Forum menu
We've been fortunate over the last 3 months - time with family in the States before Christmas, time with family in the UK over New Year and now after a fortnight at home in Spain I'm back in the UK helping my son with some work.
The last couple of years have been hard for a lot of people and it's been interesting listening to the different (but similar) stories on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, working amongst people here in the UK they are saying that they are just tired of it all. Almost no one on site is wearing a mask (or "face covering" as they refer to it here), in the shops maybe a third of people are - despite signs urging everyone to do so. Quite a contrast to Spain where masks are still compulsory when entering any shop.
And talking of shops, I popped in to the "Best Biltong" South African shop in Guildford last week and had a nice catch up chat with the owner.....
Happy days 🙂
Yesterday we had a cold rain down where we live in Boltaña. Today as the cloud cleared we could see that snow had fallen on the Peña Monteñesa again, as is customary in March! Always a beautiful sight....
Sunshine, Rivers & Singletrack - Zona Zero
🙂
My friend Pedro Montaner, who lives here in Ainsa and is a fellow MTB'er & professional photographer, recently took this picture of the village of Guaso where our Project is.
He's always taking and posting amazing pictures and it's shots like this one of Guaso that remind us of everything we love about living in this area and keeps us going towards our goal of building and running our little B&B.
🙂
Those last three posts are fantastic Spekkie, the place looks amazing.
@twistedpencil - Thanks man! It's been raining today but for the last week I've been able to get out and enjoy some fast dry trails.
Enjoying life . . . .
Yesterdays ride on Zona Zero Route ZZ-07. Clear skies & warm weather - perfect.
The village of El Pueyo de Araguas with the Pena Montenesa mountain behind it.....
Yesterday we drove up into the Pyrenees and did a little hike from the village of Revilla along to the "Miradors of Revilla" and back.
Miradors are what we'd call Viewing Points. It was an easy hike and the views were amazing. Afterwards we had a picnic lunch on the grass back at the car and sat and enjoyed the view while we ate.
This is definitely a place we'd recommend people to come and see for a morning out. Only 20 mins drive from Ainsa, good access and a really nice camino/path to walk along.
As always, the camera doesn't do the place justice, but here's a few pics anyway!
Another day, another ride!
The river path between Boltana and Ainsa on a beautiful evening.
As far as website addresses go, possibly not the easiest I've ever come across . . . .
My Mac actually turns that into a clickable link.
I wouldn't click on it if you like boars 🙂
Send me the link so I don't have to type it in?
Meanwhile Spekkie you are living the life. I love living vicariously through your posts. Great work.
I think I rode up that valley the other week. I don’t think you are supposed too but it was on the Zona Zero Website last year. We had an amazing week in Ainsa over Easter too much going at work and another holiday in the Lakes have got in the way of posting the photos I’ll put some
on this thread when I get back to home.
I’m now seriously considering retiring to somewhere in the Spanish Pyrenees.
I have friend who have a gorgeous place in Venosc France - its between Adh, CdF/Gandon and Col Galibier, on the lower slopes of Les Deux Alpes.
It seems an amazing life but its hard work and tough mentally. Their property is amazing, they do Ski (whole house B7B, and Evening meals) with staff/chief and summer more B&B. They dont live there which has helped during Covid as they could still rent the place out fully to self catering.
Its an amazing location and place. I have been a dozen time winter and summer. Fot them its hard, hard work. They never get to ski or ride and their fitness has gone south. The riding season is short. They are looking at the next move but scared of leaving what they have built so far.
I got bored and typed it in, right first time which is a miracle for a hamfisted typist like me.
http://www.pirenaicadecarnesdecazaygestion.com/
I think its a meat locker - a place where you can bring your boar or deer carcasses and hang them at the right temp for whatever time suits you? Might also have some facility to let you skin and butcher and clean up etc. I want to move to Spain now.
http://www.pirenaicadecarnesdecazaygestion.com/
/blockquote>It's actually pretty easy to type in - if you know Spanish. No weird spellings, no missing words, just lengthy. Seems it's a sort of slaughterhouse setup, which handles wild game you've hunted - kill a boar or deer*, and they'll come and pick it up, clean it, etc.
* Legally hunted, of course - they make a point of this, so I suppose that if you or I turned up with a dead boar we better have a hunting license, but if you know the owner that's not a major problem...
"Meanwhile Spekkie you are living the life. I love living vicariously through your posts. Great work."
Glad you're enjoying it 5plusn8!
I posted the pic because when I saw it I actually laughed out loud and pointed!
As mentioned above, if you know some Spanish it's easy enough. A bit like the department of Trade and Industry for England and Wales having the website address "thedepartmentoftradeandindustryforenglandandwales"... it still made me laugh though.
The building, which is down near the river here in Boltana, is indeed a local abattoir. (all towns here have one)
In hunting season, which is during the winter, you can take whatever you've hunted to them on the evening of each hunting day - Thurs, Sat, Sun & Bank Holidays (Fiestas) and they will turn it into sensible cuts of meat for you following the proper guidelines.
Finished our ride today along the river path between Boltana and Ainsa and it was very pretty
"Finished our ride today along the river path between Boltana and Ainsa and it was very pretty"
I rode it last eve as part of a quick loop I often do from Boltana over to the other side of Ainsa and back. It was nice.
Another hot day!
