What a wonderful area (as long as you don't have a house there) to be on holiday in Andalusia. It is so varied and versatile! One of the things on our programme during our September '22 trip, besides visiting my high school friend Marita and her husband Jan, was to cycle the Via Verde de la Sierra, one of Andalusia's best-known routes: not too long, easy (we read) and close to popular places like Seville, Ronda and Jerez de la Frontera.

It is an old railway line route, where, incidentally, no train has ever passed, that now serves as a cycling and walking path. It is a beautiful route, twice recognised as the best greenway in Europe, running right through the Sierra de Cádiz nature reserve with great views and otherwise no traffic around you. The start, Olvera and the end Puerto Serrano, are in Cadiz province, but most of the route is in Seville province and passes through the municipalities of Montellano, Pruna, El Coronil and Coripe.

To spend the night, the night before our bike ride, we ended up in the old station of Olvera, a beautiful old and original building. Contrary to our expectations, the place was very quiet. We were enthusiastically welcomed and shown to our room, which was appropriate for the price, fairly basic but fine. So was the decor of the building and the food in the restaurant. The following day, on Saturday, there were more visitors: hikers and cyclists, often with whole families. That might also explain the absence of luxury: that is not what people coming to the Via Verde are looking for.  
Around the corner at the little station, we hired mountain bikes (and fortunately-'recommended, not required'-did not have to wear helmets). For the return trip, we would call a taxi that would take us back to Olvera with bikes and all.

Full of courage and bottles of water, we set off; after all, 36.5km in mountainous terrain sounded like quite a challenge. That turned out to be not so bad. For railway lines, large differences in level are bridged as much as possible with tunnels and viaducts. The same goes for this Via Verde: mostly downhill with up to 30 tunnels, one of which is almost a kilometre long, four viaducts, five old stations, three white villages, including Olvera, the rural capital of Spain 2021. Lovely relaxed cycling it was, allowing us to look around us in abundance and feel truly immersed in nature.

Halfway through, we thought we would go for a drink at the Cantina, however because it was  low season, they only opened in the afternoon. Fortunately, the station café in Coripe, a few kilometres away, was open. In between, we were very welcome at the information and observation centre of Nature Reserve Peñon de Zaframagón. The young forester opened the door especially for us and personally showed us around the mini museum. Proud of the special colony of up to 500 Griffon Vultures in the area, he explained the difference between juveniles and adults several times in his best English.

After a few hours of relaxed cycling, we arrived at our destination: Puerto Serrano station, which also serves as a hotel and restaurant. It looks a bit more luxurious and has a more extensive menu than 'our' station. After an hour, we called the taxi to take us back. That turned out not to be so easy: 'Not possible today' we heard and immediately afterwards they hung up.  Fortunately, the forester on duty in Puerto Serrano came to the rescue, so that after an hour a taxi did arrive and took us back to Olvera in three quarters of an hour.

Back in Olvera, we decided to explore the village anyway, as we were there after all: a charming 'Pueblo Blanco' with a church located high up and at the very top of the village an old castle from where you have a 360˚ round view. Really worth it! Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves and had a drink among the locals at an elongated square with fine views and ate a delicious meal at La Tarara, a restaurant with young ambitious chefs who serve cuisine a little different from other restaurants.

All in all, we found the Via Verde from Olvera highly recommended!

Lenneke and Harrie

for more information: https://cogetumochila.com/blog/via-verde-de-la-sierra-olvera-puerto-serrano-cadiz/