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@bob_summers - we actually drive to Barbastro, leave the car there and then get the coach to Barcelona.
Costs 12E per person each way and is very comfortable. Each seat has a full personal entertainment system so just take headphones and chill for 3 hrs 🙂
We would be in the camper again. Can't see it happening this year as we still have trips to pick up on that were postponed
I can imagine.
Still love those pics you took. Route ZZ-04 etc.
I remember dropping down past that old tower in Summer to the campsite below, which was hosting a Wim Hof convention :/
We've been fortunate over the last 3 months - time with family in the States before Christmas, time with family in the UK over New Year and now after a fortnight at home in Spain I'm back in the UK helping my son with some work.
The last couple of years have been hard for a lot of people and it's been interesting listening to the different (but similar) stories on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, working amongst people here in the UK they are saying that they are just tired of it all. Almost no one on site is wearing a mask (or "face covering" as they refer to it here), in the shops maybe a third of people are - despite signs urging everyone to do so. Quite a contrast to Spain where masks are still compulsory when entering any shop.
And talking of shops, I popped in to the "Best Biltong" South African shop in Guildford last week and had a nice catch up chat with the owner.....
Happy days 🙂
Yesterday we had a cold rain down where we live in Boltaña. Today as the cloud cleared we could see that snow had fallen on the Peña Monteñesa again, as is customary in March! Always a beautiful sight....
Sunshine, Rivers & Singletrack - Zona Zero
🙂
My friend Pedro Montaner, who lives here in Ainsa and is a fellow MTB'er & professional photographer, recently took this picture of the village of Guaso where our Project is.
He's always taking and posting amazing pictures and it's shots like this one of Guaso that remind us of everything we love about living in this area and keeps us going towards our goal of building and running our little B&B.
🙂
Those last three posts are fantastic Spekkie, the place looks amazing.
@twistedpencil - Thanks man! It's been raining today but for the last week I've been able to get out and enjoy some fast dry trails.
Enjoying life . . . .
Yesterdays ride on Zona Zero Route ZZ-07. Clear skies & warm weather - perfect.
The village of El Pueyo de Araguas with the Pena Montenesa mountain behind it.....
Yesterday we drove up into the Pyrenees and did a little hike from the village of Revilla along to the "Miradors of Revilla" and back.
Miradors are what we'd call Viewing Points. It was an easy hike and the views were amazing. Afterwards we had a picnic lunch on the grass back at the car and sat and enjoyed the view while we ate.
This is definitely a place we'd recommend people to come and see for a morning out. Only 20 mins drive from Ainsa, good access and a really nice camino/path to walk along.
As always, the camera doesn't do the place justice, but here's a few pics anyway!
Another day, another ride!
The river path between Boltana and Ainsa on a beautiful evening.
As far as website addresses go, possibly not the easiest I've ever come across . . . .
My Mac actually turns that into a clickable link.
I wouldn't click on it if you like boars 🙂
Send me the link so I don't have to type it in?
Meanwhile Spekkie you are living the life. I love living vicariously through your posts. Great work.
I think I rode up that valley the other week. I don’t think you are supposed too but it was on the Zona Zero Website last year. We had an amazing week in Ainsa over Easter too much going at work and another holiday in the Lakes have got in the way of posting the photos I’ll put some
on this thread when I get back to home.
I’m now seriously considering retiring to somewhere in the Spanish Pyrenees.
I have friend who have a gorgeous place in Venosc France - its between Adh, CdF/Gandon and Col Galibier, on the lower slopes of Les Deux Alpes.
It seems an amazing life but its hard work and tough mentally. Their property is amazing, they do Ski (whole house B7B, and Evening meals) with staff/chief and summer more B&B. They dont live there which has helped during Covid as they could still rent the place out fully to self catering.
Its an amazing location and place. I have been a dozen time winter and summer. Fot them its hard, hard work. They never get to ski or ride and their fitness has gone south. The riding season is short. They are looking at the next move but scared of leaving what they have built so far.
