"There's always another Singletrack!"
Are there any established uplift options in the area? We are still looking for somewhere new to ride late summer, and although all fit and not afraid of a climb or two, would rather spend our holidays in the hills maximising the amount of down time if at all possible. Does look a great place to ride.
Yes there are good uplift services locally WF 🙂
I've PM'd you . . . .
We survived without a single visit to the clinique. My bike needed a new set of brakes (204e for a complete set of SLX fitted in Intersport, dropped off at 4pm and ready for collection at 8pm, pretty good I thought). La Carrera restaurant was excellent and El Meson our post-ride haunt.
Perfect weather this year so we didn't chicken out of routes with steep descents. The big ride went over Partara on ZZ-005, through El Grado and Guaso on 9, then all the way around 018 through Sieste. 18 was our favourite section with a do-able climb and a descent that flows a bit better and beats you up a bit less than some. I'll go as far as to say that 18 is one of the best trails I've ridden anywhere.
We had an afternoon messing about in the badlands again on the GR19 and 5.3 variante (I wrongly typed 5.1 on the previous page) and went for a walk around some of 4.
Our group, 27 of us, half riders, was one of many over from France for the long weekend, French was the main language on the trails.
One day I'll get in touch Spekkie, but this weekend the swimming pool was a stonger attraction post ride than giving you a ring - that and sorting out abused bikes, planning the next day's adventure, indudulging in good food etc..
Keep living the dream !
Glad you enjoyed it.
I have been seeing a lot of French riders on the trails for a few weeks now. Today I bumped into 2 guys who were on the Partara after having ridden 59km and climbed 1600m of ZZ-03 (around the Mediano lake). They were tired but happy. On Friday eve I was in Intersport when a couple of French lads came in trying to re-inflate a tyre that had just had a new valve fitted.
I have a regular visitor here from Pau who comes and rides most weekends. He can be here in 2 hrs from home and he loves it.
Obviously the Guaso/Sieste loops are my local trails so I know them well and there's nothing too tricky there. From the Partara I prefer to come down on the Partara Express (the top part of this descent was used in last years EWS). I've ridden it half a dozen times in the last fortnight.
Today was a bit hot around lunchtime - 30 degrees where I was riding, but there are so many water points available it's not a problem . . . .
🙂
Edit: I'm sure the two river crossings below El Grado and Sieste were nice in this weather!
A good weekend for it and 18 is a cracker! We are just back from a few days ourselves and I used part of 18 twice in a massive, 10 hour day crossing Guara. It’s a great finish, ending with beers (which you always need to wait too long for) in the Monestario of Boltaña. We had people (well journalists!) from all around the world and they were loving it. You might even see some photos from those trails up on this website in a few days 😉
I hadn’t ridden 18 since it was new around 8 years ago and I had a photo on it which I had forgotten where I had taken it! Educator, I’m guessing you didn’t venture out towards Fiscal but if you are rating that one so highly there are a bunch of things around there that are worth checking out.
I have a neighbour who keeps nagging me to try the Fiscal sector, now you too, Doug!
I don't go anywhere near water in 5:10 Impacts, Spekkie, they take a week to dry, I mince across the stepping stones. 😉
My visitor from Holland left this morning. It’s been fun riding with him this past week and we both learned some new things. He’s an endurance athlete so climbing wasn’t a problem for him. I was thankful for the technical climbs that gave me a bit of an advantage over him 🙂
Here are a few pics of the local area....
Our last ride took us up to the Partara view point which sits at 859m. Approx 300m higher than the town of Ainsa below it. It’s quite a tough little climb, a bit technical in places, but not too long - and the view makes it all worthwhile.
I've just had a weekend of exploring on my own - now it's Monday morning, the sun is shining and a new week begins . . .
Last night Stage 4 of the “Transpyr Coast to Coast Pyrenean Stage Race” finished in Ainsa.
The riders have another 3 stages to ride before they finish in Hondarribia on Saturday evening.
