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

@spekkie – sorry, I’m sure the answer is up there somewhere, but where’s the campsite please? We have a ferry booking kicked forward to next July, so couple of weeks with van and tent from Bilbao. Couple of us looking to ride a bit, others just mooching/swimming.

The campsite I stay at is here, a couple of KM out of the town centre. You can walk to town out the back way across a couple of fields instead of walking on the road (headtorch at night!)
Not the cheapest but it’s decent, has a pool, and Spekkie keeps it in tip top condition 😉

@boxelder – as above, bobs link shows you where Camping Ainsa is, which is where I do a fair bit of work throughout the year.

Be good to hear from you when you’re here 🙂

We are definitely coming back at least once in the summer. I may come at Easter as well if the family go skiing in Andorra I’ll come down to Ainsa for a week as I don’t ski. I’m getting knee surgery in a few weeks and don’t want to anything in the snow.

I’ve still not got through the whole thread yet but it looks like we biked on the track past your house a couple of times whilst we were there in the summer. I’ll deffo drop you a line when I know my plans

@stainypants – good luck with the surgery. Take it easy.

Several routes go through Guaso – so there’s a good chance you did! Keep in touch 🙂

We stayed at Camping Ainsa when we were out a couple of years ago for the EWS.
When we go back will stay on the same site again. 😎

Ah, perfect! Thought you might be near the Atlantic coast, which wouldn’t be ideal. We’ve a week booked on the French side, but I was looking around your area for sites. Will be in touch next year.
Cheers all.

On the map, Ainsa is just about the center point between the Atlantic and the Med.

If you’re coming from the French coast, might be an excuse to go over the Col de Tourmalet and over the border at Bielsa…

Through the Bielsa tunnel and it’s only 45km south to Ainsa. A beautiful drive 🙂

On Saturday we swapped our Road Riding lycra for Baggies & T-Shirts to go exploring on the nearly empty Mediano Dam which stretches south from Ainsa town towards Barbastro.

It was a beautiful sunny day – perfect for a great ride with Mrs Spekkie …. and now we know how to reach the top of the Dam wall by bike!

Hard to imagine we Kayaked through the windows at the top of the church tower back in the Spring when the dam was full!

Looking north back towards Ainsa and the mountains . . . .

The Church tower that we kayaked through . . .

And the dam . . . .

Next Saturday (23rd October) the “Real Federacion Espanola Ciclismo” will be holding a round of the “Copa de Espana – Pump Track 2021” at the Ainsa Pump Track.

Our track hasn’t been open long so this is a first for us here at Zona Zero and the Zona Zero team will be there to help out – much like we did for the Endure World Series back in 2018.

I’m looking forward to it and to seeing how the Pro’s handle the course!

Nobody will ride it better than me on my lad’s skateboard after a boozy tea on the way back to the campsite 😉

🙂

My kids certainly enjoyed it when we strayed upon it.

@stainypants glad they enjoyed it! it’s a lot greener now that the grass has established itself.

That is the farmers Co-Operative building in the background with its grain silos and of course the 2295m high Pena Montanesa in the distance…..

Autumn riding on Zona Zero Route ZZ-019 with friends from the Isle of Skye on Saturday.

It was a beautiful day and the route itself, whilst still tricky in places, has matured nicely with use over the last few years. Lots of nice fast singletrack and some amazing views! A really good technical XC route.

Yesterdays Road Ride with my friends “Alejo the Priest” and “Fermin the Sculptor” . . .

The weather was beautiful, the roads were quiet and well maintained and on the sections that are part of the Zona Zero Road Cycling network of routes, there are information signs to measure your progress!

It was another great day out, tough in places but well worth it. We stopped in Escalona for a drink and a bite to eat before heading home.

Stopped at a water point in Los Molinos …

The back of the Pena Montanesa…

Monte Perdidio and the three Marias in the distance…

Info signs…

Still following this with interest, so many memories of the area in the 70’s

After a long hot and very busy summer, we’re finally getting some time to ourselves and we’ll be posting some “non-cycling related” updates on our adventure soon…..

In the meantime, I saw this on a Campervan back in the summer and it reminded me of the conclusion we came to a little while after getting here when things didn’t seem to be working out for us quickly enough. It’s good advice!

