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

Hi Spekkie, Boxing Day night (living the dream, or at least yours) I sat and read the entire thread (have been going to do it for a while) it was quite the journey binge reading it and it was really like one of those TV dramas or books you can’t put down.

Anyway, I trust you and yours have a year that finally brings everything to fruition and I look forward to following it here. Los mejores deseos y buena suerte

Thanks white101 – igualmente.

Glad you’ve enjoyed it so far – it certainly has been a journey. Let’s see what this year brings now . . . .

Wishing you and yours all the best too.

It’s slowly melting away now, but the day it snowed we took a drive and some photos.

It’s beautiful, but you have to be careful where you try and drive. We have a 4WD SUV for this very reason – rural and snowy winters – but even so we didn’t go “off Piste!”!

This is Latorrecilla . . . .

Guaso, where our project is, with the Pena Montenesa in the distance.

Ainsa Old Town . . .

Stick to the middle of the road . . . .

We took a drive up out of the back of Boltana on the gravel road to Morillo de San Pietro (Sampietro) yesterday but we had to stop a couple of km short of the village when the snow got too deep.

It’s a route I often cycle – so I knew what was coming up – and although we have a 4WD SUV, we weren’t taking any chances!

It was a nice drive regardless.

“Mrs Spekkie” checking for cell phone signal and muttering something about “mountain rescue . . .” 🙂

So we had some snow, which we enjoyed. Most of that melted and life returned to normal – then along came Storm Filomena!

Spain was hit pretty bad, some places (mostly down in the south) with rain resulting in localised flooding and some places (Madrid for example) with a lot of snow, which closed major airports & freeways etc.

We got off lightly, maybe 15cm of snow over 36 hrs – which is what we generally get when it snows here the once or twice over a normal winter. The council snow ploughs have been out in force and the pavements have been salted…..

We did one of our local footpath walks yesterday and it really was beautiful. Not too cold as long as you were wrapped up (no wind helps) and everyone we bumped into was very socialble & in good spirits.

Happy days . . . .

Boltana monastario . . .

Footpaths were 10cm deep . . .

The Map said “Snow”, which was correct . . .

“Villaboya” – We swim here in Summer!

That one guy . . . .

Spain was hit pretty bad, some places (mostly down in the south) with rain resulting in localised flooding and some places (Madrid for example) with a lot of snow, which closed major airports & freeways etc.

Yeah, we got hit quite hard – WFH and it hitting at the weekend mean I’m not too concerned! It did make for a couple of lovely (albeit slow) runs in the snow, too 🙂

Yeah – if it was going to come, then the weekend was as good a time as any. We got off pretty lightly all things considered 🙂

After the latest snowfall last week some of our local “property developers” (kids) went into business.

A lovely little property to live in during the winter and turns itself into a swimming pool come summer!

Sometimes it’s funny how you meet fellow riders and make new friends . . . .

After last weeks snowfall, followed by 36 odd hrs of steady rain, the middle of the normally grassy public carpark behind our rented flat had turned into a bit of a quagmire. From our lounge window we could look down and see a little white Peugot 306 halfway across the carpark – spinning its wheels in the mud.

After a couple of minutes the driver got out, gave the mud “a good looking at” and then got back in a tried again, to no avail. I put on my wellies and went down to help him. Between him driving and me pushing we managed to get the car onto firmer ground and then over to the entrance of the carpark, which is tarred.

He got out and thanked me and wanted to buy me a coffee – there’s a coffee shop next door to us – but my dinner was on the table so I declined. Then I noticed a bike roof-rack on his car and said in Spanish “you ride?”. His face lit up and we chatted for 10 minutes about cycling. He rides road & MTB, same as me.

We friended each other on FB, swapped phone numbers and “promised to ride together soon”. Then he thanked me again, looked up at the sky and said “You’re an Angel”. I laughed then he said “I should know, I’m the Priest of Boltaña church!”

Tomorrow we’re doing a road ride together….

Lovely story! 😃

Have a great ride.

A couple of pics from yesterdays Road Ride.