The race stats for a week of riding are impressive - 1035km, with 21385m of climbing and descending (The race starts at the finishes at sea level - just two different “seas”!)
There are two versions of the race - an MTB version and a Road version.
I'm going to be down your way with a few days spare in early October. Thinking of packing the eBike in the car and spending a few days around Ainsa. A mate of mine is interested in joining me but he is pretty much a MTB novice, but a good off-road motorbiker. Is there anyplace in town here he can hire a decent eBike?
Yes there is Paulx. I will PM you.
My friend Pat riding the dry & dusty trails of the Badlands . . .
Back in May I showed a chap from Zaragoza around for a few days and we had a blast. Last weekend he came back for some more!
This time around we rode a 50km XC circuit that joined together sections from 8 different Zona Zero routes. We even threw in the odd “abandoned village”!
We had a good time and with just over 1000m of climbing/descending - we knew we’d “ridden in the mountains” by the end of it. I’m sure he'll be back for some more some time 🙂
We started our ride on the outskirts of the abandoned Village of Janovas, which is slowly but surely coming back to life.
Showing my friend from the Basque Country around Zona Zero.
This photo was taken at the exit of Route ZZ-018, above the swim spot that we like to use use in the summer 🙂
Spekkie, that looks amazing, keep em coming.
Cheers Ming!
Showing Tom from Belgium yesterday.
As a Landscape Designer, he enjoyed our local scenery . . .
🙂
Showing Tom around Zona Zero……
We were out for a couple of hours and we rode in The Badlands, did some technical climbing, rode some nice singletrack……
….. and finally took in a view of the Pyrenees mountains from Guaso, where our Build Project is.
It was a great evening and I enjoyed it!
Riding with mi amigo Jose Luis Sustatxa on the trails around Boltaña and Guaso.
I showed Jose our build project up in Guaso and he loved the tranquility of the place 🙂
Our heatwave continues . . . .
The sun is blazing when I finish work at 2:30 and we're having late afternoon temps of 37 / 38 degrees. Thankfully it cools nicely at night and we get to sleep ok.
We've been heading to the river every evening for a swim. There are so many places to swim that none of them ever get too busy. . . .
🙂
One of our evening swimming spots. There are dozens of places to swim along the river Ara which passes through Boltaña but this one is closest to us 🙂
Now that "le Tour" is over, our afternoons & evenings will be free and we're going to be doing some more work up at our Project.
We're hoping to finish getting the sloping back garden terraced because we have plans to start using the garden . . . .
When do you think the project will be open for business?
I'll post an update on The Project in a day or two. . . .
Meanwhile, after weeks of very hot temps, looking north towards France and some pretty heavy weather!
Some rain to settle the dust would be nice.
An evening ride last week along the banks of the Rio Ara towards Ainsa with the Pena Montenesa in the background.....
I’m riding between 8pm and sundown to avoid the heat!
A couple of pics from our last visit 
The second pic is at the top of the first climb on ZZ-05 isn't it? (or ZZ-04 if you turned Left half way up the climb?)
I do that one once a week or so just so I can come down the Partara Express. It's a nice climb once you're past the Vultures Dining room.
Yup, first pic is the short way up to do Partara Express (or the steep ZZ-05 descent to the stream crossing if you ignore the Partara Express sign). The first pic is in the badlands, it's the one with the 5.3 varient sign at the start.
Evening training ride from Boltaña up to Guaso and back on singletrack.
I have some guiding coming up and I need to stay in shape!
The track that runs alongside the Rio Ara between Boltaña and Ainsa.
I rarely see more than the odd jogger or occasionally some older people walking along here. More often than not I see no one.
Ainsa old town is up on he hill and behind it the Pyrenees . . .
Climbing up the singletrack on Zona Zero Route 18 between the villages of Margurgued and Guaso you come across this skull.....
I spoke to our neighbour, Ramon the friendly farmer a couple of days ago about using a little piece of his land down by the river to grow our own Salads & Veggies. He has two vegetable gardens himself - one up at the house in Guaso and one down by the Rio Ara. Ours will be next to his so that we can help each other when necessary.
