# Cycling B&B in the foothills of the Pyrenees



## Bonus (5 Oct 2015)

My "Where We Ride in South Africa" picture threads will soon be replaced by some "Where We Ride in the Pyrenees" threads :-)

We've just returned to South Africa from Spain, our second trip this year, where we completed the purchase of a property that we intend to renovate and run as a B&B.

There is a lot of work to do. I'll post some pics of the property later. Maybe by next summer we'll be in business!

We will cater for anyone of course, but the focus will be on us being a good place for MTB and Road cyclists to visit and use as a base.

:-)

Bonus.


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## Bonus (25 Oct 2015)

Our property in Spain . . . . it needs a little bit of work.


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## Dave 123 (26 Oct 2015)

Mates rates for CC'ers?


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## Bonus (28 Nov 2015)

I'm happy to say that we have now received an email from our Spanish architect with plans for our house renovation attached.

They look very good and we're happy. We've had a few copies printed out on A3 and A2 sizes so that we can mark them up / scribble on them. Now we can start measuring the new rooms and working out what furniture to take with us and where it will fit in. We still won't take everything, but it looks like we will take what we can - since we have a 6m container to fill anyway and our stuff has no great resale value here...

By extending the walls of the tower up by a meter or so, we are now able to have 2 double rooms en suite on both the middle and the top floors.

Previously we were looking at 2 doubles en suite on the middle floor but only two singles sharing a bathroom on the top floor.

Can't wait to get back over there in January to make a start :-)


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## Bonus (17 Dec 2015)

We have booked our shipping company. 

They arrive at our house in South Africa on 25th January to start packing and wrapping our things. Should take them two days and then on the third day a container will arrive at the gate for them to fill, which should take them 2 hours. 

4 to 6 weeks later our container will be delivered to our storage unit in Spain . . . .


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## Bonus (29 Jan 2016)

Ok so the shipping company took four days not two days to pack up the house! Staff shortages were the problem. 

Instead of bringing the container to the house to pack it, they took our stuff away (getting dark by the time they finished) in a removals van to their wharehouse where I guess they will either keep it safe until they pack the container tomorrow or will auction it off between themselves and we'll never see it again :-)

Today we will drive through to see my dad for the weekend and say goodbye. 

Next Saturday I fly to the UK and then a week or so later I will drive down to Spain. Mrs Bonus will follow me a month or so later.

As soon as my bikes arrive I can start riding the trails of Zona Zero and the roads of the Pyrenees :-)

Exciting time ahead!


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## steveindenmark (29 Jan 2016)

A big job Bonus, but like you say, very exciting.

I dont know if this helps but Jannie and are are on a site called Helpx. I dont know if it may be a site you could use.

How did you come upon the house you finally bought?


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## Bonus (29 Jan 2016)

hi Steve - yes, some work to do but it's going to be great fun doing it and brilliant when it's finished! (He says optimistically) 

We took a couple of recon trips to Spain and had a good look around. There's no quick way to do it - even with the help of the Internet. And of course on a 10 day trip to Spain from South Africa we found what we wanted on day 9!


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## Bonus (16 Feb 2016)

I've now left South Africa and I'm currently in the UK trying to get used to the February weather! - I've been out of the UK for about 8 years and it's easy to forget what winter feels like ;-)

Next week I'll be driving down to Spain to get started on our project. We'll be staying in a local apartment for now, until our place is at least ready to be part-habitated. Mrs Bonus will join me in Spain in a fortnight or so.

I'll post some pics on here as we go . . . . 

:-)


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (16 Feb 2016)

Best of luck..! 
And seems like we share an idea here... You are ahead of me... And don't worry I am in Malaga at the moment and planning to stay here... 
http://theweekendreportisborn.blogspot.com.es/2016/01/goals-plans-dreams-bring-2016.html


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## Bonus (17 Feb 2016)

Good luck to you too!


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## Montydog (17 Feb 2016)

@Bonus .....good on you fella....look forward to the pics and hopefully get over to stay and .....lots of hard work for you but worth it in the end


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## rugby bloke (17 Feb 2016)

Sounds like a fantastic adventure, best of luck with it all. Half thinking about a cycling trip to somewhere warm this summer, keep us posted of your progress.