I got bored and typed it in, right first time which is a miracle for a hamfisted typist like me.
http://www.pirenaicadecarnesdecazaygestion.com/
I think its a meat locker - a place where you can bring your boar or deer carcasses and hang them at the right temp for whatever time suits you? Might also have some facility to let you skin and butcher and clean up etc. I want to move to Spain now.
http://www.pirenaicadecarnesdecazaygestion.com/
/blockquote>It's actually pretty easy to type in - if you know Spanish. No weird spellings, no missing words, just lengthy. Seems it's a sort of slaughterhouse setup, which handles wild game you've hunted - kill a boar or deer*, and they'll come and pick it up, clean it, etc.
* Legally hunted, of course - they make a point of this, so I suppose that if you or I turned up with a dead boar we better have a hunting license, but if you know the owner that's not a major problem...
"Meanwhile Spekkie you are living the life. I love living vicariously through your posts. Great work."
Glad you're enjoying it 5plusn8!
I posted the pic because when I saw it I actually laughed out loud and pointed!
As mentioned above, if you know some Spanish it's easy enough. A bit like the department of Trade and Industry for England and Wales having the website address "thedepartmentoftradeandindustryforenglandandwales"... it still made me laugh though.
The building, which is down near the river here in Boltana, is indeed a local abattoir. (all towns here have one)
In hunting season, which is during the winter, you can take whatever you've hunted to them on the evening of each hunting day - Thurs, Sat, Sun & Bank Holidays (Fiestas) and they will turn it into sensible cuts of meat for you following the proper guidelines.
Finished our ride today along the river path between Boltana and Ainsa and it was very pretty
"Finished our ride today along the river path between Boltana and Ainsa and it was very pretty"
I rode it last eve as part of a quick loop I often do from Boltana over to the other side of Ainsa and back. It was nice.
Another hot day!
We did the ZZ-13 blue route today and it was indeed very hot
Nice. I like riding through the forest and ZZ-013 is good for that. You can extend the start of 13 using 5 Light and the end by adding either 2 Light or the start of 7 but in reverse. Did you do the "loop" towards the end of 13, above Usana? It starts with a nice little climb 🙂
We wimped out on the last climb,it was very hot when we reached that point and neither of us could face it,we're staying at Camping Pena Montanesa and ridden up on the trail the starts opposite the campsite which is a nice way to start and finish a ride
The single track up through the trees that leads into the back of the Castle is the end of route ZZ-05 going up and the start of ZZ-03 Light & ZZ-06 coming down. I came down it yesterday as it happens. The river at the bottom is almost dry.
A couple of weeks ago after some heavy rain, we took a walk up to the abandoned village of Espierlo on Zona Zero MTB Route ZZ-015 to look at the waterfalls and the views....
Those abandoned villages are mad. I was in Morcats on a 35km trail run last summer and ran out of water. The village spring was dry so I started hunting around and climbed a wall, dropping into what was the cemetary.
The fronts had fallen off the tombs and you could see piles of bones and plastic flowers inside, it was really weird and I couldn't get out of there fast enough! They obviously didn't hang around when they left in the 50s. When you see the generations of effort that went into scraping out a life up in those hills - olive terraces cut into the hillside, churches, miles of drystone walling - it's all the more touching that they had to walk away (literally, as there was no road!)
It was a hard life for sure Bob.
We've been in Ainsa for the club's long weekend based in the Pena Montansea camping. Weather was exceptional with no risk of afternoon storms so we walked up Pena Montanesa (rocky way up, down through the dead forest). We got as far as the dam on zz-003 Mediano (the red arrowed variant) before the 34°C heat and tired hands gave us an excuse to cut back along the N-road. And we couldn't resist an afternoon messing around in the badlands.
I dropped into the Ainsa campsite to check it out as alternative to the Pena Montanesa camping and say hello to Spekkie but he wasn't there. The helpful young man told me what he's up to but I'll leave Spekkie to tell you himself.
The verdict is that if you're in a tent, van or caravan then Camping Aisa is excellent and a bit cheaper, but the bungalows and mobile homes in Pena Montanesa are a bit better.
The rocky way up Pena Montanesa:
Back in Ainsa for a day on our way home and bloody hell it's hot
I'm flying back on Wednesday - apparently it's been in the mid to high 30's for the last week! And May was the hottest May in 20 years too.
