you had to make a bank transfer.

Besides turning up at the event to identify the organisers, the Guardia Civil had a helicopter and their own off-road bikers belonging to Seprona to track down all the riders on the circuit.

The organisers had no licence or insurance for the event and were not registered as event organisers.

Andalusian law states that people are free to use the mountain land as long as they don’t bother other people with excessive noise etc. Running your 400CC scrambling bike next to somebody’s picnic basket could be considered as ‘bother.’ You can’t upset the local fauna or destroy the flora, both of which happen on such occasions.

Editorial Comment: personally, I have ridden just about all the local mountain tracks on an old, kick-start, Montesa 350 back in the 80s, but one thing is you on your lonesome using the tracks at a sensible speed, and quite another is a squad of bikers haring down tracks and up riverbeds as if the Devil were on their tails. God, I’m getting old!

(News: Salar, Poniente de Granada, Andalucia)