Jose (the Priest from Boltaña church) and I started together in Boltaña, rode through to Ainsa, where we were joined by his friend Rafael (the Priest from Ainsa church!), carried on out to the “Collado de Foradada” which sits at 1020m, then back again. 55km in all.

Climbed around 700m, almost all of it during the “there” part of the ride, making the “and back” part easy!

It was a great ride. Sunny, but we still needed to wrap up. It is January after all….

I’ve never been on a ride before where I was out-numbered by Priests!

Living in the foothills of the Pyrenees means that the weather here can be very localised.

We can have nice weather here in Boltaña, which is protected bacause it nestles behind hills, while Ainsa, which is 6km east of us, can have wetter colder weather – because it sits at the bottom of the Bielsa valley that brings the colder weather straight down from the Alto Pyrenees. The campsite where I often work sits in the Bielsa valley and the temperatures there in wnter are some of the coldest locally.

The village of Guaso, where our Project is, sits about 4km south of both Boltaña & Ainsa and is on the sunny south-facing side of another protective hill. This gives us warmth from the south and protection from the north – giving Guaso its own little micro-climate.

Of course sometimes the weather is the same everywhere. At the height of Summer we can top out at more than 40 degrees on occasion (thankfully not often) and in Winter in can be minus 5 in the middle of the night. The coldest its ever been at the campsite, some years ago now, was apparently -24 degrees….

These are photos I took throughout last year that show a little bit of our local geography 🙂

Boltaña nestling in the hills ….

Ainsa, with the Bielsa valley on the right leading north towards France:

From the viewpoint behind Ainsa Old Town you can see how the heavy weather comes down the Bielsa valley:

Guaso, tucked behind a protective hill but still able to see Monte Perdido and the Pyrenees. We love this village!

Gorgeous pics spekkie. Lovely to see the high mountains rising up in the background behind Ainsa. And the last pic is made for me by that sliver of low-lying mist.

We often get mist in the valleys and low areas Rona.

Sometimes it’s thicker and then it’s amazing to ride up through it and come out in sunshine above it. I’ll look for another pic later – I have a few 🙂

From last year – starting the descent from the “Muro de Roda” (The Wall of Roda) castle in La Fueva, 20 mins outside Ainsa, on Route ZL-04 – on a sunny day with the Mediano Dam in the background…..

Sometimes it’s thicker and then it’s amazing to ride up through it and come out in sunshine above it

The famous “mar de nubes”, we get that here quite a bit. Absolutely stunning when you see it.

There are loads of little walks around here. One of our favs takes us along the Rio Ara to this little bridge next to a picnic spot just outside Boltaña. Today I read that the local council are going to refurbish the bridge and improve the picnic area for the summer.

I enjoy the walks, but invariably I see bike tracks…… and I wish we were riding!

Do you think ‘refurbish’ means adding a handrail of some kind, great bridge that:)

I don’t know. They might want to keep the bridge looking like it is and focus more on upgrading the picnic area behind it and possbly improve access to the river from the picnic area for family swimming….

(this bridge crosses a stream that feeds into the Rio Ara about 50m to the left of the pic)

Wednesdays Zona Zero road ride Route and Profile.

The last 10km were faaaaast! 🙂

Saturdays blast on the MTB . . . . stopped up in the Old Town to grab some water and a couple of pics…..

My bike with the Peña Montañesa behind it and the Rio Cinca looking south towards the Mediano Dam.

It was a beautiful day and good to be out 🙂

Bittersweet pics @spekkie! Was really hoping to stop in Ainsa over Easter en route to Catalunya but not hearing the right noises about opening up travel between Comunidades Autónomas.

Hope it’s all going well up there (and my fave bars are weathering the storm!)

There’s always a line . . .

Long-time lurker on this thread and just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your updates and getting a glimpse into life in your part of the world. Particularly enjoyed the little priest vignette, are you still riding with them? Hope all works out for you going forwards and one day having you guide me around the superb riding that you have!

Thanks @funkrodent, glad you’re enjoying it.

Yes, the Route and Profile of the road ride a few posts ago were with the Priest of Boltana (the one I originally helped in the mud). We keep in touch and ride when we can. I’m free most Sundays but of course he’s always working! 🙂

Be good to see you over here one day!

