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Ca c'est chouette.
if it's Pena Montanesa there's a good chance we''ll meet.
C'est 🙂
Shame man, I think we broke Ramon the Farmers heart yesterday.
He's been keeping an eye on our progress of building walls and terracing our sloping back garden. He's always very encouraging and is amazed with what we've been able to do with what has always been a rather awkward bit of land.
So, yesterday we showed him that the first terrace was finished and the second one was well on its way. He was suitably impressed and asked us "what we were going to plant there?". I told him "Grass" - but he didn't understand - in fact he thought I was using the wrong Spanish word to describe the crop we were going to plant. So I explained in detail "Grass, so we can put out a garden table & chairs and sit with our friends drinking wine & beer and enjoying the view"
As a farmer, he doesn't get that we would do all that work, just to "sit" . . . . what about growing food, to eat???
Maybe once he and Rosa have sat and enjoyed a drink with us it will make more sense to him.
Come to Spain they said, sit out on the pavement drinking cold drinks in the sunshine they said …
Drinks will definitely be cold!
Finally stopped snowing this evening after nearly 40cm of snow had fallen in around 15 hours.
We are officially snowed in - no way to get the cars out until the snow melts or is cleared. As it happens, Ramon has a tractor so he can clear the road from home to the main road if we need to go anywhere.
Looks like another day at home tomorrow . . . .
Couldn't get to work yesterday and couldn't work on our walls & garden . . . nothing left to do but to build a Snowman!
It rained all last night and so today the snow has cleared a bit.
Ramon cleared the road from our houses to out of the village this morning so that we could get out in the car.
We went and had a look around - the big roads are all clear. The local council must have worked flat out to get it all done. I know they are used to bit of snow, but hats off to them for effort.
Good to know that when an Atlantic Snowstorm hits us, we're only stuck for a day 🙂
My son is over from the UK for a few days and thankfully the snow and rain we had last week have gone away.
Today we walked some of the trails I'm busy building on Ramon the Farmers land. Did a bit of cleaning up and cleared some of my drainage ditches. It's looking ok, despite the fact that I haven't given it much attention since we started building our garden walls and terracing our sloping back garden.
It's good news for me that I can ignore my trails for weeks or even months if necessary and they don't fall apart while my back is turned!
After a week of working flat out at one of our local campsites, bad weather stopped play for a few days. Then my son was over from the UK for a week.
Now I'm back at work - preparing the campsite ready for opening time just before Easter.
The boss' daughter, who takes care of the admin and cleaning side of things, asked Mrs Spekkie if she'd be interested in helping out for a while too, so she's joined me there 🙂
We are both currently "employed" and earning Euros . . . . 🙂
Would love to get to Stage 6 of the " Volta Ciclista a Catalunya" on Saturday. It's going to pass here about 40km away.
Just depends on work & weather!
I like these updates spekkie -keeping the dream alive.
Cheers Matt!
If you live in Spain and you want to drive legally you need to have a Spanish driving license - so we've started the ball rolling for exchanging our UK licenses for Spanish licenses.
You can live here for a period of time before you need to change your license, but we're almost at the end of that period now.
Hopefully it will be a painless exercise. . . .
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2va0-0-0"><span data-offset-key="2va0-0-0">After 5 weeks of garden & building maintenance at the "Ainsa Camping" campsite, this week the site opened for Easter. (Holy Week - or Semana Santa as they call it). </span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="58iv1-0-0"><span data-offset-key="58iv1-0-0">Yesterday a few customers arrived, lots more today and by tomorrow night I believe they're going to be full.</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5ekid-0-0"><span data-offset-key="5ekid-0-0">It's been fun - hard work, but good to be bringing in some Euros, and it looks like the owners are going to offer us both contracts for the summer season.</span></div>
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<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="e57ne-0-0"><span data-offset-key="e57ne-0-0">Going back to work now so that we can check all the outside lights and timers are set up correctly and working. . . . </span></div>
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I'd forgotten about the built in encryption that's applied to cut and paste text. Genius move . . .