Looking forward to growing lots of stuff next year. Everything they grow tastes so nice!
This weekend, in fact starting last Thursday, it is "Fiesta Weekend" in Boltaña. There are street parties, bands in the evening and discos all night....
Typically there's a band on stage between 8pm and 10pm, then everything stops for a few hours for supper, then at 1am the dancing starts up again until 6am. They do this for 4 days straight. I say "they" because sadly I couldn't even if I wanted to! Zzzzzz
Tonight at midnight is the "end of weekend" firework show . . . we'll see if we can stay up that late and watch it.
Thankfully, because work for us has to carry on, all the party noise is some distance away from our rented apartment. The same thing goes for Guaso village where our Project is - the little Plaza is far enough away not to disturb us too much when they have their "all night parties" over their Fiesta weekend in early August.
Showing Grant & Carol from New Zealand around Zona Zero this week.
Yesterday we did one of my Techy XC routes, today Zona Zero Route 7.....
Grant is on a beautiful Bronson …
They did the “Jo'burg to Sea” this year and enjoyed it - so they certainly get around!
Seasonal working in Spain:
The weather here is starting to cool down a bit now as we head towards the end of Summer.
I've been working at the campsite for 6hrs a day, 7 days a week for nearly 5 months now and then guiding in the afternoons or evenings whenever the opportunity arises. It's a lot of work but we have to earn it while we can. The campsite shuts at the end of September - it will take a few days to close it all down and then it'll just be a few days of maintenance during the off-season. I'll continue guiding and start working with local farmers, including our neighbour Ramon, when they need me and that should get us through the winter . . . .
The last few we few weeks have been crazy busy - and it's going to get worse over the next few days! Can't complain at having work though 🙂
I'm still working everyday at the campsite - I thought things were going to slow down in September but now that the school holidays are finished, all the people without children are visiting and tons of them are cyclists.
On top of that I've been either guiding people or training / trail-finding in the afternoons and then at night after I've been back to do the campsite "evening shift" (closing down the swimming pools etc) I'm trying to keep on top of paperwork, updates, guiding enquiries . . . .
Today and tomorrow in the afternoons I'll be joining Mrs Spekkie, Ramon the Farmer and Rosa up at the farmhouse to stomp the grapes they've all been picking from this years harvest.
And on top of everything, I've made good progress translating and updating our Dept. of Commerce Viability Study so that we can use it when talking to private investors about our Project. Just need to proof-read it once more to make sure it all makes sense . . . .
That will be my next post - Private Investment!
We need a "like" button on this forum. Keep the updates coming Spekkie 🙂
Cheers surfer! Appreciate the support.
🙂
Had an STW member visit Ainsa recently with some friends and we had the chance to ride together while they were here.
Always nice to meet people that have been following our "Story" on-line and always encouraging to hear people tell us that they love our location and our plans for the future. They've promised to come back and stay with us when the project is finished . . . .
Another beautiful day in the Spanish Pyrenees.
About 6 months ago I started helping a guy called Dale, who lives in the Philippines, to plan a visit to Ainsa to ride the Zona Zero trails.
I helped him arrange car hire & accommodation, we became friends on FB and finally last Friday, after reading and commenting on my MTB posts for months, he and his two friends Anthony & Tweed arrived and I showed them around for 5 days.
The Philippines only has two seasons - a dry season and a wet season (Monsoon) and averages 90% humidity pretty much every day - so the hot and dry weather we have here was very different for them.
They are used to riding on dirt (or in mud during the wet season) so the rocks here took some getting used to, but they all handled everything here very well.
On day one we did a warm up on the singletrack through the "Badlands" and then rode XC over to Guaso, via Boltana, to see our Build Project. Day 2 was El Pueyo de Araguas, El Soto & Usana. We had a little picnic up at the highest point of the ride before descending . . .
Good choice of route for a first-timer to the area. Get a feel for the area without too much risk of it ending in the clinic. 😉 We were in Pagoeta last week, Madame is now nursing broken ribs.
