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

Sounds better than the p*ss*ng rain and ice, with a Frankie and Benny’s here last night….

Big meal and get together with friends last night – here in Spain they celebrate Christmas Eve more than they celebrate Christmas Day.

They don’t start eating until 11pm though and then they see Christmas Day “arrive”.

Today it’s a big lunch with other friends and then home for a siesta . . . .

Merry Christmas to everyone on STW

Tony & Andrea.

There are several Zona Zero routes out of Ainsa – this one heads south up a trail that passes the Vultures Dining Room, heads up to the Partara viewing point and then down the Partara Express!.

People rarely stop and look over their shoulders when they climb this trail, so they miss this view. Part of my job as a guide is to tell people when to stop and look behind them 🙂

#lovemyjob!

After several weeks without my MTB, which is down in Madrid being looked at by “Specialized Spain” after Angel, my mate and LBS spotted a crack in the carbon frame, it sounds like I should be getting it back soon.

Once it’s back safe and sound I will post on what happened, what I had to do about it and how long it took. . . . .

Meanwhile, we’re road riding and loving the “Early Spring” that Europe seems to be enjoying right now!

It’s been a while since I posted a proper update on my “Spanish Pyrenees” thread. . . So, here’s an update:

We are currently living in the town of Boltaña (pronounced Boltanya) which is 4kms away from the village of Guaso, where our “Project” is, and 6kms from the town of Ainsa which is the center of “Zona Zero MTB Land”.

We’re renting a three bedroom apartment which gives us plenty of space for ourselves and a spare twin room for friends & family to come and visit us. We plan to rent out the spare room with a breakfast thrown in “Air B&B style” (but not actually through Air B&B) for visitors in the summer.

I’m currently working everyday – splitting my time between one of the local campsites, several local farmers and my MTB guiding. The work is 99% out doors, the weather has been lovely – we have only had 1 wet day in about 9 weeks – and I get to look at the mountains whenever I want to.

We are preparing new paperwork for another trip to the banks regarding a loan for our Project and we are also looking into options based on Private Investment and/or Crowd Funding.

Meanwhile we’re living the dream. Loving the food, the people and the weather. Learning the language. Discovering new places and making new friends . . . .

Summer is coming . . . .

Love this thread, good luck with the loan.

We’re riding Zona Zero again in May, Spekkie. Pena Montesa campsite again. I remember Boltana because we turned right there on a tandem up into the Sierra de Guara in a heat wave a quarter of a century ago – no water for the next 40km IIRC.

Planning a trip soon too.

This morning the Zona Zero Cycling Club held a Skills Session for the youngsters before heading out for a ride… .

Great to see so many volunteers ready to promote safe cycling 🙂

Be good to catch up with you if you’re around Chris.

Last Saturday I joined Rafa, Ramon & Tito and help accompany a group of the Zona Zero Cycling Club Juniors on an MTB / Enduro Ride.

We started in Ainsa at the sports center and rode some of Route ZZ-006 “The Trilogy of San Vicente”. The route was clean & dry and the sun was shining – it was a really nice ride.

The youngsters had climbed around 400m by the time we’d finished. I did 550m because I was popping backwards and forwards keeping an eye on them 🙂

They were strong on the climbs and fearless of the descents! They made us adults work hard!

Rafa took several opportunities to stop and explain to the youngsters “what was coming next” and how best to tackle it whenever something a bit tricky came along. He’s a great teacher.

It was a pleasure joining in and helping out and I look forward to the next ride.

Well done to everyone who took part.

Any recommendations for eating out for a group of 15+, Spekkie? The last time we used the bar in your last photo which was fine but tourist menu and prices. Is there anywhere, perhaps in the lower town, where the locals eat local food at local prices? Is restaurante Carrera (4.5 stars on Booking, local cuisine and one very long table) in Labuerda any good? I could have sent a PM but keeping it public means everyone benefits from your knowledge. 30/5 to 2/6.

Edit: Restuarante Carrera is only open 1:30 – 3:30 according to yellow pages so that’s no good.

Hotel Meson were a friendly bunch the last time when we dropped in for a drink. Any idea what the food’s like?

You’re talking about an evening meal? Labuerda is a good few km’s north of Ainsa – fine by car but a bit much by bike after a long days riding. Prices there may be a bit cheaper than Ainsa but not by much I shouldn’t think.

Down the bottom you have La Parrilla, Odessa 88 and La Creperia which are all ok and possible a bit cheaper than up at the top. I’ve never eaten at the Meson – it’s the most basic of the towns hotels but it might be fine. There’s also a Pizza place across the road from the Meson which was reasonable last time I was there.

