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!
The "Festival Zona Zero Sobrarbe"
EWS 2018 Round 7 - 22–23 September 2018 @ "Zona Zero" Sobrarbe.
Looking forward to this!
Last night I was doing some late night studying for my upcoming MTB Guiding Certificate.
Looking forward to it 🙂
Packing the car for our Road Trip. We're driving down to Almeria, which is about 9 hours away, so that I can attend a Mountain Bike Guiding Course.
Tonight we will be staying over with some friends who live in Catalonia - which is about a third of the way there. The route passes by their front door! Will be great to catch up with them again and stopping over means we turn the trip into a nice easy 2-part drive.
Will post my progress on here as it goes . . . . .
Good luck with the course, if you fancy testing your newly acquired guiding skills after your course on some tourists we are in Ainsa from sunday for the next couple of weeks for some riding and exploring the area.
We’re driving down to Almeria, which is about 9 hours away, so that I can attend a Mountain Bike Guiding Course.
That was cunning, chosing somewhere at completely the opposite end of Spain 🙂
I'm happy to say that, after a few very intensive days, I am going to be awarded my first professional MTB Guiding qualification.
Relieved to say the least. Now it's onwards and upwards 🙂
mogrim - It was quite a way and a very different landscape here.
bpd - we'll be back in Ainsa in a few days. Happy to meet up for a coffee or a beer and a chat.
More to the point: will it ever stop raining in this bloody country? "Sunny Spain" my arse.
A week to get a qualification! Jeez that's lightweight.
Junior is in The Alps for yet another course towards his French Brevet d'état which is what you need on this side of the hill. The MTB one takes a year but he's doing the SKI/snowboard one. so far:
Test technique (a times slalom to get you into the system)
Pré fo' (two weeks)
25 day stage d'observation
Euro test (a timed giant slalom to eliminate anyone not really quick)
4 weeks premier cycle
25 day stage d'application
One week tronc commun (all mountain guides from any discipline have to do this)
and that's only half way through, it takes about 6 years to fully qualify.
More to the point: will it ever stop raining in this bloody country? “Sunny Spain” my arse.
It's pretty much aways like this up here in Mordor, the hills are a lovely colour though! 33mm forecast for this afternoon. Our bathroom has been a jungle of drip-drying cycling kit recently.
A guy who guides locally is midway through a 12 day luxury tour with someone Americans. Wonder if they've done much cycling? 😂
Where are you Mogrim?
Spekkie, not sure on plans yet as blew the shear pins on the rohloff on day one’s ride and then to top that stripped the rear qr whilst trying to figure out what was happening meaning a long wander back in to town. Currently trying to source some parts from Germany/UK to potentially fix it, still got my solo but really wanted to ride with mrs bpd and push the boundaries of what we can ride on the tandem, she has no longer got skills/confidence if we rented a solo so unsure on whether we’ll drift home early with a grump on or stay.
Where are you Mogrim?
Madrid. And it seems like it's been raining every weekend since January.... while the weather's perhaps not the sunny paradise Spanish marketing would have you believe, it really has been particularly foul this year!
Edukator - it's only the first step up quite a long ladder. We discussed the French requirements and it's crazy the amount of stuff you have to do.
So our road trip is over 🙁
It was a 1950 km round trip - so further than Jo'burg to Durban but not as far as Jo'burg to CPT.
Good roads and for the most part, little traffic. Need to update the Garmin though - often it told us we were in the middle of a field when we were actually on a new road!
On the trip down we stopped and visited some friends and on the trip back we stopped and visited some family. We even met up with an expat FB friend from the UK whose been following our adventure.
Was great to see my Aunty Jan & Uncle Ian. You don't realise how much you miss family until you see family 🙁
The MTB course was a success and I'll be posting more about that later.
Ramon and Rosa were very please to see us when we got back. Rosa gets so upset when we go anywhere. You'd think they'd appreciate some peace and quiet but apparently not.
Now we're looking forward to putting some new plans into place. We'll update as we go . . . .
🙂
It's always nice to meet up with old friends or to make new ones. In the last week we've done both 🙂
The evening we got home from our road trip we met up with a guy from SA who has been following our adventure on-line since it started. He originally looked us up two years ago when he was cycling in this area on his own. This year he's back with a couple of friends on motorbikes and we caught up with them for dinner. Was great seeing him again. Wish it could have been for longer but I know, we all have schedules to keep!