We had a few days of rain at the end of last week and over the weekend - first proper rain in months.
Once the sun came back out we could see that while it was raining down where we live, it had snowed up in the Alto-Pyrenees. No snow on the Pena Montenesa yet, but will be some soon I’m sure… . .
In the meantime, we’re enjoying the sunshine … . 🙂
Riding down from Guaso village church on Zona Zero Route ZZ-09.
Some days are quicker than others, but it’s always fun!
Those of you who've been following this thread from the beginning will know our story . . . .
We bought a property in the middle of the Zona Zero MTB Trails, Ainsa, in the Spanish Pyrenees mountains to renovate into a "Cycling friendly B&B".
We own the property outright, we have a full set of architects drawings, a Project Budget Plan, a Business Plan, a reasonable quote from a local Builder and a favourable Viability Study carried out by the department of Commerce.
The local banks all love our idea but are unable to help in the wake of the Financial Crisis that led Spain to being bailed out by the EU a few years ago. After talking to lots and lots of people - including pretty much all the visiting cyclists that I've been MTB Guiding this year - we have decided to try the Private Investment route.
Sadly we don't have "wealthy friends or family" to ask, so it's going to be up to us to do everything we can to try a find what I refer to as "someone with a small suitcase full of money" . . . .
Wish us luck!
Tony & Andrea
What is it you're trying to do and need the money for ? Completing the renovations ? Or something more than that ?
Yes, aside from some small stuff - tidying up, keeping the building in good repair and building some retaining garden walls whilst terracing the back garden - we were always going to need a loan to carry out the bulk of the building work.
We'll be doing all of the easy stuff - tiling, painting & decorating, kitchen fitting etc etc, but the stone walls need raising, the roof needs replacing, concrete floors need craning into the tower . . . it's all major work.
We're converting this:
into this . . . .
What about some sort of advance voucher system that's beneficial to both you and the customers ?
Lets say a week trip to you will be £800 when all done. Offer that full week in advance payment in leiu of £500. Give it say a 2-3 year expiry.
That's definitely something we've considered and plan to do at a later point - once the first or first and second stages are completed and we know we're not going to let anyone down.
We've also looked into crowd funding for, for instance, the final of the three stages - with "free holiday time" as an incentive.
Spekkie I am sure you have looked but is there not public funding for rural businesses. I am sure there is round here to renovate old village houses into businesses, otherwise the villages would die. There are no young people in them so when the oldies die off that will be it.
I have a San...er account here, every time I withdraw cash I get an offer of 8k loan flash up on screen. No idea of interest rate but every bit helps.
Good luck in the venture, you could always nip back to uk and paint flats, it's 1k per flat and flights are 20e return in Jan 20. You kip in the flat so have No costs. I just had mine done but next time i let you know.
Morning poolman - how was Barcelona?
When we bought the place there was a scheme in place for helping renovate places into B&B's (Casa Rurals) in the Sobrabe area. By the time we got our planning permission that scheme had finished and the local authorities were focussing on something else. We're going back to the lady at the Carmaca (Commerce Department) to see if that situation has changed back again.
We've registered with a website called "the Angel Investment Network"
https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.us/
It's free to register, you fill in what it is that you need investors for and then once it's approved they send out your "Pitch" to their network of Angel Investors.
The main site is based in the US but they have a "network" here in Spain, so our Pitch should be sent out to the Spanish network of potential investors too.
You can see from the wording of the questions they ask and the accompanying notes, that the sites biggest traffic comes from Electronics start-ups, e-commerce start-ups, that sort of thing. But they do have a category for "Tourism & Recreation" which are essentially where we fall - in fact getting tourists to visit us for recreational purposes pretty much sums up what we want to do!
The service is advertised as "free" but (exactly as you would expect) when you get to the end of filling in a dozen sections of information and you're ready to "Publish your Pitch" you are told that the free service only does a few basic things - and holds back certain information from potential investors. If you want investors to get the whole thing you have to pay. They have a tiered pricing structure topping out at around $2500 for "everything".....
