There was no need for advanced strategic training for us to be able to pick each other out in the picturesque tree-lined square in the beautiful town of Algodonales one gorgeously sunny morning in June, Dave Brett with his distinctive leather hat and rucksack, me looking widely all around like a tourist, nursing a camera on my hip and clutching my usual survival kit of a litre and a half of cold mineral water. Having introduced ourselves and having exchanged mutually admiring glances at each other’s executive shorts and sandals, we went to a nearby cafe for a chat and a cup of coffee, excellent Spanish coffee, hot and strong as we had become accustomed to in our own pueblo Alora.
I had already learned a fair bit about Dave from his website www.andalucianadventure.com and just as I had imagined he was a man quite apart from any other I had ever met. Tough, determined, highly organised, confident and clearly extremely capable. Would you expect anything less from a former Royal Engineer in the British Forces, with 24 years service under his belt, including stints in the Balkans and Afghanistan?
Having retired from the forces at the end of 2005, Dave decided to come to Spain with his wife Miriam and two children, Danny and Sophie, to set up an adventure activities company in the magnificent Sierra de Grazalema. Offering mainly walks and mountain biking, Dave has forged valuable links with several other local companies and additionally offers a wide range of other activity sports, such as sailing, paragliding, pot holing and horse riding, most of which are within an hour of Algodonales. He will arrange accommodation for you too. Tell him what you have in mind and if it is within his power, which believe me is awesome, you can safely place your bet on Mr. Brett. He’ll take you sightseeing too if that’s what you are after, perhaps to Seville, Granada or the unique Costa de la Luz.
My mind ran riot and I chuckled to myself as we sped up the blissfully tranquil A357 that links Malaga with Campillos and then turned left along the equally peaceful A384 towards Jerez in the Cadiz Province, no words being adequate to describe the splendid scenery. I imagined jogging up steep mountain slopes in the blazing sun, wearing a rucksack loaded down with heavy rocks, my feet strapped into unforgiving boots with lead for soles. I pictured having to swing across raging rapids on a rope and then having to light a fire with a single match and a pile of damp twigs in order to boil a pot of water for tea to be drunk from a tin mug that would scald my lips. “Just round the next bend, only one more river to cross, just one more mountain range to climb!”
Of course it had been made abundantly clear on Dave’s website that this was most certainly not the case. The activity sports on offer can be tailor made for complete novices or those with loads of previous experience, flexibility being the key. But just for fun I asked Dave about it.
“Being so obviously fit and capable yourself,” I said, “do you have much patience for those, perhaps like me, who aren’t?” I asked. “Or do you find yourself thinking what a bunch of whimps, get a move on before I have to give you a shove!”
“Do you want me to answer that from a personal point of view or from a business one?” he joked, quickly adding what I already knew, that his business was to provide people with exactly what they wanted.
“I get all types of people coming along,” he said, “of all age groups too. I get complete beginners and I have had a customer who had just been diagnosed with a fatal illness and wanted to stretch her limited ability to the full while she was still able. I have various opt-out routes on some of my walks, so that if the going proves too tough I can easily call a halt, before things go too far.” Dave laughed. “Then there’s the other extreme, those who are fitter and have much more experience than me. The first customers I had for my mountain biking were two 22-year-old soldiers, who shot off into the distance and left me in the dust!”
Fully expecting the answer that I got, I asked Dave another question, again just for fun. “What do you do in your leisure time? What do you do to relax?”
Was there a pause? No, of course there wasn’t. “Well, I like to go out walking or perhaps for a ride on my bike, I like to explore new routes, find new places, there’s so much to see around here.” Dave laughed again. “Actually I find it very hard to sit around for too long,” he explained, “in fact sometimes my wife Miriam chucks me out and tells me to got into the mountains, because she knows full well that otherwise I can become impossible.”
By now we had been joined by Dave’s PR rep, the charming Caroline Mitchell, another very happy member of the local community. “He just needs the adrenaline rush,” she laughed and Dave nodded in agreement. Caroline then took us on a stroll around the town (see separate feature on Algodonales) before we met up with Dave again at HQ, Casa Brett, where I was shown his arsenal of mountain bikes and related equipment, as well as the Andalucian Adventure minibus, on hand for pick-ups, should they be required, from airports at Malaga, Jerez or Seville. After seeing Dave’s operational nerve-centre in his enormous lounge, we went upstairs for a cup of tea on his equally huge roof terrace with spectacular views towards the Sierra de Grazalmena on one side and the Sierra Lijar on the other, one of the world’s best places, he pointed out, for paragliding.
I asked Dave to tell me more about it, purely out of curiosity, I quickly added, happy to confess that looking was as far as I was personally prepared to go.
“There are three ideal jumping points on the top of Lijar,” he said, “depending on the wind.”
I had always assumed that paragliders jump off mountains and descend slowly, but Dave explained that the area is perfect for ‘thermalling’.
Apparently, swirling currents of upwardly rising air allow the paragliders to ascend as well.
“They join the thermal currents and go higher, giving them the ability to travel further. At times the sight of dozens of paragliders gliding through the air is absolutely enthralling.”
There had been no question of forced marches, no raging rivers to cross and our cup of tea had been most refreshing and very relaxing, as was our entire visit to Algodonales. Yet on the way home, as I was staggered yet again by the scenery, seen this time from the other direction, my imagination was still on fire. One visit for us would not be enough. We would be back there soon, our exploration had just begun. And Dave Brett was just the man to show us the way.

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