Hi Spekkie, is the campsite in Ainsa open in early December? Might be up there for the puente weekend

Hi Bob! No, camping Ainsa is closed but I believe Camping Pena Montanesa and Camping Boltana are both open all year round.

Thanks! Might book into the Apolo as a treat then!

Peace and quiet walking up in the foothills . . . .

My son was here recently for a weeks visit and he bought his Drone with him so that we could do some filming. He’s put together a few clips of villages we visited while he was here and of course our Project up in Guaso, and posted it on Youtube.

He’s left his drone here for me to play with for a while . . . it’s amazing fun!!

Yesterday it rained all day and was colder than it has been for a while . . . . today it was dry and we could see the damage yesterdays weather bought with it . . . . Brrrrrr

A stunning weekend!

Great drone vid and I love the old buildings and especially the roofs, maybe need the odd slate;)

@cvilla – thanks. A friend and I were just saying the other day that builders could use a tool like this to examine roofs more easily, especially on higher buildings like churches. I actually checked a neighbours gutters for him to see how full they were with dirt on Saturday. Saved him a climb!

We’re currently in Denver, Colorado visiting Mrs Spekkies daughter and a new 6 month old grandson that we couldn’t previously visit thanks to Covid.

The weather has been unusually hot for this time of the year, mid teens and sunny over the weekend, but that has now changed and we have a high of 2 degrees today with a low of -6 at 8am this morning….

Thankfully the houses are made for it!

Denver Trip Update …..

Two things we’ve noticed here:

1) There are cycle lanes everywhere! In Denver city centre and throughout the suburbs there’s a dedicated cycle lane on both sides of the road. The roads in general seem to be clean and well maintained, no broken bottles here 🙂 There are also cycle lanes throughout all of the parks we’ve walked through and when we went out to an area called Red Rocks, there were no specific cycle lanes but there were dozens of cyclist road riding without seeming to have any issues with motorists. In our experience, drivers here seem to be very considerate.

2) They have a city-run “see one, grab it, use it, leave it anywhere for the next person” e-bike & e-scooter hire system. Looks like you have to swipe a card to unlock the vehicle and I’m not sure how they keep them charged, because they are left all other the place, leaning against trees etc, but it certainly seems to be well used.

Loving it here, but only a few days to go now and I see it’s raining back home in Spain 🙁

Loving it here, but only a few days to go now and I see it’s raining back home in Spain

Spain’s a big country, it was lovely and sunny in Torrevieja this morning, and cold, wet and windy back home in Madrid 🙁

Perhaps you’ll get lucky!

haha – By “back home” I meant my actual house, which accdording to my weather app, it is currently raining on 🙁

Hi Spekkie enjoy your trip. It was hot here in denia 2 days ago, I swam in the sea at 14 degrees.

Mogrim- I just bought some HiFi at studio 22 madrid, free delivery, cracking bf prices on stuff no one else was discounting anywhere, audio pro and rega. Thought it was a scam but brilliant customer service, delivered via tnt, driver even phoned me up to tell me he was coming. Not had that since john Lewis in uk.

Cheers Poolman. We’re currently seeing our first snowfall. Only a few more days left here but we’re making the most of it!

We have our odd cold days in Spain for sure, but Nederland, Colorado wipes the floor with us!

Back home, shattered and jet-lagged but happy. And I’m pleased to say that today was a beautiful sunny day!

We’re now back in Spain after 2 weeks in the UK.

You don’t generally go to the UK in January “for the weather” that’s for sure, but we did have an amazing time visiting family & friends 🙂

While I was there I gave my son a copy of some footage that I recorded after he’d left his Drone with me at the end of his visit back in October. I shot most of it before I went over to meet Mrs Spekkie at her daughters over in the States back in December.

For anyone on here who has visited the area – you might recognise some of this!

Yep, recognise all of that! Passed thru on a motorbike trip on NYD en route to Girona – went the scenic way – but didn’t stop.

How do you fly to UK from there? Seems a long slog (4hrs?) to Bilbao, do you go from Pau?

Nice footage, great music. Can’t wait to come back and spend a bit longer exploring. I assume the campsite is still the best place to stay