My MIL died at the end of October, we live in Spain and we could only attend the funeral service in Truro, not the wake or any other interaction with relatives. We spent the rest of the time in the UK confined in our camper van, thankfully the time between ferries in and out of Plymouth was only 4 days.

Tracey, that’s just reminded me that our wonderful Labrador who died earlier this year caught his ear in my front rotor when we were riding at Llandegla. He was only a pup and didn’t make any sound, the first I knew was the spray of blood when he shook his head. We rushed him to a vet in Bala and got it stitched back together, it took about 50 stitches. That was about 12 years ago.

I worked for 21/2 years running the after sales servicing for PlanetX, back when they actually cared about such things. Late one afternoon I was there finishing off a job on a customer’s mountainbike when the boss Dave Loughran appeared in the workshop with 2 high-ups from Campagnolo. He came over to the workstand where I was adjusting the gears and somehow managed to stick his finger in the rear disc rotor. Luckily the wheel wasn’t spinning quickly but the air turned blue for a few seconds, the guys from Campag just looked on trying not to laugh.

And one huge disadvantage. tinned beer is nasty compared to bottled. You get a nasty metallic taste

And exactly what do you think beer is fermented in and stored in before bottling and canning? What are kegs made out of in pub cellars? What material are the pipes through which beer is pumped to the packing hall?
I spent 5 years working in beer canning and bottling plants owned by pretty well all the UK’s biggest breweries so I know what goes on.

Our local Lidl is carrying a range of German Craft beers made by Steam Brew, there’s a Chocolate Stout, Session IPA, Imperial IPA at 7.8%abv and Red Beer in 500ml cans for 90 pence a piece. Just one drawback, we’re in Southern Cataluña 😁

Cough::
This is us
You can get to Barcelona year round from lots of UK airports, it was early-mid 20’s in Jan this year but can be a bit cooler. Very little rain but the odd misty morning. Hundreds of km of trails from the doorstep and I’ll show you round or give you a Garmin with trails loaded to follow. PM me for more info.

Ah yes “allegados” the Spanish equivalent of the substantial meal🤔 I wonder if I was stopped by the Guarda Civil I could use the Scotch Egg defence.😁

I’m not sure whether moving from one autonomous community to another is allowed under the current Covid restrictions Bob. We’ve knocked a UK visit on the head, we had a short visit to attend MrsPB’s mother’s funeral in October which meant a week of travelling there and back for a half hour funeral service. Trish is missing her boys who are stuck in Sheffield so to cheer her up, I’ve booked a 3 day stay in a Parador in Lleida so staying within Cataluña. It’s Tuesday to Thursday which is Christmas Eve as travel outside our village “terme” is forbidden at weekends. They’ve got a deal of €60 per night for a double room in a place which is usually 3x that.

@matt_outandabout We’re taking bookings for next Spring 😁😁
Casa Tomillo

Covid restrictions here in Cataluña allow us to ride in our local district and adjoining ones. We planned a route over the mountains to the south of us, down to the Ebro valley and back over on a trail we’d not ridden before.

Weather was sunny but a bit windy, 16° average. The cafe at half way serves filled croissants to die for, I had a warm cheese and tomato, food and coffee for 2 for €6.
The return route was up a fantastic canyon which deteriorated to a goat track push for about 1km. 64km in total with 1,500m of climbing.

@thelawman hi Richard, we were probably at the same lecture at Oakengates town hall. Still recall the thrill of meeting someone who’d done it all.

The screen on the 520 isn’t really big enough for a decent view of mapping, it’s better as a training tool and for simply following a line. On a limited budget i.e c:£150 I’d recommend an Edge Explore as it has a bigger screen and you can upload decent mapping via OSM or Fietsmap. They were recently available on Amazon for £129 but I think that’s gone now. You can upload other people’s routes wirelessly using a smartphone and apps such as Strava, Komoot or Wikiloc

To give a non stereotyping answer. Be careful to check the base mapping. If it’s to be used for biking or walking such as an Edge or Oregon family, it doesn’t really matter as most of the base mapping is rubbish and will need upgrading to OSGB or Talkytoaster online mapping. If it’s for navigation in the car and you want routing, traffic camera alerts etc, some models only have mainland Europe and exclude the UK. We live in Spain and bought a unit for our camper from Carrefour which has this mapping, we call it the Brexit edition.

Re octopus. Living in Spain, we’re having pulpo for Christmas dinner, unlike turkey, everyone gets a leg. Boom tish!