It feels much hotter than when we were here 4 weeks ago and it was low thirties then
Today was a little bit cooler/slightly cloudy but last week temps hit 40 degrees here! crazy hot.
Most of Europe is suffering, but it should pass in a day or two now.
Thankfully we have the river to swim in! 🙂
Hottest day on recond in Biarritz yesterday (43 point something) and 41°C here in Pau which I think is a June record. I went out early with the MTB club and finished around 13h by which time it was 37°C, bearable. Today has been about 10°C cooler. We're gonna have to get used to it. 🙁
Saw 39 on my Garmin on Saturday, thankfully it was a lot cooler today!
I was in Biarritz on Saturday, car was showing 44C. We headed to the woods, had a picnic in (literally in) the river and a sea fog blew in dropping temps by 20C in an instant, as is fairly usual here - hot winds from the south always lose to the Atlantic after a couple of days!
Sailed home from Roscoff on Sunday morning and was 13C and pouring down, felt sorry for the cyclists coming off the ferry
Last weekend was the annual Farmers Market in Aisa, this weekend is a big Fiesta. This evening there will be a show on in the plaza and tomorrow night music and dancing. I've spent quite a bit of time in the UK this summer - so missed the Guaso village and Boltana town Fiestas - so this weekend will be nice 🙂
I'm looking forward to chocolate coated Churros!!
After a nice week of R&R back in Spain - hiking, swimming, riding and picnicing - we're heading off tonight to Barcelona for an early morning flight to the States in the morning.
Our first trip back in 2017 was to NYC - amazing. Last year we were in Denver/Boulder/The Rockies - equally amazing. This trip is to North Carolina. If our daughter and her husband keep moving like this we're going to get to see all the states! They spoil us rotten when we're there 🙂
When I get back in a couple of weeks time I'll be on my own for a month until Mrs Spekkie comes back. A good chance to do some nice long rides and make some progress with our Project. It'll just be tidying up and maintenance to start with but it always feels so good spending time up there in Guaso.
Finally finding time to post a quick update!
Since my last post, long story short....
My supposed two weeks in the US turned into me staying the full 6 weeks with Mrs Spekkie. Had a great time, did some work, did some riding and spent some quality time with the kids and the 18 month old grandson. Then back to Spain for Christmas and the New Year. Spent the first three months of 2023 in Spain riding/hiking/walking on every available dry/sunny day either by ourselves or with friends and now I'm in the UK for a little while.
We don't post on here as much as we do on other Social Media - simply because the "Insta and copy to FB" exercise is so easy to do. Here are a couple of pics from February via Tumblr though . . .
Good work, appreciate the update keep them coming, hope the house build is on plan, appreciate plans change, we've all seen grand designs;) Aim to get around there some day.
I've just read this whole thread from beginning to end! Thank you for posting updates, spekkie, and for showing so many photos of this amazing part of the world. Like many others, I'm now considering a visit..!
Glad you enjoyed it PCA! I'll try and keep it a bit more up-to-date from now on . . . .
I was missing the updates too!
Missing ZZ as well, I usually get up there at Easter for a couple of days trail running but ended up on the wrong side of the country this time. Will be there in early summer before it gets too hot, although who knows anymore - I was running at 2500m at new year in a t-shirt...
I'm finally back in Spain after several months working away - and I'm just in time for tomorrows "Copa de España de Pumptrack" competition! 🙂
As soon as I get time I'll post some updates - this year has been crazy busy
Jogged past your house last month Spekkie, stayed at the campsite in Ainsa for a mini break before school started.
Ran up to Morcats and back - stunning as always but very overgrown compared to a couple of years ago. Seems to be a new (?) veggie restaurant in Guaso too, didn't get chance to try it.
Hey Bob!