We've gone with the free option, let's see what happens . . . .
🙂
What do investors get in this context ? A share of the business ? share of the property value ? Can you buy them back out ? and at what terms ?
Just jammed in a couple of days work at "Camping Ainsa" - battening down the hatches for the approaching winter ....
Essentially what we need is the "Private" version of what would be called a Business Loan if we got it from the bank.
Best case scenario for us would be if someone (or some people) lent us the money to do the building work neccesary to get ourselves up and running. We would then pay that money back, with a manageable amount of interest.
If we have to, we can break the project up into stages. For instance we could get a couple of rooms open initially along with the kitchen/lounge/dining room along with the two gardens, which I can take care of myself. That gives us the ability to offer "a Bed and a Breakfast", in a beautiful setting, plus all the other little services that will come with it - picnic lunches, laundry service, guiding tours etc etc. These little services are where you can make some useful extra money - over and above the "bread & butter" money that the basic B&B brings in.
With a couple of rooms completed, we could then consider the sort of options we talked about the other day. For instance, someone paying £500 for a trip say a year in advance (therefore giving us the cash long before we need to provide the service in return) would receive a stay that is actually worth perhaps £750.
Here's a picture of the view from the top garden . . . . .
There are 6 categories of Routes here at "Zona Zero" in Ainsa - totalling over 1000km of trails......
ZZ Routes - The standard Zona Zero routes that form the basis for the Trail Network here. New routes are being added all the time.
ZL Routes - The "Light" Routes. There are 6 of them and they tend to be easier than the ZZ Routes. That's not always the case though - some of them are pretty "interesting" in places!
ZE Routes - These are the "Special" Routes. Enduro riding, including the sections that made up the Enduro Series Stages that were held here in Ainsa-Sobrabe in 2015 and 2018.
ZA Routes - These are the "Alpine" Routes. Up in the Alto Pyrenees, these routes offer some spectacular views and some great descents.
ZR Routes - A set of 13 "Road" Routes here and across the border in France.
EZ Routes - Coming soon! Routes prticularly suited to e-Bikes.
Plenty to enjoy!
Ainsa, Angel, a French lady, MTBs, a chain saw, dalmatien dogs and some spectacular views were featured on TF1 news tonight. I think there'll be even more French voices on the trails next year.
The French lady was possibly his girlfriend because she's French. The 3 dogs - Golfo, Lilly and Lolita, go everywhere with him. They are lovely dogs.
It is amazing looking here at the moment with the sunshine and the snow up on the Alto Pyrenees. Glad the word is being spread around!
We've suddenly slipped into Winter!
Spring was amazing - in June I was riding until after 10pm and it hadn't got dark yet!
Summer was amazing - up to 43 degrees at times in August, swimming in the local river, big salads for lunch every day - perfect.
Autumn..... well, it lasted 2 minutes! October was nice, in fact it was very comfortable after the heat of summer, but then at the beginning of November the rains arrived and temps started to fall. Now the rain has gone and it's sunny during the day - warm even if you happen to be out in it, but at night and inside the flat (which is designed for summer not winter) it is freezing!
We'll be ok after we adjust ourselves a bit - dig out the winter clothes and riding kit and the hot water bottles - and if it snows then the cold will be forgiven, because it really is beautiful here when it snows, but for the moment while we pay our respects to the passing of Summer, the cold is a bit.... shocking!!!
Brrrrrr
There's been a frost the last three mornings here, the horses have grown their thck coats and then had a roll in the mud. Beautiful out riding though looking at the same summits from the other side. I won't mention our cosy house... . First ski of the season planned for Friday.
We will have a cosy house one day!
We have the promise of unlimited firewood from Ramon the Friendly Farmer for a big open fire or a wood burner. Plannng on having one in the lounge and one in the bike workshop. It's one of the "happy thoughts" that's keeping us going if ever we feel cold while we hunt for the funds to build or project
🙂
Ramon will be pleased to have someone maintianing the forest to reduce the risk of forest fires. It's a tinder box in your parts in late Summer. Go wood burner. I lived in a farmhouse house with an open fire and wood-fueled Aga. The Aga warmed it up, the open fire just made it draughty and/or smokey.