Nearly 20 years ago I moved job, in keeping with the idiot company I was leaving, they decided to keep me to my 6 month contract and put me on gardening leave. Looking forward to 6 months paid biking, 2 weeks later foot and mouth closed the countryside,bugger!
After a couple of months I found my mind going to mush but couldn’t do anything that could be construed as helpful to my new employers so I enrolled on a course at Aberystwyth Uni to learn Welsh. It was a great laugh, the others were there to enable them to get jobs in local government as there was a requirement to be bilingual, apart from an 80 year old Japanese gentlemen who spoke no English. We eventually managed to find out that he was a professor of medieval Welsh in Japan and was the youngest Destroyer captain in the Japanese navy during the war. Bizarre.

Worked for a while as a bike mechanic in the Leeds branch of a Scottish capital based shop chain. Had a particularly obnoxious individual buy a Stumpy and return it 2 months later with a knackered bottom bracket. We swapped it as a goodwill gesture and suggested he avoid jetwashing in that area of the bike. He was adamant that he’d not pressure washed it despite it being “too clean” loaded into the back of his Audi and stomped off. 2 months later he turned up ranting that it had gone again, same story, he was quite shouty this time. We stuck another one in and off he went. A few days later one of the staff spotted him at the local garage, he’d been for his weekly ride around the slop of Roundhay Park, the bike was filthy and he was jetwashing the bejesus out of the bike before putting in his car. Sure enough a few weeks later he turns up at the shop apoplectic. I invited him to wheel his bike down to the workshop, while he watched I took out the chainset and about half a pint of water ran out. Still protesting his innocence, we showed him a photo that the colleague had taken of him jetwashing. We didn’t see him again.

My Instict Solar is going back next week, I have tried to make the optical pulse sensor work for more than an hour since I got it a month ago and had no joy. Tried all the reset options available, the only time it works for more than 5 minutes is when my wrist is sweaty after bike efforts.

Tom, we have a Tessoro 481 which is built onto a Transit chassis with a 170hp motor. The electric operated bed is pretty funky and allows a big sitting area around the table. Being 6m allows parking in normal carparks and improves access to mountain roads. Our first big trip was watching the 2017 Vuelta when we were asked to drive it to the top of the Angliru by a guy from the UCI where they used it for Chris Froomes post stage medical test so our claim to fame is that he pee’d in our toilet, thinking that a blue plaque would be appropriate.

Living in NE Spain is a great location for making use of the hundreds of places that have been allocated for use by camper vans. We bought a 6m Benimar 3 years ago which is completely self contained with decent shower/toilet, large water tank, solar panel and gas fridge so we can live off grid almost indefinitely. Most little villages, especially inland allow free overnight parking, some even have electric hook-up for a couple of euros. We’ve stayed in some spectacular locations. Clearly it’s a different story at the coast, you can’t sensibly pitch up on the seafront for a week but there are plenty of proper campsites to chose from. We use an app called Park4night which seems pretty accurate and up to date, there’s a Spanish one called Furoperfecto but some of their locations are very marginal and only suited to guerilla camping with a VW T4 or similar. Most towns have a place to empty grey water tanks and chemical toilets, there’s an official list of those as well. France has a similar network so with a bit of planning and imagination, the smelly, noisy aires can easily be avoided.

We have a drinking game for every “bloody hell!” and “in the world!” at this rate we’ll be pished by half past.

I lived in a complex of barn conversions for a couple of years, a neighbour insisted on calling me Malcolm which isn’t even close to my actual name. First few times I corrected him then I even got friends to use my name frequently when he was present, all to no avail. It’s not as though he was a deaf, doddery old codger, he was younger than me and rode a Yamaha R1 like there was no tomorrow.

Same restrictions here in Cataluña, we live about 15km inland so we can get to the beach without breaking the 2 termes rule as well as riding the 80km mountain loop that I put together when training for the Badlands race. Bet no-one thought we’d be back to poring over maps working out village boundaries in 2020 when they were initially drawn up years ago.

It’s a temporary structure, honest!😁

Hi Tony, long time no speak, are you going to watch the Vuelta on Saturday? Looks a tough stage, the road along the reservoirs is pretty lumpy. Unfortunately we’ll be in deepest France then as we have to return to Cornwall as Trish’s mother died last week. We’re driving via Vielha to Roscoff then ferry to Plymouth as this means having the minimum time in the UK and being in our own bubble in the camper. Quarantine restrictions allow attending the funeral but not the wake, finding a route is like threading a needle that keeps moving, no chance of the long ferry from Santander as Navarra is locked down, just praying Cataluña doesn’t do the same. Heard Huesca city is a no go area as well as Teruel and Zaragoza. Our spring lockdown project was building a new bigger pool as the old one was in a state of collapse then when things freed up, training for the Badlands race in September. Glad to see the B&B work is coming on, how’s Ramon your friendly farmer doing?

