Buying and renovating a rural property on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees

We saw the low temp warning light in the car for the first time yesterday. Once the sun was out it climbed to 15° and was clear as a bell. Last week we walked up the more modest 1,000m mountain which is the highest point of the range in front of our house. It was nice to go straight from the house, a round trip of 20km.
On your recommendation Tony, we are going to do B&B next year, we’ve applied for a tourist licence and should find out next week. We’re picking up a couple of smaller sized bikes when we are back in the UK at Christmas so will be able to offer hire of a full range of decent road or mountainbikes. I will also be doing guiding, both for our visitors and a local Casa Rural which has been a yoga retreat for the last 15 years. Yoga holiday co link.
Hope the building work goes well.

Great to hear Duncan. Will be watching with interest.

Funnily enough we’ve had some developments here recently that are opening up opportunities for us in the Guiding/Up Lift/Holiday Planning side of things. Will let you know how we progress via Trish on FB.

Keep well mate.

How’s the temperature? It was snowing all morning here today!

No snow here since the little we had on Friday morning. Temp is dropping below zero at night and not quite making double figures during the day. Sunny enough but if the wind gets up its razor sharp!

Last year I remember working outside and managing to wear shorts until a week before Christmas. I was very happy about that because, compared to when I’d lived in the UK, winter here seemed pretty manageable.

This year however, I folded early, much to my disappointment. I assumed it was because the apartment we were in last winter was warmer than the farm house we’re in this year, which allowed me to start the day “warm” before leaving to come to Guaso in the car to work in the sunshine . . .

Talking to the locals though, it seems that November and December so far this year have been much colder than in previous years – so last year actually was “warmer until later”. Equally, June this year was much hotter than it has been in previous years.

Let’s hope the trends return to normal next year!

2018 is just around the corner and with it a new season of the Enduro World Series – which returns to Zone Zero, Ainsa in Spain next September . . .

Can’t wait! 🙂

The first two walls holding up the bottom terrace are finished 🙂

We had some help at the start from Ben & Corina (from the next village) and in the middle from our friends from the Isle of Skye.

Before and After Pics . . . . .

Good work. Now you need som big pieces of wood for holding up roofs and floors and so on. Put out more feelers…

Some more “work” photos . . .

Mrs Spekkie clearing away the undergrowth for the next stage of the retaining wall. It’s longer than it looks!

And me – you need a big spirit level for a big wall 🙂

😀

Although it was sunny and warm yesterday, “Storm Ana” gave us heavy rain for the last 36 hrs days – and in winter when it rains down here – it snows up there!

The first snows on our own local Pena Montañesa . . . . we won’t be going back up there again until Spring now 🙂

“36 hrs days” . . . Cheers for that IPad 🙂

Last Spanish lesson this afternoon until after Christmas.

We go every Monday at 5pm for 2 hrs. It’s free, provided by the local council and the classes are very small – no more than 7 people per teacher.

In our class we have a couple from Australia, a girl from Brazil, a woman from Holland and a chap from Ireland. Spanish with an Irish or Australian accent sounds very funny – but they probably think the same about our accent.

The teacher speaks no English. She’s the Mayoress of a local town and she enjoys teaching us – which makes it nice

🙂

“Shortest Day” of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere today.

Here in Ainsa/Guaso we have Sunrise at 8:25:36 and Sunset at 17:29:59 . . . that’s 9hrs 4mins 23 Secs of Daylight.

From tomorrow onward things can only get better . . .

🙂

There may not be much of it but at least the quality of daylight is better, we’ve been in the UK for 2 days now and not seen the slightest hint of sunshine. Ticking off the hours until we’re back on the ferry.
Hope the New Year brings your plans to fruition.

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”

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.

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.😀