Cycling B&B in the foothills of the Pyrenees

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Shut Up Legs

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In September, I'll be in your neighbourhood (very roughly). One of my rides, during my 4 week Pyrénées cycling trip, is to Lac de Cap de Long (a lovely Alpine lake sitting at just over 2200m), which is about 43km directly north of Ainsa, but about 72km by road.
:hello:
 
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Packing the car for our Road Trip. We're driving down to Almeria, which is about 9 hours away, so that I can attend a Mountain Bike Guiding Course.

Tonight we will be staying over with some friends who live in Catalonia - which is about a third of the way there. The route passes by their front door! Will be great to catch up with them again and stopping over means we turn the trip into a nice easy 2-part drive.

Will post my course progress on here as I go . . . . .
 
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After a long drive from our stop-over at friends, we finally arrived in Almanzora near Almeria last eve. Unpacked the car and ate a tapas supper in the local bar

Unpacked in our B&B and then hit the hay for a busy day today. First day of my MIAS MTB Guiding course.

Looking forward to it
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So our road trip is over :-(

It was a 1950 km round trip - so further than Jo'burg to Durban but not as far as Jo'burg to CPT.

Good roads and for the most part, little traffic. Need to update the Garmin though - often it told us we were in the middle of a field when we were actually on a new road!

On the trip down we stopped and visited some friends and on the trip back we stopped and visited some family. We even met up with an expat FB friend from the UK whose been following our adventure.

Was great to see my Aunty Jan & Uncle Ian. You don't realise how much you miss family until you see family :-(

The MTB course was a success and I'll be posting more about that later.

Ramon and Rosa were very please to see us when we got back. Rosa gets so upset when we go anywhere. You'd think they'd appreciate some peace and quiet but apparently not.

Now we're looking forward to putting some new plans into place. We'll update as we go . . . .

:-)
 
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It's always nice to meet up with old friends or to make new ones. In the last week we've done both :-)

The evening we got home from our road trip we met up with a guy from SA who has been following our adventure on-line since it started. He originally looked us up two years ago when he was cycling in this area on his own. This year he's back with a couple of friends on motorbikes and we caught up with them for dinner. Was great seeing him again. Wish it could have been for longer but I know, we all have schedules to keep!

Then last night we met up with a couple from Scotland whom we've never met before but who have also been following our adventure on-line. They are touring the area in a camper van and, despite a few misses and plan changes, we finally met them for drinks and a chat. We also took them for a quick spin around the village and showed them our "project". Was very nice to meet them and we look forward to seeing them again!

Despite our endless optimism, the delays and problems we go through do get us down sometimes and so it's always a welcome relief to have someone look at our property and the views from the garden and remind us that it really is amazing.

:-)
 
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Anyone interested in 7 day Stage Race crossing from one coast of Spain to the other along the ridge of the Pyrenees mountains . . . .

The "Transpyr Adventure", which is organised by the Transpyr Cycle Club and covers a total of approximately 800km, broken down into different stages, with a cumulative elevation gain close to 20,000m and whose difficulty can be described as "very high" . . . may be just for you.

The race passed through Ainsa last Wednesday evening where the days stage finished next to the Rio Cinca. I popped along to have a look, took some pictures and chatted to a few people. This year there were around 300 riders competing. It looked well organised and the riders coming in seemed to be enjoying themselves. Ainsa is at roughly the half way point.

Here's a link to the Website:
https://transpyr.com/

And here are some of the race T's & C's . . . :-)


17. Distances and elevation gain may vary considerably due to last minute changes of routing motivated by reasons of force majeure or other reasons deemed necessary by the race organization. The distances and elevation gain of each day will be announced at the technical meeting or briefing, held on the day prior to each stage. The organization reserves the right to change the route of the event at any time.

18. The event will be undertaken by following a track specified by the event organization. The organization may, at its discretion, post signage in order to help participants remain safe, or to prevent accidents

19. The route, and therefore the track file, is confidential until the start of the event or until shortly before the start of the event. The organization is not responsible if said route is followed outside of the dates of the organized TRANSPYR 2018 event.

:-)



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For
 
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The other morning while driving down the hill to meet Darren, a visiting friend who is English but who lives on the Spanish island of Tenerife, for a ride - I saw a couple of riders stopped by the entrance to Zona Zero Route 9 and they were studying a route map.

Whenever I see someone who looks like they might need a bit of help I generally stop and see if they're OK, so I pulled over to ask this couple if they needed any help.

They spoke English and I helped them with some directions. Then the guy asked me my name. I told him "Tony" and he said "ah, you don't know Mark Robinson do you?

It turns out that "Pat" (who is Irish but lives in France) is a friend of Marks (who is English but lives in Scotland on the Isle of Skye) and Mark had told him about a guy (me, who is English but lives in Spain) and his partner Wendy (who is South African but also lives in Spain) after he visited us last year to meet us and to do some riding, after reading about us on-line . . .


It's a small world.