"After 5 weeks of garden & building maintenance at the “Ainsa Camping” campsite, this week the site opened for Easter. (Holy Week – or Semana Santa as they call it).
Yesterday a few customers arrived, lots more today and by tomorrow night I believe they’re going to be full
It’s been fun – hard work, but good to be bringing in some Euros, and it looks like the owners are going to offer us both contracts for the summer season
Going back to work now so that we can check all the outside lights and timers are set up correctly and working. . . . "
Thanks to this ongoing thread and a brief visit to the area last year with out bikes, we are coming back out to Ainsa from the start of June for nearly a fortnight, do you fancy guiding a group of four (two on a tandem though) on some of the trails for a couple days (when you are not working).
Great! Keep me posted and we'll make a plan.
A couple of days off of work now at "Camping Ainsa" thanks to the rainy weather. Most of what we're doing is outside at the moment.
We did a big Prep of the site grounds and the 27 chalets for a month leading up to Easter ("Semana Santa" here in Spain) and then the site was open for a week or so over the Easter weekend. Now it's closed again until the begining of May and we're doing more prep work. Then it opens through until the end of September.
I'm enjoying the job and it's good to have some money coming in. Trying to improve my Spanish "as I go along". My boss, Juan (the owner), is using the famous English method of just repeating the same word over and over with increasing volume until I say "OK I understand" 
Mrs Spekkie helped prepare the chalets before Easter but won't be going back during the season. She's going to rather concentrate on trying to get done all the things we need to do to keep our project going while I'm at work - lots of paperwork, a new business plan, applying for Spanish Temporary Residence and then Permanent Residence, sorting Spanish Driving Licences and liasing with the builders once we get going. Plus she has to look after me, which is no easy job at the best of times!
Onwards and upwards . . . . 🙂
The weather here is driving us nuts at the moment!
We had a long almost entirely dry winter. It got colder much sooner at the end of last year than it did the year before. Winter came early - November was sunny but chilly 🙁
It was fine for riding though - just had to wrap up, and although it was cold, it wasn't wet and muddy. In fact it was so dry that the percentage levels of how full the various dams and lakes in Spain were, got down to the low teens.
Where we are living, "Spring" seems to be constantly flicking between two states - one day it's 20 degrees & sunny and we see people on bikes all over - the next day it's raining all day, the trails are wet and muddy and no one is to be seen anywhere!
In the last few weeks in other parts of Spain there has been so much rain that some of the major rivers are now flooding through towns and villages. Thankfully we're fine where we are, although we've had a fair bit of rain come down in the last two weeks ourselves.
Today it's sunny again, yesterday I worked in waterproof clothes because it rained hard all day long! Living in the foothills of the mountains certainly makes life interesting . . .
🙂
Welcome to what we've had for 6 months, but without the alternate sunny days.
The lower stretches of the river Ebro are at levels unseen for years. I use a little ferry when out on the bike which relies on the current to glide across unpowered. 3 days ago it was borderline, now it's had to close as the ramp is flooded.
You arrived for one of the best winters ever and now this one is one of the worst. Not just here, lots of parts of Spain and even the riviera are flooded! Check out the snow in the alps, my friends are skiing fresh powder somewhere in France today.
For a place with 330 dry days a year it is incredibly unusual. Last week we were ducking and diving all over the place trying to get the best options to ride and ended up getting soaked a couple of times. In 10 years of doing this and riding these areas I've not seen another "spring" like this and the rest of my team have over 100 years of experience in these areas between them and they are saying the same.
Today we have to take a big detour on our way to ride because one of the roads has collapsed! It really is exceptionally unusual weather.
The sun is coming anyway, next week looks warm and dry, maybe normal service will resume!!
The sun is coming anyway, next week looks warm and dry, maybe normal service will resume!!