A bit of XC last weekend . . .

@spekkie Do you take the XC bike out on the enduro trails? It looks fairly chunky in your pic before last pic.

@tails – Having been here for a while now, I’ve learned what I can do and what I can’t do on my Specialized Epic. It generally copes with everything I want to ride here, including the “easier” Enduro trails. I avoid the descents on the Black routes – the geometery of an XC bike just makes them too tricky – but pretty much everything else is do-able. If I come across a section I can’t do, I’m happy to jump off for a few secs. I’d rather do that and still ride most of a route than not ride the route at all. One day I’ll fit a dropper-post and that will help me along I’m sure. Also, I’m one of those people who enjoys climbing, and the XC bike is great to ride on the climbs 🙂

I’ll buy myself an Enduro bike one day, but until then I oocasionally borrow one from one of my mates if I want to try the more extreme stuff. The bike hire shops here only hire out Enduro bikes as far as I know, including the ebikes.

That’s good, always thought I’d be under biked but sounds similar to my riding, jump off rather than fall off.

Yep, if you ride XC/Technical XC you can have a great time here 🙂

One of our local swimming spots . . . looking forward to summer now! 🙂

Really quite jealous. Been thinking about buying a place in Spain for a few years now. We were all set to start looking ‘properly’ (ie a nice holiday travelling around various places), but our Spanish friend became ill, so we had no translator. And obviously Covid has shelved things for a while longer too, and I dread to think what Brexit has done for things.

Having been here for a while now, I’ve learned what I can do and what I can’t do on my Specialized Epic. It generally copes with everything I want to ride here, including the “easier” Enduro trails. I avoid the descents on the Black routes – the geometery of an XC bike just makes them too tricky – but pretty much everything else is do-able. If I come across a section I can’t do, I’m happy to jump off for a few secs. I’d rather do that and still ride most of a route than not ride the route at all. One day I’ll fit a dropper-post and that will help me along I’m sure. Also, I’m one of those people who enjoys climbing, and the XC bike is great to ride on the climbs

Spekkie that’s spookily so relevant to my own search for a new bike (see my wonderful thread regarding the matter 😉 )! Yours is the kind of lifestyle I’d really quite like myself, for at least part of the year. Nice.

One of our local swimming spots . . . looking forward to summer now! 🙂

You are really making me quite jealous showing off views like that..

@asbrooks – sorry man 😉

We did a “Drive ‘n’ Hike” today up to the semi-abandonded village of Morillo de San Pietro.

The village sits at an altitude of 970m (we live at 600m) and is about 4km north of us in a straight line (9.5km by “mountain gravel road”). The climb from Boltaña up to the turn off to the village is part of route ZE-09 which I’ve ridden several times. It’s a nice steady workout 🙂

There’s one couple who still live up in the village and two other “holiday” houses that are visited during the year. The remaining dozen or so properties are in varying states of repair – from “passable” to “only the external walls still standing”. The local council refurbished the gravel road and installed solar electricity to all the properties a few years ago in an effort to encourage people to move back there.

The views are spectacular, but it’s pretty rural. The 9km drive takes a good 25 mins to complete and the village becomes isolated when it snows heavily – so not entirely practicle for most people . . . .

With the Alto-Pyrenees to the North and the Lakes to the south, there are enough big landmarks around here that although you might take a little wrong turn occasionally, no one should ever really get lost…….

Zona Zero have taken care of the sign posting and done a great job…..and even if you prefer to ride the unofficial “secret” trails you’ll come across a sign before long!

Happy trails . . . . .

🙂

Did a “Lycra-clad” road ride with “Jose the Priest” and “Fermin the Sculptor” on Saturday afternoon. Beautiful day for it and the views are always worth the climb!

Fermin is 76 years old and climbed the first 7km – which rises 500 odd meters – without any problems. If I can ride like that at 76 I’ll be a happy man!

From FB:

A “Colombiano”, an “Ingles” and an “Español” riding together on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
At one point Fermin (he’s a Sculptor who also sings Opera) and I were singing “El Mondo”……….

What a happy looking bunch. 😃

Sunshine, quiet roads and good friends….. Livin’ the dream!