Feedback from our biking and hiking holiday in Chile. Think you have already visited the most diverse and spectacular country in the World, and haven’t been to Chile, then maybe you should think again!

Saddle Skedaddle’s three week adventure to Chile explores three completely different areas of this amazing long thin country and it offers something for everyone superb biking and hiking, culture, geography, geology, meteorology, history, good food and last but not least killer local alcohol.

Rule number one of camping in the wild: don’t presume the wild animal attacking your toes is the hyena that wandered through the camp earlier in the evening. In all likelihood it is the poor sucker who drew the 01h00-01h45 shift, waking you for your 45 minutes sitting as close as you can to the fire, listening to lion telling their mates about the latest hunt. Damn, they sound close…
This cycling holiday in Botswana / South Africa is possibly the best biking experience I have had in nearly 30 years of riding bikes. Mashatu is a 75 000-acre reserve in the Tuli Block, the pointy bit on the eastern side of Botswana, where that country meets Zimbabwe and South Africa. Getting there is simple - drive north from Joburg, turn left at Polokwane - make sure you don’t miss the right turn onto the Alldays road, the sign is removed by errant taxis fairly regularly
- and keep going until you hit the border.

The first clue that this is no ordinary ride is the massive rifles the guides ride with, strapped to their backs. Bullets as thick as your thumb, just in case. not exactly the most comforting of sights. But the guides’
knowledge and experience shows from the first pedal stroke, and the best news of all is that they love riding bikes as much as we do, but are allergic to anything that looks like a road, so for four days you ride a mixture of open grassland and fine singletrack crafted by generations of animals making their way to water.

The beauty of this trip is that, with a maximum group size of eight, the route can be tailored for any and all abilities. There is plenty of technical, loose trail here, but there is as much smooth, level riding. You won’t find 60kph downhills or hour-long climbs, but there is plenty to keep the heart rate up, without blurring your vision as you search for large beasties. We chose a particularly hot week - and operations cease for the really hot summer months - where temperatures in the 40s meant we rose early, rode through to lunch and then collapsed for the rest of the day, but the winter months are more suitable for a visit.

The accommodation completes the African experience - sleeping under the stars, everybody taking turns in keeping the fire burning (flashbacks to army guard duty guaranteed!), and eating hearty, wholesome food prepared on site by the talented chef. You certainly won’t go hungry, and will more than likely end up having dinner with some locals - our first night was enriched by the presence of the local hyena - was he laughing at my cycling tan, maybe? - and day three’s lunch was spent alternating between checking on the boomslang in the tree next to the lunch table, and the breeding herd of elephants browsing, snorting and rumbling less than 50m away. But it is not just about interacting with these animals. We were exceptionally lucky on our trip - lion at 100m, a croc rushing into the water so close we could swear we got splashed, last-second route changes to avoid large, grumpy elephants and following the trail of where a hyena had dragged last night’s dinner - his, not ours - away from our camping area were some of the highlights.

This place offers so much more: peace, relaxation and regeneration. Magical sunsets, no cellphone reception, and silence so complete that we could hear the wind in the feathers of the eagles playing hundreds of metres above us when we stopped for a puncture, make this trip the complete break we all need, and deserve. And it is on bikes. What could be better?

Check out the Skedaddle South Africa and Botswana trip!

 Ethical online site Daisy Green chat to Skedaddle ‘big cheese’ Andrew about buying a bike

 Wondering what to do with the spare cash you’ve got stuffed into the mattress post Christmas?

Wanting to shift a few of those mince pie pounds? Then there is nothing better than doing a spot of cycling, and there are some great bike deals to be had out there.

There’s a massive amount of choice out there from web based companies to the trusty ol’ bike shop, but it really is best to try before you buy.  Make sure you do a test ride before buying. Every person is different, so the fact that you are 5ft 5 doesn’t necessarily mean you need a small bike and to confuse matters, bike manufacturers have their own sizing system.

The golden rule is to keep an inch clearance between the bike’s top tube and your nether regions! And do remember the saddle position can be adjusted both forwards and back as well as up and down, and the height of the handlebars have some small possible adjustments too.

Nothing much has really altered over the last few years, so last year’s colour will probably have the same components as this year’s. If you aren’t too fussed with a exact colour match with your eyes (red included) then prices do alter vastly …in your favour!

There’s a million and one books out there stating that men are different to women (or should that be women are different to men?) and in the bike sense, its true. Bikes now tend to be gender-specific.

Traditionally, women’s bikes possessed a slanted top tube for those times when they wore ‘mustn’t show the ankle’ skirts, but nowadays the main difference is that the top tube is shorter in length because women tend to have a shorter reach. Also, with more expensive bikes, the suspension may be specially adjusted too.

Ensure you choose a saddle that matches your shape too as men and women have different shaped pelvises, even if this means changing the one that came with the bike. Women’s saddles are slightly wider and shorter and whilst you may think the biggest, most comfy saddle is the best, this is not always the case!

Decide what you’ll be doing mostly on your bike and buy accordingly and let the bike shop know as its no good getting a flash road bike if you simply fancy a tootle along the canalside on a Sunday. Similarly, if you fancy doing some off road riding then don’t get duped by a heavy full suspension bike, which will be great downhill, but a bugger to get up the hill in the first place.

With many employers utilising the cycle to work scheme for their employees, you can also get a bike at a reduced costs and pay your employer in installments too. So check if you company runs the scheme and if not, get them on board!

Getting a bike from an auction website is rarely a smart move! They are unseen/untried/on the cheap (they are never bargains) and may well have been stolen.

But if you are determined to buy one second-hand, check the bike’s frame number first to ensure it’s not stolen, which can done via www.immobilise.com

One great place to look however are local community projects such as Recyke Y’Bike – www.recyke-y-bike.org who reclaim, reduce, refurbish, re-create, re-use and re-cycle local bikes as well as offering maintenance classes and training course too.

Finally, once you have your trusty steed, make sure you get a damn fine lock before your new pride and joy becomes someone else’s. Don’t forget lights and something bright to wear in these winter months…fluorescent is back from the 80s with a bang, so you’ll not be out of fashion either.

Helmet wise (always!) whilst not a fashion item, is better than a hole in your bonce, so buy and check out that is still in date. Like that tin of pineapple chunks in the cupboard there’ll be a date stand inside the helmet so take a peek.

Don’t forget that there’s a bargain to be had and as they say in Newcastle ‘Shy bairns get nowt’, so even if you can’t strike a deal on the bike itself, most bike shops will thrown in some spares if you ask – don’t be shy now.

Here’s to a fun-filled cycling 2010!!

This superb desert biking adventure focuses on the deep south of Morocco, a land of big skies and stark mountain ranges where mud-brick kasbahs appear to rise up out of the desert, sitting in tranquil palm oases and framed by dramatic backdrops of snowcapped mountains. We ride along Morocco’s dirt roads, taking us from Marrakech to the Tichka Pass, the highest in the High Atlas, and then southward, descending along the Draa Valley to the fringes of the Sahara Desert.