I certainly hope so, in 4 weeks time a group of us are riding bikepacking -style from Tarragona to Bilbao across the Systema Iberica and Cantabrian mountains. Having nightmares about the trails turning to cloying clag.
weeksy - condolences!
PB - watching the news and the Ebro is only 20cm or so short of its highest ever, which was in 2015! Is that the ferry we used with the car to go over to the castle?
Doug - I'm happy to hear that this is unusual. Wouldn't want this every year. Where had the road collapsed?
Yes Tony, the ferry to Miravet is closed. When I took it on Monday, the car that was on it nearly grounded as the ramp hadn't been able to float up with the river. It's a ramshackle thing at the best of times, the crossing time must have halved with the speed of the current. I tried posting a pic but it wouldn't work. Hope the rain doesn't bugger up the great wall of Guaso!
My wall is standing firm and all the drain holes are working nicely 🙂
i remember the ferry. I think it was a year since we visited you this week.
same weather in south of France , last year my kids were swimming in the river . no chance this year .
We have so much going on at the moment that proper updates have taken a back seat. This weekend we have some free time - so I'll try and get everything back on track.
Our "Big Adventure" continues . . .
We are currently preparing revised paperwork for a new trip to talk to the banks
🙂
Today's an important day for us. Work want to discuss a "Summer Contract" with me.
Getting a good work contract for the summer will have a significant influence on how we proceed with our "Big Adventure" . . . so, fingers crossed that after 2 months of work so far, they feel I'm actually worth having around
🙂
Good Luck.
Good luck Tony, hope you get what you want. We're off on our Tarragona to Bilbao bikepacking trip on Friday, it should be quite different to last year with the amount of rain we've had. The ferry is still closed as the river Ebro is so high.
Aye good luck Spekkie. Still hoping to come down and camp there in the summer - we tried at Easter but the weather wasn't looking much fun. Diverted to Catalunya instead.
There've been huge dumps of water here, and the steep, narrow valleys put a strain on the rivers. Coming back from work the other day on the train along the Oria and the usual plastic crap that gets caught in the trees along the banks was surprisingly high up, above head height. Fields of veg have been reduced to mud.
Any news?
The weather has been mental all over Bob. We've been very lucky in Guaso / Ainsa but other parts of Spain have suffered,
Having said that, today we had a thunderstorm sneak over the Peña Montañesa and rain stopped work early so we didn't get to discuss my contract!
Hopefully mañana . . . . .
Mrs Spekkie and I drove through to Huesca, which is about an hour and a half away and is our nearest big administrative city - to finish applying for our Spanish Driving Licenses today.
Everything went OK, our paperwork was all correct and we've been given cover letters to drive with until the Licence Card itself comes in the post in a week or twos time.
Another step in the right direction 🙂
I had planned to get my "European Guiding Qualification" this Spring so that I could potentially start "working" this Summer, but because I've actually been working at a local campsite for the last couple of months, I've been putting the trip off.
Tomorrow at work I should find out whether I have guaranteed work over the Summer at the campsite. If I do then I will push the Guiding Course back until after the season ends - which is at the end of September. If not then I will plan to do it asap.
Tomorrow at work I should find out whether I have guaranteed work over the Summer at the campsite. If I do then I will push the Guiding Course back until after the season ends – which is at the end of September. If not then I will plan to do it asap.
If you got the qualification before the summer, could you use it to make more money than doing the job that may materialise?
You seem to be so close - would it not be better to just get it done?
[i]If you got the qualification before the summer, could you use it to make more money than doing the job that may materialise?
You seem to be so close – would it not be better to just get it done? [/i]
That is, as they say, the million dollar question.
Having just spent a splendid week motorcycling in this region I am mightily jealous of your bravery to buy and renovate here. We rode past your village on our way towards Ainsa and then Fiscal where we stayed for 3 nights. A definate area I'll return to this year with the MTB.
