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

“There’s always another Singletrack!”

Are there any established uplift options in the area? We are still looking for somewhere new to ride late summer, and although all fit and not afraid of a climb or two, would rather spend our holidays in the hills maximising the amount of down time if at all possible. Does look a great place to ride.

Yes there are good uplift services locally WF 🙂

I’ve PM’d you . . . .

We survived without a single visit to the clinique. My bike needed a new set of brakes (204e for a complete set of SLX fitted in Intersport, dropped off at 4pm and ready for collection at 8pm, pretty good I thought). La Carrera restaurant was excellent and El Meson our post-ride haunt.

Perfect weather this year so we didn’t chicken out of routes with steep descents. The big ride went over Partara on ZZ-005, through El Grado and Guaso on 9, then all the way around 018 through Sieste. 18 was our favourite section with a do-able climb and a descent that flows a bit better and beats you up a bit less than some. I’ll go as far as to say that 18 is one of the best trails I’ve ridden anywhere.

We had an afternoon messing about in the badlands again on the GR19 and 5.3 variante (I wrongly typed 5.1 on the previous page) and went for a walk around some of 4.

Our group, 27 of us, half riders, was one of many over from France for the long weekend, French was the main language on the trails.

One day I’ll get in touch Spekkie, but this weekend the swimming pool was a stonger attraction post ride than giving you a ring – that and sorting out abused bikes, planning the next day’s adventure, indudulging in good food etc..

Keep living the dream !

Glad you enjoyed it.

I have been seeing a lot of French riders on the trails for a few weeks now. Today I bumped into 2 guys who were on the Partara after having ridden 59km and climbed 1600m of ZZ-03 (around the Mediano lake). They were tired but happy. On Friday eve I was in Intersport when a couple of French lads came in trying to re-inflate a tyre that had just had a new valve fitted.

I have a regular visitor here from Pau who comes and rides most weekends. He can be here in 2 hrs from home and he loves it.

Obviously the Guaso/Sieste loops are my local trails so I know them well and there’s nothing too tricky there. From the Partara I prefer to come down on the Partara Express (the top part of this descent was used in last years EWS). I’ve ridden it half a dozen times in the last fortnight.

Today was a bit hot around lunchtime – 30 degrees where I was riding, but there are so many water points available it’s not a problem . . . .

🙂

Edit: I’m sure the two river crossings below El Grado and Sieste were nice in this weather!

A good weekend for it and 18 is a cracker! We are just back from a few days ourselves and I used part of 18 twice in a massive, 10 hour day crossing Guara. It’s a great finish, ending with beers (which you always need to wait too long for) in the Monestario of Boltaña. We had people (well journalists!) from all around the world and they were loving it. You might even see some photos from those trails up on this website in a few days 😉

I hadn’t ridden 18 since it was new around 8 years ago and I had a photo on it which I had forgotten where I had taken it! Educator, I’m guessing you didn’t venture out towards Fiscal but if you are rating that one so highly there are a bunch of things around there that are worth checking out.

I have a neighbour who keeps nagging me to try the Fiscal sector, now you too, Doug!

I don’t go anywhere near water in 5:10 Impacts, Spekkie, they take a week to dry, I mince across the stepping stones. 😉

My visitor from Holland left this morning. It’s been fun riding with him this past week and we both learned some new things. He’s an endurance athlete so climbing wasn’t a problem for him. I was thankful for the technical climbs that gave me a bit of an advantage over him 🙂

Here are a few pics of the local area….

Our last ride took us up to the Partara view point which sits at 859m. Approx 300m higher than the town of Ainsa below it. It’s quite a tough little climb, a bit technical in places, but not too long – and the view makes it all worthwhile.

I’ve just had a weekend of exploring on my own – now it’s Monday morning, the sun is shining and a new week begins . . .

Last night Stage 4 of the “Transpyr Coast to Coast Pyrenean Stage Race” finished in Ainsa.

The riders have another 3 stages to ride before they finish in Hondarribia on Saturday evening.

