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The sun is 9° higher in the sky here than in the English Midlands, maybe another degree where you are Spekkie. The sun still felt warm swimming in an outdoor pool a few minutes ago. It's three years since my last trip to the UK, I'll wait till it's hot here before venturing north.
Crisp start this morning, but the sun is shining now and it's warm out of the shade. I'm working outside on our garden walls and not complaining.
Edit: I wouldn't be swimming outside if we had a pool though!
"Rutas Carretera de Zona Zero" (The Road Routes of Zona Zero)
Zona Zero has released details of the "Road Bike Cycling Routes" that I talked about on here a little while ago.
There are 13 Routes in all - 10 are in Spain and 3 are in France, in the district that adjoins Zona Zero to the north and with which Zona Zero is collaborating for this special project.
On the website "https://bttpirineo.com/es/road" each route has a description summary, a map, a hill profile and guide notes.
The routes are all circuits and you are able to join them at any point and "do a lap". You can also combine routes to make routes to suit yourself.
The shortest route, ZR-06, is 45km long with 1300m of climbing.
The longest route is a variation of route ZR-01 which is 189km long and has 3900m of climbing.
I'm looking forward to going out and testing them all in Spring!
🙂
Those do look good - although I still reckon they need to sort out the URL!
I'm sure it's in "the plan" mogrim.
We're planning on making this a "Big Year!". . . .
We have buildings to build, trails to ride, mountains to climb, work to find, a language to learn, gardens to plant, fiestas to attend, rivers to swim in, caminos to walk and Casa Vino to drink.
Looking forward to it all . . . Happy New Year everybody!
Spekkie & Mrs Spekkie
Every year at Christmas time, Angel from Zona Zero and his dogs unveil a new route that he's put together as a Gift to everyone.
This year the Route is ZZ046 which starts and finishes in Tierrantona and goes up to the Muro de Roda church. It's in the same area as ZZ04 Light but takes some different paths.
In Angels own words (via Google Translate!) . . .
"Merry Christmas. Papa Noël has left us all a gift - a new route! It will be called ZZ046 and it is the first route of the new future for Zona Zero.
It is totally signed with arrows from Tierrantona, although you can leave from Charo or Aluján too and complete the circle. 23 km long, 875 m Climbing and 60% is on the trail"
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Awesome. We had a great time out there a few years ago, before it was on the EWS circuit. Makes me want to go back.
I am so calling you next Christmas about 2019 oab family holidays in that area...
🙂
It gets better and better here. Angel and the other volunteers are doing a cracking job and I help out when and where I can. There aren't enough days in the week!
For a month now every evening during supper we watch the News & Weather and they predict rain and/or snow for the following day - so I plan to skip a day of wall building and gardening to catch up with emails & paperwork instead
Spain has had snow all over in the last few weeks - bringing chaos to some roads and cutting off villages in the mountains - but for some reason Guaso is different. They call our village “The Caribbean of Sobrabe” because 99 times out of 100 the bad weather misses us and it’s clear and sunny.
So we get to work outside and our paperwork is left for Mañana …
This picture taken from Guaso shows the mist in the valley bellow us and covering the towns of Ainsa and Boltaña.
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Reasons to visit the town of Ainsa, in the region of Sobrabe, Aragon, Spain . . . .
Ten minutes drive from our village of Guaso, lies the beautiful Medieval Town of Ainsa, with its "Old Town" perched up the hill overlooking the "New Town" below it . . .
"The Middle Ages, with all its recollection and rawness, suddenly emerges on reaching Aínsa, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Sobrarbe. A Medieval aftertaste extends from the imposing castle of Aínsa to the streets that in their day were attached to the wall that surrounded the town"
"The high degree of conservation and the spectacularity of the constructions that were created between the XI and XV centuries motivated that as early as 1965 its old town was declared an Artistic Historic Site.
This Artistic Historic Site is a pleasant journey into the past where each step leads to a unique moment."
"The fortress retains all its power, you can see the pit that made it difficult to assault. The only way to
save it was through a drawbridge that led directly to a huge courtyard in which the troops oncentrated and organized their functions."
We're having some spectacular clear sunny days here at Zona Zero and around Guaso generally. There can occasionally be a sharp wind but nothing like the weather a north west Spain is currently suffering!
Apparently next week will be colder, but they often say that and it doesn't materialize. We will see I guess . . .
🙂
But did you wake up to 20cm off fresh powder? Bad weather doesn't always mean suffering.
We were trail finding around you Tony a few days ago and did a big mountain route. 1800m high in short sleeves 🙂 Plenty of snow on the ground but all perfect for biking!
Spekkie, (or Doug), I may have asked this already so forgive me if so, but are any of these ZZ trails doable on a CX bike? Even if it means a bit of shouldering the bike.
Currently chatting to a mate who lives in Girona and we're going to meet up about half-way between us for a week's camping in Semana Santa - which would mean somewhere around Ainsa. He's got an MTB but I haven't, so thinking of some doing some fun but lightweight trails, neither of us are gnarlords.
Of course if it's still snowing up there at the end of March then sod it, we'll be off to the Med coast 😉
Hey Bob, when we are there we are probably riding the more technical stuff. Very few bits would be fun on a CX BIKE. Doable, yes but you would be riding to protect your wheels. A few short routes could be fun but it’s about 5% of the area.
The weather will be perfect!
Hmm well in that case Doug I'll think about putting my SS bike back together (if I can remember where it is!). The route Spekkie mentioned is 875m which I'm happy enough to do SS.
Edukator - We got NOTHING! 🙁
Doug - It has been a very nice couple of weeks. Sunny almost every day. If I wasn't busy building I'd be riding!