Then last night we met up with a couple from Scotland whom we've never met before but who have also been following our adventure on STW and FB. They are touring the area in a camper van and, despite a few misses and plan changes, we finally met them for drinks and a chat. We also took them for a quick spin around the village and showed them our "project". Was very nice to meet them and we look forward to seeing them again!
Despite our endless optimism, the delays and problems we go through do get us down sometimes and so it's always a welcome relief to have someone look at our property and the views from the garden and remind us that it really is amazing.
🙂
Anyone interested in 7 day Stage Race crossing from one coast of Spain to the other along the ridge of the Pyrenees mountains . . . .
The "Transpyr Adventure", which is organised by the Transpyr Cycle Club and covers a total of approximately 800km, broken down into different stages, with a cumulative elevation gain close to 20,000m and whose difficulty can be described as "very high" . . . may be just for you.
The race passed through Ainsa last Wednesday evening where the days stage finished next to the Rio Cinca. I popped along to have a look, took some pictures and chatted to a few people. This year there were around 300 riders competing. It looked well organised and the riders coming in seemed to be enjoying themselves. Ainsa is at roughly the half way point.
Here's a link to the Website:
https://transpyr.com/
And here are some of the race T's & C's . . . 🙂
<b>17.</b> Distances and elevation gain may vary considerably due to last minute changes of routing motivated by reasons of <i>force majeure</i> or other reasons deemed necessary by the race organization. The distances and elevation gain of each day will be announced at the technical meeting or briefing, held on the day prior to each stage. The organization reserves the right to change the route of the event at any time.
<b>18.</b> The event will be undertaken by following a track specified by the event organization. The organization may, at its discretion, post signage in order to help participants remain safe, or to prevent accidents
<b>19.</b> The route, and therefore the track file, <b>is confidential until the start of the event or until shortly before the start of the event</b>. The organization is not responsible if said route is followed outside of the dates of the organized TRANSPYR 2018 event.
🙂
We've had an interesting couple of weeks here . . . .
Over the last month we have had several visits from friends 🙂
First off was a visit from a South African friend who was here with some buddies touring northern Spain and southern France on motorbikes. We caught up with him in Ainsa for a nice long chat over dinner. We first met him two years ago when he was here doing a solo bicycle tour. He had been following our story on-line in SA since it started and arranged to meet up with us when he got to our part of the world. This second visit was like seeing a long lost friend 🙂
Then we had a visit from an STW member and his wife. They were also touring Spain, but in a campervan and wanted to drop by and meet up. It was a bit hit and miss at first, but finally we all ended up in the same place at the same time and had a nice chat over a drink. First time we'd met them - lovely couple - hope we see them again.
Then we had a visit from another STW member who we also first met two years ago when he was passing through our area. He had been following our story on STW. Last visit we met up and rode together. This visit we did the same - although we had a bit more time this visit and rode more trails. We also discussed some potential business - a couple of little projects we're hoping to work on together next year.
Our last visitor - who left a couple of days ago - is from New Zealand. This is a guy we first met three years ago when we were first ever staying in Ainsa looking at property. We stayed in the same hotel as him. He was here riding the trails and he left the day before we put our offer in on "the barn". We kept in touch ever since and this year he finally returned to Zona Zero to ride more trials. I spent several days riding with him and he and I both rode with our second STW visitor for a couple of days as their visits overlapped.
All in all it's been a great few weeks. Meeting and updating friends we've made through our "Spanish Adventure".
Now we're looking forward to our next visitors in July and to the Tour de France stage that finishes 50km up the road!
On Tuesday we visited the offices of one of the local "Gestorias" in Ainsa. There are 3 or 4 to chose from . . .
"In Spain "gestorías" are private agencies which specialize in dealing with legal and administrative work. For a fee they carry out the trámites (paperwork) involved in getting passports, work permits, car documentation etc and liaise with the Agencia Tributaria (Inland Revenue), thereby saving their clients much inconvenience and queuing time"
As a Spaniard, trying to do your own paperwork & admin in Spain can be pretty difficult. As a foreigner it is nigh on impossible. Hence the need for several Gestorias in Ainsa, a town with a population of only 2000 people.