Locals tend to go to the “Padel” which is a little place on the road that leads out to Camping Ainsa. We’ve snacked there a few times and it’s been fine…..

Thanks for all that, Spekkie. Labuerda is only 1.9km from the campsite along a track by the river which is about the same as the town via the MTB trail. We’ll walk.

Checking them out on the Net now. It turns out that Carrera is open in the evening, yellow pages is wrong. The Meson is edging it, the reviews in French suggest it’s what we’re looking for.

There’s gem a of a review for La Parrilla 😉

“Aussi chaleureux qu’un iceberg. Si vous prenez des tagliatelles aux truffes vous avez en bonus des protéines sous la forme de mouches .. difficile de les distinguer dans une sauce à base de truffes. Établissement à éviter !”

Sounds like they won’t be going back there. I’ve never had a problem but I’m sure it happens.

Showing Francisco from Brazil around some of our Zona-Zero trails….

We did a bit of everything, technical climbing, singletrack descending and some Enduro trails, and all the while he was asking me lots of questions about how we came to be here in the Pyrenees and what we think of it.

Francisco was on an e-bike while I was on a normal bike . . . but that’s for a separate post!

He had a great ride, wants to come back again (everyone does) and he showered at our place afterwards because he was traveling straight to Barcelona to meet his daughter.

Good riding with interesting and friendly people on a sunny day in the Pyrenees . . . can’t be bad 🙂

This little technical section is part of ZZ-018 The Paths of Mondebueno and Madalena.

It’s part of a little 1hr “after work” route I’ve made up from home and i love it!

Did a couple of road rides last week on the road out towards Los Molinos and San Victorian.

Sunny days and empty roads 🙂

Last weekend I rode the trails of Zona Zero with Sebastian, a visitor from France. The trails were dry and the sun was shining … .

Spanish was our common language – so “Google Translate” came in useful!

Riding with Rodney from Zaragoza yesterday on a cracking XC route around the trails of Zona Zero!

We did a bit of everything – some technical climbing, fire roads, singletrack and some pretty demanding descents.

It had been raining, so the trails were slick – but it was great fun.

We climbed around 727m over 32.37km in 2.5hrs of riding …

Today we’re going to do a similar ride … but with a bit more climbing 🙂

You have to give the numbers, Spekkie. 😉 We’ve got 5+, 12, 4+, 13 (including v2) and 6 down for our visit.

2nd Day of riding with Rodney yesterday…. and the sun was out 🙂

We did another cracking XC route with more technical singletrack climbing and some pretty tricky descents.

Today we climbed 728m over 29.85km in 2.5hrs of riding….

We actually climbed 1m more yesterday than on Friday and rode for 16 seconds longer – how’s that for consistency?

The View from the Top . . . .

My last day of riding with Rodney from Zaragoza today.

He’s an American married to a Spaniard and he’s lived here for 30 years. He has a great sense of humour and is about the same fitness as me, so it’s been great fun.

Today we kept it short & steep and climbed the track from Ainsa up to the Partara summit. The first half of the trail is technical and has a mental gradient – more than 10% in places. The second half of the climb is a bit easier, but only a bit!

The view from the top, which I’ve posted on here before, makes it all worthwhile though and coming down the “Partara Express” is just magic 🙂

4+ and its variants are great for nipping out when you don’t want to be out there man when a storm breaks or have limited time.

Route 4 is nice. The first few km’s have some climbing in them, but nothing too hard 🙂

It’s a tough job – but someone has to do it!

👍

Got a call at work Thursday morning from a guy who wanted to hire a bike and ride some trails. I was busy until 7pm so we met up just after that and put 25km and 470m of climbing behind us in short order!

Great way to unwind after a day at work 🙂

You will recognise the place names Edukator . . . .

Friday afternoon and a 3hr Cross Country ride starting from Santa Maria de Buil. It had rained in the morning but the afternoon was dry and warm.

Taking a break after racing up the climbs with someone who weighs 15kg less than me! 🙂

The “Abandoned Villages” of Sobrabe … lonely and overgrown 🙁

Some amazing cloud formations over the Pyrenees!

On Saturday I did a Juniors group ride with the Zona Zero Cycling club.

It was a great ride, the youngsters learned a bit about bike maintenance and pumping up tyres before riding out to the “Badlands” for some skills training.

I learned a few things too!

Getting ready….

Twins!

Well behaved riders!

Going down . . .

The Badlands . . .

👍👍👍👍👍

Variante 5.1, GR 19 near Soto?

That stretch of Badlands is part of the ZZ-007 (Route Bajo Peñas) descent and yes, also part of GR 19.