Glad you enjoyed it. Will be good to see you on an MTB Dave!
Following on from my post about getting a Guiding Qualification . . .
So, we're about to take the first steps in a slightly different direction . . . .
Work at a local campsite has provided us with some income for the last few months and that income has been welcome.
The 6 month "summer work-contract" however, which they promised me and which would have helped us with regards to securing a loan from the banks to cover our renovations has not been forthcoming....
Had the contract been offered, it would have covered us up until the end of the camping season, which is at the end of September.
Our original plan was to work under contract until the end of September and then in October, the week after the contract finished, to travel down to Almeria in the south of Spain so that I could attend an MTB Guiding Course that will earn me my Mountain Bike Guiding Certificate and allow me to guide people safely and legally around the hills and caminos of the Zona Zero MTB trails, where we live.
Our intention from day one has always been to be able to show our cycling guests around, but we wanted to get the B&B built and up & running first. Now our new plan is to take a week away from work at the campsite, since I'm not tied in with a contract, and go down to Almeria in 10 days time to do the course sooner rather than later 
When we come back we will have some paper work to complete and some insurance to take out, but essentially I will be ready to start guiding people who are visiting the area and instead of it being a service we offer our guests, it will be a business we run in order to help fund the renovations of our B&B!
Depending on how work goes between now and when I leave for the course (things have been rather strained lately for various reasons), I may or may not continue working casually at the campsite when we return. We will see.
Whatever the case, we have decided that we need to take back charge of our own lives. We've spent a lot of time over the last two years waiting for various people to deliver on their promises. Now it's time for us to keep the promises we made to ourselves and to each other and get this thing done by hook or by crook!
Wish us luck . . . .
You won't have much trouble doing as well as the local guides. We chatted with a guide on a junction, I said the variant was straight on, he said right then had doubts, walkied off to look at the signs and phoned his boss to check, it was straight on. Friendly and helpful all the same and the clients were happy people.
Sorry I din't get in touch, we found Angelo in Intersport and he was helpful with routes and how to find you but I didn't find time to get away for my clubmates and drop into the campsite.
Excellent riding as ever;
Bits of 3 a 6 the first day before a storm loomed
13 and variants (excellent) the second day and then half way around 4 before the weather broke and we dropped down to Ainsa in the hail
Last day we went back to 4 to do the bits we'd missed and revist the rest.
Good luck with the guiding course, the French brevet d'état tkaes a year and is really hard (a clubmate did it on a year off work) - you have to do a trials, BMX, road MTB to a good standard olong with navigation, first aid, how to run a business etc. so think yourself lucky you chose Spain. Learn the stuff you need to know backwards before you get to the course, my mate failed on theory the first time haivng survived the trials section.
And some comments on the riding:
There's uplift available ffrom local operators but we're happy to ride up the climbs. The routes are well thought out with easy climbs and descent from fun to gnarly. Most of the routes are doable in a half day apart from the Inframundo. Best get out early as the storms arrive at the end of the day in Spring.
The descents are quite rocky compared witht the Basque country or western French Pyrenees but smoother than the Med coast. You feel shaken rather than beaten up. They're in much better condition than many Alpine trails which suffer from high use and erosion. I walked at some point on both big descents on 4, there is a good clinic in Ainsa as a clubmate found out on our first visit but I'd rather spend the evening enjoying Ainsa nightlife. Wet limestone is slippery as **** so careful when it starts to rain.
The climbs are mostly modest with about 300m of height gain a couple of times on a route, a few a bit longer and Inframundo is a proper hard day out. There's tarmac double track and bit of single and nearly all of it rideable on the routes we've done on our visits.
Edukator - Funnily enough I saw Angel yesterday and he said someone had been asking about me 🙂
o worries for not catching up. Glad you enjoyed the riding - nice ride report.
The storms and in fact the weather in general has been a problem these last few weeks. Not for me, but for people camping who are all trying to dry clothes strung out on lines between trees!