We did the ZZ-13 blue route today and it was indeed very hot
Nice. I like riding through the forest and ZZ-013 is good for that. You can extend the start of 13 using 5 Light and the end by adding either 2 Light or the start of 7 but in reverse. Did you do the "loop" towards the end of 13, above Usana? It starts with a nice little climb 🙂
We wimped out on the last climb,it was very hot when we reached that point and neither of us could face it,we're staying at Camping Pena Montanesa and ridden up on the trail the starts opposite the campsite which is a nice way to start and finish a ride
The single track up through the trees that leads into the back of the Castle is the end of route ZZ-05 going up and the start of ZZ-03 Light & ZZ-06 coming down. I came down it yesterday as it happens. The river at the bottom is almost dry.
A couple of weeks ago after some heavy rain, we took a walk up to the abandoned village of Espierlo on Zona Zero MTB Route ZZ-015 to look at the waterfalls and the views....
Those abandoned villages are mad. I was in Morcats on a 35km trail run last summer and ran out of water. The village spring was dry so I started hunting around and climbed a wall, dropping into what was the cemetary.
The fronts had fallen off the tombs and you could see piles of bones and plastic flowers inside, it was really weird and I couldn't get out of there fast enough! They obviously didn't hang around when they left in the 50s. When you see the generations of effort that went into scraping out a life up in those hills - olive terraces cut into the hillside, churches, miles of drystone walling - it's all the more touching that they had to walk away (literally, as there was no road!)
It was a hard life for sure Bob.
We've been in Ainsa for the club's long weekend based in the Pena Montansea camping. Weather was exceptional with no risk of afternoon storms so we walked up Pena Montanesa (rocky way up, down through the dead forest). We got as far as the dam on zz-003 Mediano (the red arrowed variant) before the 34°C heat and tired hands gave us an excuse to cut back along the N-road. And we couldn't resist an afternoon messing around in the badlands.
I dropped into the Ainsa campsite to check it out as alternative to the Pena Montanesa camping and say hello to Spekkie but he wasn't there. The helpful young man told me what he's up to but I'll leave Spekkie to tell you himself.
The verdict is that if you're in a tent, van or caravan then Camping Aisa is excellent and a bit cheaper, but the bungalows and mobile homes in Pena Montanesa are a bit better.
The rocky way up Pena Montanesa:
Back in Ainsa for a day on our way home and bloody hell it's hot
I'm flying back on Wednesday - apparently it's been in the mid to high 30's for the last week! And May was the hottest May in 20 years too.
It feels much hotter than when we were here 4 weeks ago and it was low thirties then
Today was a little bit cooler/slightly cloudy but last week temps hit 40 degrees here! crazy hot.
Most of Europe is suffering, but it should pass in a day or two now.
Thankfully we have the river to swim in! 🙂
Hottest day on recond in Biarritz yesterday (43 point something) and 41°C here in Pau which I think is a June record. I went out early with the MTB club and finished around 13h by which time it was 37°C, bearable. Today has been about 10°C cooler. We're gonna have to get used to it. 🙁
Saw 39 on my Garmin on Saturday, thankfully it was a lot cooler today!
I was in Biarritz on Saturday, car was showing 44C. We headed to the woods, had a picnic in (literally in) the river and a sea fog blew in dropping temps by 20C in an instant, as is fairly usual here - hot winds from the south always lose to the Atlantic after a couple of days!
Sailed home from Roscoff on Sunday morning and was 13C and pouring down, felt sorry for the cyclists coming off the ferry
Last weekend was the annual Farmers Market in Aisa, this weekend is a big Fiesta. This evening there will be a show on in the plaza and tomorrow night music and dancing. I've spent quite a bit of time in the UK this summer - so missed the Guaso village and Boltana town Fiestas - so this weekend will be nice 🙂
I'm looking forward to chocolate coated Churros!!
After a nice week of R&R back in Spain - hiking, swimming, riding and picnicing - we're heading off tonight to Barcelona for an early morning flight to the States in the morning.
Our first trip back in 2017 was to NYC - amazing. Last year we were in Denver/Boulder/The Rockies - equally amazing. This trip is to North Carolina. If our daughter and her husband keep moving like this we're going to get to see all the states! They spoil us rotten when we're there 🙂
When I get back in a couple of weeks time I'll be on my own for a month until Mrs Spekkie comes back. A good chance to do some nice long rides and make some progress with our Project. It'll just be tidying up and maintenance to start with but it always feels so good spending time up there in Guaso.
Finally finding time to post a quick update!
Since my last post, long story short....
My supposed two weeks in the US turned into me staying the full 6 weeks with Mrs Spekkie. Had a great time, did some work, did some riding and spent some quality time with the kids and the 18 month old grandson. Then back to Spain for Christmas and the New Year. Spent the first three months of 2023 in Spain riding/hiking/walking on every available dry/sunny day either by ourselves or with friends and now I'm in the UK for a little while.
We don't post on here as much as we do on other Social Media - simply because the "Insta and copy to FB" exercise is so easy to do. Here are a couple of pics from February via Tumblr though . . .
Good work, appreciate the update keep them coming, hope the house build is on plan, appreciate plans change, we've all seen grand designs;) Aim to get around there some day.
I've just read this whole thread from beginning to end! Thank you for posting updates, spekkie, and for showing so many photos of this amazing part of the world. Like many others, I'm now considering a visit..!
Glad you enjoyed it PCA! I'll try and keep it a bit more up-to-date from now on . . . .
I was missing the updates too!
Missing ZZ as well, I usually get up there at Easter for a couple of days trail running but ended up on the wrong side of the country this time. Will be there in early summer before it gets too hot, although who knows anymore - I was running at 2500m at new year in a t-shirt...