Yeah the bar in the Guaso Plaza now serves vegetarian food. They've gone for the concise "fixed menu" idea - a choice of a couple of options for each course, to cater for differing tastes - rather than a full menu. They are big on sustainability and the idea is to optimise using local seasonal ingredients and to reduce wastage. They say it allows them to cook a few things efficiently rather than lots of things inefficiently. It's run by a nice lady who speaks several languages. The lady that had it before took over the lease just before Covid hit and it was only the construction workers working on the new road between Guaso and Latorrecilla that kept her afloat. Sadly in the end she gave up. ....
I was in Morcat not too long ago when we went over that way to find the sculptures dotted around in the fields.
Generally, some of the trails are becoming a bit overgrown. There is a view held by some here that Zona Zero has just become too big to manage it the way it was conceived and managed in the past - a small group of friends with a chainsaw and a pick..... I guess we will see 🙂
Nice to see the thread back - I saw Zona Zero got a mention in Bike magazine this month, and I was wondering how it was going up there!
How is Spring shaping up on the South side of the Pyrenees, Spekkie ?
We're hoping to have a long weekend somewhere around Ainsa in a fortnight in the moho after 4 nights on the French side. Recommendations?
Hi Dave - it's been a bit of an odd year this year so far..... there was a bit more rain than we're used to in early spring - but it was needed because winter was unusually dry! For the last 6 weeks or so I've noticed that the wind seems to have been blowing from the cold side (West of us) much more than usual, which of course has been bringing the rain etc.
Our big local dam is now currently fuller than I've ever seen it. The top windows of the church tower in the dam, which we have previously kayaked through, are currently 6 feet under water! So we're certainly back on track now water wise and there's still snow up on the high peaks of the mountains to melt.
I'm about to go out for an evening ride - its currently 21 degrees and sunny with no wind 🙂
We popped over to France on Monday for lunch with visiting family. This side was nice and sunny, the French side, when we exited the tunnel, was in thick cloud which lasted almost all the way down to Saint Lary. Down in the French villages it was 11 degrees and cloudy - a good 8 degrees colder than this side at the same time.
I'll keep you posted over the next week - but I have to say the best description at the moment is probably "nice, but a bit changeable!"
Currently experiencing a bit of a heatwave here - 28 degrees at 8pm this eve - I'm just in from a lovely evening ride 🙂
Trails are dry and dusty where I am but I see rain over towards the west. An afternoon of rain wouldn't hurt the ground or the temp to be honest!
Currently experiencing a bit of a heatwave here – 28 degrees at 8pm this eve – I’m
Think yourself lucky......!
That's nothing... 34°C here in Tuscany. Nearing 40°C for the next few days.
I'm going to be well and truly ****ed. No amount of beer is going to help.
We've just had a deluge to end the (modest 31°) heat of the last few days on this side of the hill. Rumble, flash, bang and a wall of water. It's the first coolish Spring in a few years and a pleasant change.
@alpin - we've been getting mid 30's during the day - too hot to do much unfortunately! 40's.... forget it LOL
Massive storm last night - today is cooler and the dust has been laid to rest, for now anyway!
We had 3 nights at Gavarnie (stunning location for a campsite), 1 full day of decent weather...then it changed at about 6pm....and rained for 24 hrs. We drove over and thru the Bielsa tunnel yesterday before setting up camp at Ainsa for 4 nights. Had a great road ride today (should have brought an MTB as well) south alongside the dam, then turned east at Meson de Liguerre and climbed about 1000 feet up and over towards Tierrenton and back to Ainsa. Only ever ridden thru the area on a motorbike before. Great to be based here and to be able to pick and choose a couple of rides. (Need to come back with an MTB though....wow, there really are loads of great looking trails and the Zona Zero girl in the Tourist Info was very helpful)
Hire an MTB from the bike shop in town, Dave.
I had thought of that....but am happy on the road for the next couple of days...knowing we'll definitely come back, either later in the year or next Spring. Thanks for the suggestion
@Dave - That's a nice loop.
The Zona Zero team put in some work a couple of years ago to catalogue a collection of road-rides.
I can recommend riding up the valley to the Bielsa tunnel and then blasting back to Ainsa - pretty much 45km of downhill road!
I remember when you started this thread @spekkie. Love it when updates appear 🙂
I see there’s a Welsh number plate Black fiat van parked up in Boltaña with a bike rack on the back ……
Man - I can't believe its so long since I posted on here!