The race stats for a week of riding are impressive – 1035km, with 21385m of climbing and descending (The race starts at the finishes at sea level – just two different “seas”!)

There are two versions of the race – an MTB version and a Road version.

I’m going to be down your way with a few days spare in early October. Thinking of packing the eBike in the car and spending a few days around Ainsa. A mate of mine is interested in joining me but he is pretty much a MTB novice, but a good off-road motorbiker. Is there anyplace in town here he can hire a decent eBike?

Yes there is Paulx. I will PM you.

My friend Pat riding the dry & dusty trails of the Badlands . . .

Back in May I showed a chap from Zaragoza around for a few days and we had a blast. Last weekend he came back for some more!

This time around we rode a 50km XC circuit that joined together sections from 8 different Zona Zero routes. We even threw in the odd “abandoned village”!

We had a good time and with just over 1000m of climbing/descending – we knew we’d “ridden in the mountains” by the end of it. I’m sure he’ll be back for some more some time 🙂

We started our ride on the outskirts of the abandoned Village of Janovas, which is slowly but surely coming back to life.

Showing my friend from the Basque Country around Zona Zero.

This photo was taken at the exit of Route ZZ-018, above the swim spot that we like to use use in the summer 🙂

Spekkie, that looks amazing, keep em coming.

Cheers Ming!

Showing Tom from Belgium yesterday.
As a Landscape Designer, he enjoyed our local scenery . . .

🙂

Showing Tom around Zona Zero……

We were out for a couple of hours and we rode in The Badlands, did some technical climbing, rode some nice singletrack……

….. and finally took in a view of the Pyrenees mountains from Guaso, where our Build Project is.

It was a great evening and I enjoyed it!

Riding with mi amigo Jose Luis Sustatxa on the trails around Boltaña and Guaso.

I showed Jose our build project up in Guaso and he loved the tranquility of the place 🙂

Our heatwave continues . . . .

The sun is blazing when I finish work at 2:30 and we’re having late afternoon temps of 37 / 38 degrees. Thankfully it cools nicely at night and we get to sleep ok.

We’ve been heading to the river every evening for a swim. There are so many places to swim that none of them ever get too busy. . . .

🙂

One of our evening swimming spots. There are dozens of places to swim along the river Ara which passes through Boltaña but this one is closest to us 🙂

Now that “le Tour” is over, our afternoons & evenings will be free and we’re going to be doing some more work up at our Project.

We’re hoping to finish getting the sloping back garden terraced because we have plans to start using the garden . . . .

When do you think the project will be open for business?

I’ll post an update on The Project in a day or two. . . .

Meanwhile, after weeks of very hot temps, looking north towards France and some pretty heavy weather!

Some rain to settle the dust would be nice.

An evening ride last week along the banks of the Rio Ara towards Ainsa with the Pena Montenesa in the background…..

I’m riding between 8pm and sundown to avoid the heat!

A couple of pics from our last visit

The second pic is at the top of the first climb on ZZ-05 isn’t it? (or ZZ-04 if you turned Left half way up the climb?)

I do that one once a week or so just so I can come down the Partara Express. It’s a nice climb once you’re past the Vultures Dining room.

Yup, first pic is the short way up to do Partara Express (or the steep ZZ-05 descent to the stream crossing if you ignore the Partara Express sign). The first pic is in the badlands, it’s the one with the 5.3 varient sign at the start.

Evening training ride from Boltaña up to Guaso and back on singletrack.

I have some guiding coming up and I need to stay in shape!

The track that runs alongside the Rio Ara between Boltaña and Ainsa.

I rarely see more than the odd jogger or occasionally some older people walking along here. More often than not I see no one.

Ainsa old town is up on he hill and behind it the Pyrenees . . .

Climbing up the singletrack on Zona Zero Route 18 between the villages of Margurgued and Guaso you come across this skull…..

I spoke to our neighbour, Ramon the friendly farmer a couple of days ago about using a little piece of his land down by the river to grow our own Salads & Veggies. He has two vegetable gardens himself – one up at the house in Guaso and one down by the Rio Ara. Ours will be next to his so that we can help each other when necessary.

