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

Snakes Alive!

Came across this little guy yesterday whilst raking leaves at the campsite. He was sleepy and slow, but he started following me!

I re-homed him out in the countryside . . . .

YIKES! I was once followed by a sheep. I was on my bike and it managed to keep up remarkably well for a while … but then I’m pretty slow! 😃

I’d rather be followed by a sheep than a snake! In SA I came close to being chased by a Hippo but managed to get away. I don’t think the Hippo could be bothered getting out the dam he was in.

Jings … I’d rather be followed by a sheep than a snake or a hippo! 😃

Taking a breather on the way to the abandoned village of Muro de Bellos…..

“Inter-Provincial Travel” should open up again shortly here in Spain.

For a while now IP Travel has been restricted – meaning that although local businesses that wanted to, could be (and generally have been) open, their customers have all only come from within their own province. In our case “Aragon”.

I’ve been chatting to lots of my friends who are local “tourist business” owners and for some of them the off-season has been no different to any other year. Those that normally close, closed as normal.

Businesses that are usually open and even quite busy over our Winter season have seen fewer customers due to the restrictions but it has been partly balanced out by people from our own province who would normally go elsewhere for a week or long-weekend winter break and couldn’t – coming here instead 🙂

There’s no doubt that numbers are down, but given the circumstances, it’s not been as bad for most of the people I interact with as it could have been.

The campsite that I sometimes work at decided not to open this year until IP Travel was allowed – they felt that the numbers of people likely to visit at this time didn’t balance with the cost of opening and running the whole site. All the usual prep work we do has still needed doing and for me personally this year has been the same as previous years thankfully. The only difference being that where 2 or 3 of us normally get everything done by Easter for opening, I’ve been working pretty much on my own over the longer period of time that we’ve had to get everything done.

Let’s see how the next few weeks go!

Remembering the “Jose “Pepe” Perez Memorial Race” held annually in October in Barbastro, a town about 50km south of where we live. Jose was a policeman who was sadly killed on duty.

I raced this in 2018 and loved it. Hoping it will be on again this year. The race was well organized and had a great atmosphere.

Working in Spain . . . .

My work here generally consists of three things. MTB guiding, Campsite maintenance and “helping local farmers”. What I’m doing now is so far removed from what I’ve ever done before that it’s hard to make any reasonable comparisons. I suspect that people doing similar jobs in the UK or SA to what I’m doing now will see a lot of similarities – but for me it’s a world of difference.

“High Season” here is July, August & September. That’s typically when I work 7 days a week at a local Campsite, usually 8am to 2pm and then I guide people in the evenings. Generally people I’ve met at the campsite of course. Last year I also did extra hours at the campsite in the evenings – they employed less staff but we did more hours. Thankfully they seem to like me, so any work going comes my way.

Outside of High Season I still do a lot of work a lot at the campsite – typically 9am to 2pm then 4pm to 7pm after a 2 hr lunch (which allows for a little Siesta). This is not a work pattern I’ve ever had before! In Spring and Autumn I do a fair bit of MTB Guiding – of course last year that was way down thanks to Covid, but the Campsite kept me busy to compensate. Out of season I occasionally help out farmers with jobs too.

Almost all of the work I do here now is hard physical work. I joke that it’s like going to gym for 7 hrs a day. In reality it really is a good 5 or 6 hour workout a day with a bit of driving thrown in where I get to sit down for 5 mins. I’m not complaining, I enjoy it – I enjoy being outside, I love the mountain views and the workout certainly keeps me in shape. The campsite is 5 hectares of grass, dirt/gravel roads, walls, hedges, paths and swimming pools – with 26 chalets thrown in. It all needs constant attention. If you turn your back on anything for a week you can lose control! MTB Guiding is tough too – ask any MTB guide, no matter how much you love riding your bike, start doing it everyday for a living and it wears you out!

Earlier in the year I did 5 weeks “building site” work, working on the campsite owners apartment renovation project in the centre of Ainsa. That was tough going – the guys start at 8am, work until 7pm and only have an hour for lunch. We were manhandling building rubble from the third floor down to street level and into a truck for dumping, then manhandling bags of sand/cement and concrete blocks back up there to replace what we’d removed. It was an eye opener to see how long and hard these guys work. The atmosphere was amazing though, I learned some cool Spanish “phrases” to describe when things go wrong or are hard to do 🙂 and I made some good friends. I also recently did a week at the Campsite helping Jose-Marie, a local carpenter friend of the owners who was replacing wooden decking and Chalet panels – at the end of the week said I was a good “Carpentero”! He’s actually a guy who’s house I often work at in my spare time – pruning trees etc.