Bob - if you're happy to shoulder the bike occasionally and you don't mind climbing, there's tons to do around here on a CX bike.
Just don't try and follow Doug and the lads!
One of the things we'd like to be able to do once our B&B is up and running is help our cycling guests to find their way around the trails, roads and caminos of the area and of Zona Zero in particular, safely and competently.
We'd like people visiting here to make the most of their time, on and off the bike. There is so much to see and do.
With that in mind I'm looking at getting myself a Guiding Certification with European approval . . .
Will post my progress through the in's and out's of Spanish bureaucracy and red tape as I go . . . . .
Wish me luck 🙂
Bureaucracy no doubt helped along with who you know as well as what you know.😀
Not at all Ming, I don't think it works like that here. They're desperate for more cycling tourism and there is a very clear path laid out. Spekkie, hopefully our last conversation helped and if things move beyond that give me a shout. Good luck! Well be back in a couple o weeks and then fairly regularly, as always, after that. As we talked about I think you're setting out on the right road to doing it all properly and it should be perfect when you're all set up. You'll get our backing and we will definitely try to help you by passing over the plenty of people who don't fit into our more "gnarly" trips.
It did help Doug - cheers for that. Will keep you posted as we go.
Talk soon.
Lurking on this thread for some time. Amazing to see what you guys have achieved. Inspiring stuff!
MTB club annual meeting next week. We'll be discussing a weekend in Ainsa amongst other ideas. The plan is to ride the northern part of Zona this time.
Keep it up OP. Very impressive wall.
Part of the world I would love to visit....with a bike and family in tow.
So far, I'm pitching it to the missus as a "retreat" with art ,tapas and a "bit" of cycling thrown in...Ha.
Fortunately,Ainsa looks right up her street .
Edukator / senor - look forward to meeting up some time!
senor - if you need info/help on anything locally, just fire away and I'll help if I can.
Will be out that way in the camper for the EWS round, hope to get some riding in. Whats the campsites like.
There's a campervan parking spot right in the old town by the castle which we stayed in when we visited Tony last summer, they charge €5 or so for the day and it's free after 6 in the evening. I guess it will be very busy when the EWS is in town. Alternatively there's a large site with hookups and pool etc about 3km north of Ainsa, Camping Peña Montañesa http://www.penamontanesa.com which has a restaurant and stuff.
Hi Tracey - there are actually 4 campsites in and around Ainsa and they are all good.
"Camping Ainsa" is in Ainsa itself, on the outskirts of the east side of town.
Camping Boltana and Camping Le Gorga are both in Boltana - which is 5 mins drive west of Ainsa.
Camping Montenesa is in Labuerda, which is 4 mins drive north of Ainsa
Campers are also allowed to park in the car park up in the Old Town, but it's not a campsite. This may or may not be open whilst the EWS is on.
Thanks for that, need to be as near to the race village as posible so that we dont have to move the van. We can then go and do some riding whilst Abigale practices.
The castle camping was 50% team spaces, ie mechanics etc, last EWS and the rest was absolutely jam packed. There were people camping there though. And us with our vans as I remember, we had a space there. More people were camping in the main parking down by the river, off the roundabout.
Thanks spekkie.
Campsite info handy too.:-)
Thanks for the pointers, have booked on Camping Ainsa for the EWS week
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I’m so happy to see my friend Angel Cheliz get this award. He has been one of the main driving forces responsible for creating from scratch the hundreds of km’s long collection of MTB/Enduro trails that we now know as “Zona Zero”.
“On Sunday February 4 in Boltaña, Ángel Chéliz received the "Cruz de Sobrarbe” (The Sobrabe Cross).
For us, the prize awarded to Angel Cheliz is very special. A visionary, a child in an adults body that never stops dreaming, to see beyond what their eyes reach. Surely we are not the only ones to be grateful to him and his “comrades in battle” at the Pyrenees MTB Center, Zone Zero. For the passion he has instilled in much of this territory and its future. THANK YOU.“
There goes our little tribute.
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Angel is a star! I’ve got very fond memories of riding with him, and the rest of the guys who made ZZ happen, over the years. I clearly remember the first route we did, back when ZZ didn’t exist and they had a test gathering to test out the concept. I ended up bonking just at your house and they had to give me chocholate to manage the last bit back home. 🙂 Back then I was super skint and was riding in hand-me-down clothes and bald threw other people had donated to me!! I’ll see if I have any photos, funny times.
Guiding in Spain - the basic requirements:
I mentioned before that I was looking into getting myself a Guiding Certificate so that we could show visitors around "Safely & Legally". This Is what I've found out so far:
1) You need a Guiding Qualification with "European Approval".
2) You need a current "Outdoor First Aid Certificate"
3) You need Public Liability Insurance.
I'll be posting about what each of these involves over the next few mornings 🙂
Halfway through February and yesterday I spent the morning working outside with Ramon the Farmer. We were stacking firewood for next year and I was in shorts and a T-Shirt!
Is this Spring here to visit or here to stay? The next few days will tell
🙂
Early last week I dropped off my CV to the 4 local campsites we have around Ainsa, in the hope of picking up some work over the summer.
A day later one of the sites messaged me to say they want to talk to me some more and the day after that my friend Angel, who I help maintain the local Zona Zero MTB trails with and whom I put down as a character reference, messaged me to say that the same campsite had rung him for a reference 🙂
Going to see them this eve for a chat and we'll see what happens . . .
So, starting work tomorrow then .... They want me work until the end of the month to see if I like it and if I do they'll give me a 7 month contract through the summer.
Phew 
Ace. 🙂