After Covid I started popping over to the UK to work with my son every so often, which certainly helped with our day to day expenses in Spain, but didn't really answer the question as to how we were going to find the money we needed to convert our "barn".
Fast forward to present day and I'm happy to say that after some hard work and some personal sacrifice (time apart) we are now in a position where we spoke to our Spanish builder last week and he's working out when exactly he can now start with Phase 1 of our Project
🙂
That's what you said ten years ago. 😉
Pleased to hear that the project is still on and that there's still the will to live your Spanish dream. I still reckon you sould (have) just ge(o)t on with it. I'm close to finishing a 45m2 "extension" which included partial demolition of an existing building. Three years of work when Madame went out to work and not even 12 000e on materials so far as I've sourced a lot second hand. Everyone is an expert now there's Youtube. 🙂
Keep going, steady wins the race, it's not all like grand designs 😉
If you fancy, what are the plans like, phased work or crack on with builder, what type of Lime for Spanish villas;)
Cheers C
Hi Spekkie, being a bit lazy not to read all 24 pages, but do you run a B&B close to Monte Perdido?
I've messaged you.
All the best with your projects.
Ed
I'm currently half-way through a five week holiday at home in Spain after another 8 weeks of working away and I'm loving the sunshine and the fast dry trails! 🙂
It's pretty hot at the moment but I'm not one to complain 🙂
I've had a great time catching up with all the local news - there's a lot going on at the moment, and I've managed to fit in a bit of work helping a local farmer and a local guide. I'll post more on that as soon as I get a minute!
@eduardorocha - nice chatting to you - you have my number now, see you soon.
@Edukator - I passed on your thoughts to our builder - how he should have had this "extension" done by now. I won't tell you what he said, or how much worse it made things when I told him you were French LOL
If you really want to wind up your builder tell him you regret not having got some Portugese builders on it. 😉
It's been a bit hot on our side of the hill so no doubt warmer on yours. We've been up and out at first light the last few days and in the shade by 14h. We haven't been to Ainsa for a couple of years. For a few years it was one of the few places you could go, grab a map at the sports shop and self-guide. Now there are so many gpx file sharing sites and apps we can ride almost anywhere without local knowledge.
After our last visit when Abigale was racing we always said we would come back to spend more time exploring.
Circumstances sees us now retired and fingers crossed we hope to be back in September. Is the campsite we stayed at last time still good
Hey Tracey - good to hear from you!
I don't remember which campsite you stayed at when you were here - Camping Peña Montañesa or Camping Ainsa? (I worked at Camping Ainsa) They're both still open as far as I know but I believe Camping Ainsa are not running the restaurant/bar this year due to staffing issues.
There are also 2 campsites where we are in Boltaña - Camping La Gorga (which is next to the bridge/river in Boltaña) and WeCamp Pirineos (formerly Camping Boltaña) which is just outside Boltaña behind Margudgued. Both very good as far as I know.
Keep me posted - I might be around if you do make it here 🙂
Thanks for the update. It was Camping Ainsa due to it been near to the race village
As long as we are central for the trails then any will be fine. What do you think
I've not used any sites apart from Camping Ainsa, it's good for the ZZ trails, oh and that pool after a few hours on hot dusty trails....
There's not a lot of shade in that bottom field though. When the weather's really hot I'll tend to get a room at the hostel Apolo.
@Tracey - they're all pretty good I think. Are you "Camper-Vanning"? My personal preference nowadays would be Camping La Gorga in Boltana. It has all the usual amenities, it's right by the river (we've been swimming every day for the last two weeks), there are several eateries, a supermarket and a bakery within a couple of minutes walk..... We also just prefer Boltana life to Ainsa Life 🙂
@18bikes - It's tonymtbainsa for cycling stuff - not too much going on there at the moment with me being away so much! But I do also have tonyslaughteresp which is where we post most of our "progress" stuff 🙂
@bob_summers - you do love those long XC runs at 35 plus degrees don't you! Remember Morcat? . . . bit further than you originally thought, and a bit hillier 🙂