Working here can be hard, but it’s very rewarding and I never drive for more than 10 minutes from home to get there! I pass people I’ve worked with in town or on the road, and they give me a wave and a smile. Out riding we share jokes about “who messed this or that up” on site, or “who couldn’t keep up with loading rubble” (ok that’s always me – these guys are Strong!), but the camaraderie is warm and there is respect. Living in a smallish community, knowing lots of people and being prepared to muck in and do whatever needs doing goes a long way.

I wish I was putting this sort of effort and these sorts of hours into our own “Project”, but until I can, I’m happy to do this. It “keeps us going” and allows us to live in and experience a very beautiful part of the world 🙂

What a great post Spekkie.

Thanks @dave661350.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Living in the middle of “Zona Zero” isn’t just about riding MTB!

A couple of weeks ago Mrs Spekkie helped our friends Els and Pedro to make a promotional video about Kayaking here on the Mediano Dam (Embalse de Mediano). She enjoyed it so much that the following weekend we asked Els & Pedro if we could all do it again, so that I could try it!

I have to say, it was totally amazing!!

he dam is currently almost full. Maybe a meter and a half lower than when it’s at its highest level. Els drove us all down to the start point with the 2-man Kayaks. We had them in the water within minutes and off we went. The water was beautiful and calm. Paddling the Kayaks was so easy it was a pleasure. We headed over to the tower of the old Mediano church – the only bit of the submerged village of Mediano that can be seen when the dam is full. From there we headed over to the East side of the dam and into one of the dams many “Barrancos”. This one is where the Rio Usia that comes from the village of “El Humo de Muro” enters the dam. You can’t get up as far as the village but we found a lovely little shaded spot halfway up to stop and have a picnic.

There is a knack to paddling a 2-man Kayak – you both have to work smoothly and in unison . . . . we struggled a bit with that!! but we did have a great and relaxing time on the beautiful blue water in the sunshine. I look forward to doing it again sometime soon. Happy Days 🙂

Els & Pedro set off . . . .

Heading towards the Church . . . .

. . . which you can paddle through . . . .

I’m doing all the work!

Chasing Els & Pedro towards a picnic spot.

What it looks like at the end of summer!

Amazing!

Cheers csb!

I’d highly recommend it!

Another reason to visit Spain…

Summer season is in full swing here and it’s great. This really is a fantastic time of the year.

The campsite is keeping me busy until 2.30 seven days a week, then it’s home for lunch and a Siesta and then a swim in the local river for an hour at around 5pm. Evenings I’m out riding then we have supper at 10pm and in bed by midnight. Restaurants are open now until after midnight and the fiesta mood is here 🙂

I’m seeing some amazing camper vans at the campsite, this one caught my eye the other day. You could take it way up into the mountains on a rough fire road and camp literally anywhere I think!

Always interesting reading your posts.

Looks like you are ‘living the dream’.

@drnosh thanks – I enjoy writing them 🙂

Every year we get a week or so of crazy hot weather in August. I mean August is always nice and hot, but a week or so of temps exceeding 40 degrees.

This year has been no exception and over the last few days we’ve topped out at 41 and 42 degrees several times. When it’s that hot you struggle to do anything, even thinking straight is hard! Like everyone, we do the best we can under the circumstances. Drop the outside blinds to keep the sun out of the flat during the day, drink plenty and swim in the river in the evening to try and cool our body cores down! Sleeping is hard, just sitting still is hard. I’m glad I finish work at 2:30 every day, because the afternoons are just too hot to work in unless you’re in somewhere with aircon!

Yesterday the tempos dropped a few degrees and today they should drop a few more. We’ll have 30 as a max instead of 40 – which will be lovely. I’m looking forward to getting on the bike again after a week off.

Thankfully we did have a cracking thunderstorm in the middle of the very hot spell and that settled the dust for a day or so.

Let’s see how the next week goes . . . .

I did wonder if you kept riding when it hit 40c

@dave661350 – no, I generally don’t. People were riding, but they were going out at 7am and finishing by 11:30 then hitting the pool!

By the time I was free in the evenings it was very hot, often with an added warm wind!