You can get hot air systems to link to the fire- my sister lives in Valencia and had that installed to warm the house. I guess it's a bit warmer down there in winter than at the base of the Pyrenees.
Ramon ploughs open spaces on his land to create fire breaks every year. They had a close call 15 years ago and no one has ever forgotten it. Thankfully since we've been here there haven't been any fires anywhere near Zona Zero, but then the maintenance of the fire roads and mTB trails maybe helps with that.
Re wood burner / open fire / ducted hot air systems . . . we are looking into them all with interest. I know that as nice as an open fire can be (Ramon & Rosa have one in their kitchen - which is the main room in use in the farmhouse) smoke and smokey smells can be a problem.
You may have gathered from some of our posts that the region where we live - in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees - is strewn with abandoned or almost abandoned villages.
The two main reasons for this are firstly the relocation of much of the rural population into the towns and cities by Franco leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War and more recently the natural migration of people, specifically youngsters, moving to places with better work opportunities.
Pretty much every ride I go on takes me past at least one abandonded village or farm house and they've become some much a part of the landscape I'm used to that I'm no longer surprised by them - although I still find them intriguing!
The current government, in conjunction with local councils in our area are making an effort to encorurage people to move back into these villages, some of which are high in the mountains and consequently failry remote. Modern access roads and electricity & water supplies are all being put in and in some cases funding is being made available for renovation projects.
Guaso, where our Project is, doesn't fall into the "abandonded" category, but we're making enquiries with the local department of commerce just in case the option for funding or a low rate loan might be available.
You never know!
Loved passing through this hippy village earlier this year with Basque MTB. Looked like a tough life up there though, miles from anywhere.
Yeah we often stop for picnics in remote locations when I'm out showing people around - Mrs Spekkie meets us with a spread - and I often wonder how the original inhabitants lived and what they would have thought about us and what we do while we sit and eat and enjoy the quiet and the views.
I know that back in the day it used to take our neighbour, Ramon the Farmer, over an hour to get from Guaso to Ainsa with a couple of donkeys to bring back sacks of grain etc. Now I can do it in the car in 6 minutes without speeding.....
Tomorrow we'll be doing some volunteer work at the Ainsa Red Cross (Cruz Roja) office.
There are probably 50 odd volunteers all told, and by all trying to do a bit each, no one ends up doing too much.
Tomorrow we'll be driving the Red Cross van out to some small villages and dropping off EU Food parcels to people who need them.
No matter how tough life gets, or how bad off you think you have it - and believe me we both have our "moments", there are always people worse off than you.
Zona Zero Route ZA-03 - "The Comodoto" - 22km long and climbs 1200m....
I rode this route for the first time a few weeks ago with two mates from the UK, one an old friend and the other a new friend. It was a great day out - spectacular views, steady climbing and some awesome descending. The final part of the climb is too steep to ride, so it's a case of pushing or carrying your bike - but we broke that section up with a little chocolate break half way up - just to sit and take in where we were.
If you didn't want to climb to the very top, there is a way around..... maybe I'll try that next time and report back. But for the first time, I definitely wanted to do the whole thing.
As you climb up out of the Pineta valley you have some awesome views of Monte Perdido and it's sisters - and you're looking at them from the northern side. Whereas from where we live we look at them from the southern side.
After climbing on the fire road track you round the bend into a pasture hidden behind a low outcrop of rock. Then its a bit of walking/pushing/Hike n Bike before you get to where we stopped for a mini-picnic. The sun was warm and the views were amazing.
Then it gets tough for a little while - a good opportunity to tease each other to keep your spirits up!
Finally the top - 2355m above sea level and about 1200 above where we started.
The ridge along the top, which is followed by miles and miles of singletrack descent . . . .