We used a big firm to do our admin when we moved here and bought a property. Now we need a local, smaller and more intimate firm to do some day to day stuff for us.
The first task was to apply for Spanish Social Security numbers - which we have now done.
"Tour de France Fever" is upon us! Today we plan to take our road bikes out for a spin up the road. Will be my first road ride this year!
Yesterday morning I cleaned them and pumped up the tyres . . so they know it's coming.
Will take a while to get used to the skinny wheels again
Today we had our first swim in our local river with our friends after a nice picnic.
It was lovely.
Europe is cooking!
A few weeks ago a friend of mine thought to arrange a weekly social ride that starts and finishes in Ainsa.
The ride is about an hour and a half long and covers a bit of everything. Some fire road along the Rio Cinca, some technical climbing - not too difficult but hard enough to be "interesting", some nice descending, some riding along a dry river bed, a bit of singletrack and finally a coffee stop.
This week was the third week and we were joined by four guys from Holland. It was a bit faster than usual today but great fun. We don’t generally race because it’s a social ride but today everyone present was happy to go for it a bit … so we did.
We will be out for the EWS. Are the trails easy to find as not managed to find a guide for a couple of days.
Yeah - you should manage. I can point you in the right direction if necessary 🙂
Thanks. Looking forward to the trip.
Hey Tony! Tracey the trails around Ainsa are super easy to find and there will be loads shut off for the EWS but they should have a clear list of which ones are open for riding. Last time they were pretty good on that and this year they have a better website and everything to communicate. There should be some people offering guiding local to Ainsa too for day trips during that week, maybe even Tony?
We will be there of course. We do some different stuff and will be exploring the wider area with our guests and maybe doing a day of Zona Zero shuttles but we´ve been fully booked for a while. Sorry. If you see us say hello, if we´re doing a picnic for the guests feel free to grab a coffee and bit of cake from the van 🙂
Thanks . Should have been on top of that part of the trip but left it a bit late due to fitting it in around work and Abigales racing. Will keep an eye out for you.
Last week Mrs Spekkie provided Picnics for our friends Jeroen & Marce who were running some of their "Office in Nature" courses locally. The courses were on Mon, Tues & Weds and were held at 3 beautiful outdoor locations near Ainsa.
The group sizes varied from 6 to 9 people and we provided different food each day because some of the people were attending more than one course.
We both enjoyed doing this - although it was her baby, I was just helping - and the groups were very happy with everything we did. They were lovely people and we got some great feedback and encouragement from them.
Now we've made some new friends
My MTB Guiding and Mrs Spekkie's Picnics are two services we always planned to offer alongside our core B&B business.
They say that to enjoy life (and work) you should try to "do what you love" - and these are things we both love!
Not gone 100% Spanish then, you're missing the Casera to go with some cheap wine 🙂
ha! we had Casera in a coolbox of our own. We took it down to the river and had a picnic of our own after we'd finished with these guys 🙂
I take it back then!
What we do on the Trails of Zona Zero!
We have had a great couple of days riding so far.
Having a day off today as we were up early for Abigales day two practice and the urban race starts at four.
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It's great here isn't it! We're going to watch the challenge today in a couple of places and the go up to the Castle for the Prologue
Just skimmed all sixteen pages, are you taking visitors yet? Or is the house still being rebuilt?
Great time in the old town tonight
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Hi Ross - house isn't built yet but we're moving into a place with spare rooms next week so that we can offer accommodation etc in the mean time.
Some pics from Weds eve when they started setting up in the Castle . . . .
The registration office . . . . ready and waiting . . .
Cool Pic Tracey - I have tons to upload yet!
Opening day and team vehicles arriving . . . .
Our motto is "We will tell you where to go . . . !"
More vehicles - and the excitement is building!
Setting up the stage in the Castle grounds ready for the EWS2018
More teams and suppliers arriving …
Ambulances on Standby!
Bike trailers ready for uplifting the riders …
Going to be a long day for the riders. 8 hours, 4 stages, 1800 metres of climbing and its hot.Going to head out and pick up a few trails with a view to getting to stage four for when the riders come down.
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Couple from stage 4
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Nice!
How's she doing?
The Bikes of the EWS 2018 - Ainsa.
Giant . . . .
GT . . . .
Yeti . . . .
Cannondale . . . .
Sam Hills Bike - Number 1 . . . .