I was out on Tuesday eve and again showing someone around last night. Temps are much more agreeable now and both rides were really nice 🙂

@spekkie I sprained my MCL just before we set off, so proper mountain biking has been out of the question for me just the green routes with the kids. We’ve been here throughout the heatwave and the missus has been riding road riding at 7am every other day. This area is amazing we did canoeing and canyoning which completely did my knee in even though i don’t jump. We’ve spent most days in the rivers to keep cool.

We had some amazing food in the restaurants in town but also the surrounding villages.

We did try the blue from Ainsa and Boltana and it’s clear though the kids can do reds in the UK they aren’t used to the more natural feel of the terrain here and it spooked the youngest. Also there riding at home has been limited due to the fact I’ve been injured all year.

It was never going to be the holiday we planned as my knee swells up like a ballon after each ride but we will definitely be back in a couple of years, we come out to the Pyrenees most years. I’ll spend more time with the kids in the peaks and less time at trail centres, improve my non existent Spanish. I can speak French we are usually over in Luchon or Argeles Gazost. I’m also also going to get over my fear of jumping into water so I can do canyoning with the kids.

This is an amazing place for mountain biking and the infrastructure put in place for biking is first rate. I’d throughly recommend anyone to come here as change to to the usual mountain biking destinations. It’s also easy to get to from the Santander or Bilbao ferries much easier than driving to the alps from Calais or Caen.

Good to finally meet you @spekkie !

Last time we were up there a couple of weeks ago I got back from a run and my 8yo excitedly told me one of the campsite staff spoke English (he doesn’t hear many natives) and I thought that has to be Tony! But we left that day, I figured I’d catch you again at some point.

Fast forward to this week, I was on a moto camping tour doing some trail running around my end of the Pyrenees, so stopped at the Ainsa campsite to do a zona zero trail. ZZ-09 País de Lobos, it was hot but not unbearable, though I didn’t take enough water – every spring was dry. The abandoned village at Morcat was interesting but don’t go into the cemetery! Got a bit of a shock…
35km and 1100m later (and past Chez Spekkie) I was in the pool.

Met Tony yesterday as he was liberating a bat from one of the pool umbrellas!

Hope to be back before the end of summer. I love the high mountains but sometimes trotting around a signposted route is just what I need.

@Stainypants – what a shame to do that just before you left. Bummer! At least it sounds like you all still made the most of it while you were here.

The rivers are very popular all through summer. For a quick dip and a cool down we usually go to the nearest spot – 5 mins walk away – but if we want to make an afternoon of it with some proper swimming and a picnic then we go to one of the quieter spots, maybe 10 mins away by car.

Regarding the routes, although these here are generally very well maintained, they are often essentially still just very old footpaths worn into the natural rocky countryside…. Next time you guys are over we’ll sort out some nice stuff to warm up on. Meantime, yeah, do as much of the real stuff as you can to practice 🙂

Glad you enjoyed it – and the local food IS good isn’t it!?

🙂

@bob_summers – great to finally meet you man! Was a nice surprise to hear an English voice across the swimming pools. It was funny afterwards – the staff all running around saying “hey, did that English guy find you?”

The trail running here is very good – Morcat and back is a tough one, especially in the heat. You did well.

I wondered if you’d noticed the bat. I thought it was that you were going to ask me about when you called me. They often go to sleep in the morning inside the big pool umbrellas. I always open them carefully for that reason. I also always check the swimming pool weirs before I do anything else – to look for frogs that have gone into the pool over night! Some mornings I feel like Dr Doolittle!

Be great to see you next time you come this way. Keep in touch.

T.

Always a pleasure to explore Zona Zero but i’m really gonna need to get back on my bike to do the longer trails. And the town is great, first port of call is always L’Abrevadero for a few beers with Carlos!

Had to laugh though – we chatted about how guides were still worthwhile even on such well marked trails with GPX etc.
My nieces boyfriend and his mates were there a couple of days before me. He’s only just started on MTB and is still shaky on SPDs. So of course they chose an Enduro trail! He said he carried his bike most of the way round… two of his mates pushed their rented ebikes back to the hotel after having mechanicals* not even 5km in.

*i’m guessing the chain fell off or something, they still wouldn’t have known how to sort it 😀

lol – hopefully your nieces boyfriend and his mates haven’t been put off, but yes, we do see a fair bit of people not really “making the most of it” here, which is always a shame. Often they’ve missed a great bit of trail or a water point that would have saved the day – by a few hundred meters in some cases – just because they weren’t in the know.