👍
Nice, Comodoto is on my list next time I visit
I have heard of government grants being available for renovating old properties in Spain, however that was in C.Valenciana. I wouldnt be suprised if there was something available for the combination of autonomo/old building.
Yeah, we are talking to the relevant people about the possibility of some sort of "government loan". The EU are helping with this sort of thing as well, but only in certain cases. You never know though!
The weather in November was filthy! Mostly wet and cold this year, but happliy this week the weather has been amazing - so hopefully December will be a good one.
Some pics from todays spin from Boltana over to Ainsa and on through the bottom of the Badlands, which were deserted!
Autumn colours at Zona Zero . . . .
I had the Badlands all to myself!
The sun on my face in December in the Northern Hemisphere! Can't be bad...
I love my life!
Our first little excursion into looking for a potential Private Investor on-line has now come to an end and although we haven't found an investor, we have learned a few useful things going through the process.
We tried out with the Angel Investment Network which advertised "Free Registration" and "access to 225,987 potential investors". I filled in all the sections of the online application form, giving details of our project, our business plan, our viability study and ourselves etc etc and at the end of several hours of work, was ready to "Publish our Pitch". Once you publish the pitch it has to be approved by the AIN before being given a Live status.
On clicking the "Publish" button, you are taken to a page that offers you various Paid options that enable you to enhance your pitch. Prices for the additional options range from $150 to $2500. Since this is our first attempt and we're really just finding our way here, I didn't choose to enhance our pitch. I clicked "continue" and was taken to a second Paid options page which informed me that the free option, which I was currently signed up for, did have certain limitations on it...
Several important sections of our pitch would be blanked out and therefore not available for potential investors to see, our acompanying pictures/photos would not be included with the pitch, the pitch would only be sent to a fraction of the available potential investors and our pitch would be sent out as an "Anonymous Pitch" - meaning investors would have to open it and read it to see what it was about, rather than being told in advance for example that it was a property development.
I understand that everyone is tyring to make money here and that you don't get anything for nothing, so I won't run the company down for their "bait and switch" methods, and I kept a "copy & paste" copy of all the text I filled in - so I won't have to type everything out "longhand" again the next time we go through this process.
I say our "first little excursion has now come to an end" because one of the other limitations to the Novice Package is that the Pitch is archived after 30 days and if you want to republish it, you have to pay to do so.
I doubt that this exercise will result in us hearing from a potential investor, the limitations the company place on the free option are just too crippling. Of course its designed like that - again, I understand.
It's a shame because I'd happily have paid the company a finders fee if we'd been successful.
Anyway, onwards and upwards. I believe we have a good idea and we've bought ourselves a great property and I'm nothing if not optimistic!
Did you check out how sucessful the financial dating company was before paying? It's a house renovation, if a bank won't lend you the money then no-one else is likely too and if they do it'll be because they expect a fantastic return. Sleves up, get stuck in.
We didn't part with any money and sleeves have been up for a while now!
According to the local bank managers, the banks hands being tied is due in part to things like the EU bailout and the subsequent rules imposed on Spanish banks by Brussels.
Since yesterdays post we've had several people contact us for more information about our Project, so there's hope yet . . . .
The thing you'd get STWers on would be a "chantier collectif". People turn up and work for free on the building site in exchange for board and lodging which can be as simple as a sawdust toilet and a tent. There's no formal work time but people generally get stuck in, though MTBers might not be as fresh if they've had a dawn spin. Talk to your insurance company about the idea.
Junior and his girlfriend have done it, junior was unimpressed at working for free, his girlfriend loved it. They did it with Workaway France, conditions vary depending on country laws. With Workaway France they could only do light stuff below 2m (and junior was pissed off when he was asked to mount a timber frame) but people here build whole houses once they've sorted out insurance.
A quick trip up to the village of Campodarbe last weekend.
The last picture shows the path back down to the small town of Boltaña, where we rent a flat.
Stage 8 of la Vuelta a España 2020 will pass through Ainsa - our hometown - on Saturday August 22nd!
Bring it on!
🙂