Looking forward to growing lots of stuff next year. Everything they grow tastes so nice!

This weekend, in fact starting last Thursday, it is “Fiesta Weekend” in Boltaña. There are street parties, bands in the evening and discos all night….

Typically there’s a band on stage between 8pm and 10pm, then everything stops for a few hours for supper, then at 1am the dancing starts up again until 6am. They do this for 4 days straight. I say “they” because sadly I couldn’t even if I wanted to! Zzzzzz

Tonight at midnight is the “end of weekend” firework show . . . we’ll see if we can stay up that late and watch it.

Thankfully, because work for us has to carry on, all the party noise is some distance away from our rented apartment. The same thing goes for Guaso village where our Project is – the little Plaza is far enough away not to disturb us too much when they have their “all night parties” over their Fiesta weekend in early August.

Showing Grant & Carol from New Zealand around Zona Zero this week.

Yesterday we did one of my Techy XC routes, today Zona Zero Route 7…..
Grant is on a beautiful Bronson …

They did the “Jo’burg to Sea” this year and enjoyed it – so they certainly get around!

Seasonal working in Spain:

The weather here is starting to cool down a bit now as we head towards the end of Summer.

I’ve been working at the campsite for 6hrs a day, 7 days a week for nearly 5 months now and then guiding in the afternoons or evenings whenever the opportunity arises. It’s a lot of work but we have to earn it while we can. The campsite shuts at the end of September – it will take a few days to close it all down and then it’ll just be a few days of maintenance during the off-season. I’ll continue guiding and start working with local farmers, including our neighbour Ramon, when they need me and that should get us through the winter . . . .

The last few we few weeks have been crazy busy – and it’s going to get worse over the next few days! Can’t complain at having work though 🙂

I’m still working everyday at the campsite – I thought things were going to slow down in September but now that the school holidays are finished, all the people without children are visiting and tons of them are cyclists.

On top of that I’ve been either guiding people or training / trail-finding in the afternoons and then at night after I’ve been back to do the campsite “evening shift” (closing down the swimming pools etc) I’m trying to keep on top of paperwork, updates, guiding enquiries . . . .

Today and tomorrow in the afternoons I’ll be joining Mrs Spekkie, Ramon the Farmer and Rosa up at the farmhouse to stomp the grapes they’ve all been picking from this years harvest.

And on top of everything, I’ve made good progress translating and updating our Dept. of Commerce Viability Study so that we can use it when talking to private investors about our Project. Just need to proof-read it once more to make sure it all makes sense . . . .

That will be my next post – Private Investment!

We need a “like” button on this forum. Keep the updates coming Spekkie 🙂

Cheers surfer! Appreciate the support.

🙂

Had an STW member visit Ainsa recently with some friends and we had the chance to ride together while they were here.

Always nice to meet people that have been following our “Story” on-line and always encouraging to hear people tell us that they love our location and our plans for the future. They’ve promised to come back and stay with us when the project is finished . . . .

Another beautiful day in the Spanish Pyrenees.

About 6 months ago I started helping a guy called Dale, who lives in the Philippines, to plan a visit to Ainsa to ride the Zona Zero trails.

I helped him arrange car hire & accommodation, we became friends on FB and finally last Friday, after reading and commenting on my MTB posts for months, he and his two friends Anthony & Tweed arrived and I showed them around for 5 days.

The Philippines only has two seasons – a dry season and a wet season (Monsoon) and averages 90% humidity pretty much every day – so the hot and dry weather we have here was very different for them.

They are used to riding on dirt (or in mud during the wet season) so the rocks here took some getting used to, but they all handled everything here very well.

On day one we did a warm up on the singletrack through the “Badlands” and then rode XC over to Guaso, via Boltana, to see our Build Project. Day 2 was El Pueyo de Araguas, El Soto & Usana. We had a little picnic up at the highest point of the ride before descending . . .