Likewise I see Campervans parked in carparks next to rubbish bins or the on the little industrial estates outside Ainsa & Boltana – next to the only “busy” road in the area – when there’s beautiful places to park not 5 mins drive away if you know where to go…..

Local knowledge rules!

🙂

“We all have that one friend who becomes a stuntman on a ride . . . ”

Just found this “video still” on my hard drive whilst having a tidy up. I can confirm that no Americans were harmed during the making of this video….

Speaking of navigating; I tend to use Google Maps satellite view when exploring*; obviously this isn’t fool proof, as reception can be very patchy especially in more rural areas, but does that work for you, or do you really need to learn stuff as you go along? I’ve had quite a bit of success (luck, perhaps) using this method, but maybe it’s not such a good idea where you are?

* I will always have paper maps of the local area with me too, if available. Electronics aren’t always reliable…

I’d want contour lines as a minimum for electronic navigation. Very hard to spot a lethal 80m drop from a satellite image! Also, many trails around here are invisible on the satellite view, it’s not like the Lakes where Walna Scar road is visible from space, there’s a lot of very thick forest, both ancient and working.
In the Pyrenees etc I’ll use something like the Wikiloc app with the relevant IGN (OS equiv) map downloaded. i’m mainly running these days so I’ll have the route with the map tiles already transferred onto my watch so I’m not stopping to get the phone out at every trail fork.

Very helpful, thanks. I’ve not considered the contour lines thing so much, as I’ll have had a good look at a paper map beforehand, so will have some idea of how rugged the terrain might be. And I’m talking about more ‘gentle’ exploring rather than full on wilderness type stuff. But that’s definitely something to consider. So far I’ve done ok with simple google maps and a paper map, but I’ll consider a more in-depth electronic version for future trips, for sure.

Another vote for Wikiloc, or if you have paid Strava their heat map is also a good starting point.

And I just realised I drove through Ainsa in July, went from Val d’Aran to Pamplona along the N260. If I’d remembered this thread I’d have stopped off to say hello 🙂

When you’re used to OS Explorer, IGN is horrific but it’s usually the best we’ve got! I’ve got a box of battered Pyrenees IGN & SUA 1:25000 maps in the back of the van, and that’s where they usually stay!

When you’re used to IGN, OS is horrific. 😉 My exploring the Spanish side of the hill has definitely suffered from a lack of confidence inspiring maps.

I’ll have to try the French IGN maps, I’m usually close to the border so they’d likely cover me

The IGN app is great, and a game changer for me exploring french basque Pyrenees this summer. Paper maps are good but wish I’d discovered it earlier. As with the OS app it’s being able to see exactly where you are makes navigation so easy. On tranfronterizmo rides though, you lose detail on paths/GRs/refugio etc on the border, just get contours, streams, roads etc for a few km (10 maybe? Looking at the app now.) Then roads, then nowt.

Anyway, is there no Spanish equivalent? Could Google I guess…

Anyway, is there no Spanish equivalent? Could Google I guess…

Wikiloc, as mentioned.
Switch between IGN, OSM etc. IGN only with Premium.

There’s also an IGN app, at least on Android. I assume it’s also available on iOS. It’s quite good, shows contours+tracks+water (springs+rivers+etc)+everything else you’d expect.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orux.oruxmapsIGN

<blockquoteThere’s also an IGN app, at least on Android

Ta! Handy for an upcoming tenerife trip. Disconcertingly doesn’t seem to have asked me for any money…

Disconcertingly doesn’t seem to have asked me for any money…

It’s an official government app, should be free.

What I take with me on a ride depends on what I’m doing and who I’m doing it with. I have a selection of “Maps & Apps” on hand and I rarely lose phone signal on a ride.

I do find a proper map handy for showing someone I come across who’s lost their way 1) where they are, 2) where they need to be and 3) what lies between the two points!

I always know where the next village/water point is and the quickest path to a point that a motor vehicle could get to in the case of an emergency – it becomes second nature when you live here and ride all the time.

The mountains are great fun and they provide some amazing riding, but they should be taken seriously, as should the weather and it’s ability to change very quickly . . .

Safe riding everyone!

I’ve been road riding with Mrs Spekkie every afternoon this week.

The weather is warm & sunny and the roads of Zona Zero are quiet….. a perfect time to get some miles in!