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You know you're becoming "well known" when someone visiting the area can go into the local bike shop and get your phone number from the owner by describing you as "Tony . . . used to live in South Africa"

We have a friend visiting us from New Zealand. We first met Bernie outside the hotel we were staying in when we were first ever in Ainsa looking at property 3 years ago and we've kept in touch ever since but of course he's never had my phone number. Now he's over here mountain biking again and we're catching up
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Last Monday evening, over supper at Ramon & Rosa's farmhouse, I introduced Bernie to our other visiting friend Darren, who was already here riding - and on Tuesday morning they rode together while I was at work. Then on Tuesday evening we all rode together again.

Darren has since carried on with his journey but on Thursday I took Bernie up to the "Muro de Roda" on Zona Zero Route 4 Light.

We started early 'cos Summer has arrived with a vengeance!

Here's a pic of me near the top and a "Zona Zero promo pic" from the castle at the top

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ZL-004 - Pic 2 - Muro de Roda.jpg
 

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
You know you're becoming "well known" when someone visiting the area can go into the local bike shop and get your phone number from the owner by describing you as "Tony . . . used to live in South Africa"

We have a friend visiting us from New Zealand. We first met Bernie outside the hotel we were staying in when we were first ever in Ainsa looking at property 3 years ago and we've kept in touch ever since but of course he's never had my phone number. Now he's over here mountain biking again and we're catching up View attachment 415848

Last Monday evening, over supper at Ramon & Rosa's farmhouse, I introduced Bernie to our other visiting friend Darren, who was already here riding - and on Tuesday morning they rode together while I was at work. Then on Tuesday evening we all rode together again.

Darren has since carried on with his journey but on Thursday I took Bernie up to the "Muro de Roda" on Zona Zero Route 4 Light.

We started early 'cos Summer has arrived with a vengeance!

Here's a pic of me near the top and a "Zona Zero promo pic" from the castle at the top

View attachment 415846 View attachment 415847
Nice photo! I just found the Muro de Roda on Google Maps simply by looking at the lake in the photo and its coastline shape.
 
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That flat light green area in the upper middle of the pic is actually a grass landing strip - possibly for refuelling the fire fighter planes that drink from the lake.

It certainly is a beautiful part of the world.
 
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On Tuesday we visited the offices of one of the local "Gestorias" in Ainsa. There are 3 or 4 to chose from . . .

"In Spain "gestorías" are private agencies which specialize in dealing with legal and administrative work. For a fee they carry out the trámites (paperwork) involved in getting passports, work permits, car documentation etc and liaise with the Agencia Tributaria (Inland Revenue), thereby saving their clients much inconvenience and queuing time"

As a Spaniard, trying to do your own paperwork & admin in Spain can be pretty difficult. As a foreigner it is nigh on impossible. Hence the need for several Gestorias in Ainsa, a town with a population of only 2000 people.

We used a big firm to do our admin when we moved here and bought a property. Now we need a local, smaller and more intimate firm to do some day to day stuff for us.

The first task was to apply for Spanish Social Security numbers - which we have now done.
 
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"Tour de France Fever" is upon us! Today we plan to take our road bikes out for a spin up the road. Will be my first road ride this year!

Yesterday morning I cleaned them and pumped up the tyres . . so they know it's coming.

Will take a while to get used to the skinny wheels again
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Up early on a warm Monday morning and looking forward to working on all the little projects we currently have on the go!

Every morning I help Ramon feed the sheep in the barns while Mrs Bonus helps Rosa prepare warm milk for the 4 lambs who's mums can't feed them. This drives Ramon mad. He says they are spending 100€ per lamb on buying milk for lambs that he will sell for 60€ each! He won't stop Rosa though, because he knows it's what she wants :-)

I'm also trying to complete "one job a day" around the farm. Stuff that Ramon just doesn't get around to - he's 76 years old and still works every day of the week, regardless of the weather, but the jobs pile up. I try and do a bit of tidying up, a bit of gardening or repairing something that needs it. Slowly but surely I'm getting on top of it - although with a live farm you never really get ahead of the game!

While I do that, Mrs Bonus takes care of our part of the house and all the many day to day chores that keep us clean, clothed and fed.

We are trying to get in at least one bike ride together a day and then I'm trying to get out on my own for either a hard ride (building up my fitness) or an "exploring new trails" ride. In either case it's both fun and it's helping me prepare for Guiding people. We have some clients lined up . . . .

Lastly, having neglected our own Build Project while I was working at the campsite, I'm now keen to get back into it. There are a number of jobs that we can get on with that are labour intensive but won't actually cost much. Every bit of progress we make on our own project helps keep us positive!

Then we just have to find time every day to do some "learning Spanish" lessons, spend some social time with R&R, do our shopping & admin, keep in touch with friends and family, clean and service our bikes, eat and sleep.

Simples!

:-)
 
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On Sunday morning Mrs Bonus and I, along with a couple of our friends, drove through to France to ride the climb that goes from the Pyrenean town of Saint-Lary-Soulan up to the ski station at Col de Portet.

This climb, which is 16.4km long and rises 1338m, will feature at the end of Stage 17 of this years Tour de France. The summit sits at around 2215m - so the views were spectacular.

We all did the ride on MTB's, despite me wearing my Team Sky kit, and we all had a fantastic time!

Afterwards on our way back to Spain we stopped beside the river at Le Pont du Moudang for a picnic. Casa Vino courtesy of Ramon the friendly Farmer.

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