Wikiloc. Not great for the UK but fantastic for the rest of Europe especially Spain and France, easy to transfer routes and literally thousands of routes to choose from.

Well,well the EF team has selected a guy I beat on the last section of a Bikepacking race in Andalusia a couple of weeks ago. Not bad for a 60 year old.
Unfortunately he’d finished the race 2 days earlier as he’d ridden the 700km non stop rather than stopping to eat and sleep. I’m sure I’d have got him had the event lasted until Christmas 😁
Go Lachlan, he should be a contender if he rides non stop.

The cash will, however, have been taken from your account within a nanosecond of you pressing buy. They’re probably out of stock of one or other of the components needed to build the bike which throws the order into a rabbit hole where, if it’s something simple, it will stay for a day until an alternative is found or if it’s something major like the frame, it will wait until a new container load arrives sometime in the next decade. Welcome to the world of Planet X where cash flow is king.

Clear Waters Rising
Nick Crane walks across the watershed of Europe from Galicia to Istanbul. Well written and done at at a time before the Internet which feels like the middle ages.

Thanks, same here, I use an Edge Explore for navigation but fancy a wrist device for backup and other stuff but limited battery life has put me off. I’ll do some research.

IvanDobski
Free Member
Quick update on the Instinct Solar – just wore it on the Badger Divide setting off with it at full charge and showing 17 days of battery life remaining.

Ivan, thinking of an Instinct Solar but have heard it doesn’t do Connect IQ so I’d not be able to easily transfer routes from Wikiloc via my phone,is this correct? I do Bikepacking as well, what features do you like about it?

As above, no time for withdrawal symptoms as Worlds this weekend followed by Giro the following. By the time the Vuelta hits, we’ll be sick of sweeping panoramas and impossible feats, or not. Given the Vuelta largely takes place in the high mountains of NW Spain, theres a real possibility of snow at the end of October.

We swear by his Cillit Bang as well, all round top bloke.

When I read “He was minister for a surprisingly long time” I thought that could well be an actual job. The most illustrious incumbent being Chris Grayling.

Wiciloc does everything you are asking for. Basic is free,Premium isn’t expensive but lots more features inc wireless downloading.

+1 for Chris Froome. We were at the finish line of the penultimate stage of the Vuelta in 2017 on the Alto de Angrilu, our camper van was being used by the UCI to do their doping control as one of their vans had broken down. As leader of the race, he was required to spend about 20 minutes in our van until a sample could be taken. When he emerged he thanked me for the use of the van, stopped for a chat and photos despite his Sky minders wanting him to get the hell out of the freezing carpark at 1,700m. Nice touch for someone who had just sealed victory on the Vuelta and had now all 3 GTs on his palmares.

Avoid Goldcar, trumped up charges when you’re back home, invented damage charge. As with any, take copious photos of the condition of the car when you return it. Make sure someone accompanies you with the inspection on collection and delivery and signs something you actually retain to verify there’s no damage however small. Make sure you clarify the fuel arrangements. Normal stuff, just assume they’re a bunch of shysters and you won’t be far wrong.

Nant yr Arian is perfect, right on the A44 trunk road and there’s a big layby outside if they’re arsey about overnight parking. Similarly Coed y Brenin is just off the A470 north of Dolgellau.

If you fancy NE Spain, our place in Cataluña ticks absolutely all your boxes. We’re 15km from the sea and the Ebro delta which has kayaking and paddleboarding, there are hundreds of km of bike trails ranging from easy Via Verde to full on enduro tracks. Plenty of historical towns, castles and villages. Sept is the ideal time to come with fresher weather.
Pm me if interested.
This is us

We live in Southern Cataluña just inland from the Costa Daurada, our area has escaped with no recorded infections and a very tightly observed lockdown. Thankfully the beaches are normally very quiet so no distancing issues. Friends are reporting a much better demand for holiday lets in rural accommodation than apartments by the seaside. Club rides have resumed this week and when out shopping and suchlike, mask wearing is strictly adhered to. This is us Casa Tomillo

How’s the situation around you atm Tony, we’re hearing that some areas of Aragon have been taken back to Phase 2 due to an outbreak among fruit pickers. We are thinking of a short break in Soria next week but getting there via Zaragoza could bea problem.