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## Bonus (18 Feb 2016)

Eurotunnel is booked for first thing Tuesday morning next week.

Then it's a 12 hour drive through France and into northern Spain - I'm hoping for a clear run through the Pyrenees - haven't driven in snow for a few years and not keen to start now!


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## rugby bloke (18 Feb 2016)

With regard to the snow - get a set a snow socks for your car. They are considerably easier to fit then chains - a couple of minutes a wheel once you have got the hang of them. I use them when I go to the Alps in winter and they have not let me down yet.


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## Bonus (29 Feb 2016)

Update . . . After 18 odd hours of driving, 931 miles (1489km) travelled, one sleep-over in a bed & several 30min kips in the car, 2 packets of biscuits and three bars of chocolate, I arrived at our solicitors offices in Huesca last Wednesday afternoon for a 4pm meeting with our conveyancing solicitor, our translator and our new "tax and business advisor".

All went well and then it was an hours drive from Huesca, via Macdonalds and their free internet, to the apartment we've rented in Ainsa, 4km from our village of Guaso.

Since then I've been to our bank and activated our Spanish bank account cards - happy to see we still have some money in the bank - and had a good meeting with our architect, who has come up with a really good design plan for our house :-)

After what felt like months kicking my heels in South Africa, things are moving forward finally!


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## Bonus (11 Mar 2016)

There is a ton of wood in our out buildings that belongs to us now! Fire wood, planed timber, rough timber, a great big tree trunk, planks, poles . . . you name it!
I'm halfway through emptying the building
















s - hopefully finish today :-)


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## rich p (11 Mar 2016)

Good luck. Looks like the sort of place me and my cycling chums would be interested in.
Where would one fly to from the UK? Barcelona, Girona, Perpignan?


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## Bonus (11 Mar 2016)

rich p said:


> Good luck. Looks like the sort of place me and my cycling chums would be interested in.
> Where would one fly to from the UK? Barcelona, Girona, Perpignan?



Zaragoza is the closest airport Rich, about 2hrs away. Then Pamplona at 2hr 30min and Pau & Barcelona are both about 3 hrs away. The roads are good and to be honest the scenery is so "Big" that you barely notice the drive. It's not like driving up the M1 in the rain for example :-)


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## glenn forger (11 Mar 2016)

Pau airport's brilliant, I've been there, there were people parachuting against the backdrop of the Pyrenees.


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## Bonus (14 Mar 2016)

Took a drive up into the mountains yesterday for lunch and a look around. Beautiful scenery - the camera really doesn't do it justice.


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## Montydog (14 Mar 2016)

...wow great views!!


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## Bonus (15 Mar 2016)

There are certain rules that you have to comply with if you move to Spain to live and you are not actually moving to a job (and therefore paying tax to the Spanish government). 

The first rule is that you have to prove that you can support yourself financially. This means obtaining a "balance certificate" from your Spanish bank proving that you have at least 5000 Euros (for a single person) or 8000 Euros (for a couple) in the bank. The second rule requires you to take out a private medical insurance policy so that you will be taken care of in the event of injury or illness and not be a burden on the Spanish "Seguridad Social". These proofs have to be taken together to the police station where they will be officially noted and logged. Then you can be given "Spanish residence". 

We took an hour's drive through to the town of Huesca yesterday to visit our "legal team" at the offices of Asesoría Morlán. They are taking care of all of our legal matters here in Spain. (and I can't recommend them enough. They have been fantastic with us!) They provided the conveyancing solicitor for our property purchase back in September and the Tax Advisor I spoke to about registering ourselves as a business when I visited them upon arriving in Spain nearly a month ago. They also found us our rental apartment in Ainsa and did all the communicating and arranging with the Spanish landlady! 

Yesterday we met with an Insurance Advisor who, with the help of our friend and translator Sole, talked us through the private medical insurance we need to take out. Everything is looking good. Everything is being done correctly and legally. (not my normal modus operandi I must admit - I tend to just do what I like and see what happens).

So, from today we should have full medical insurance. Now finally I can climb up on the roof and start taking off the old roof tiles . . . !


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## Bonus (20 Mar 2016)

The ship carrying our container has docked at Barcelona harbour!

Now we have to supply a few last bits of paperwork to the shipping agent in Spain for Customs and then the container should be checked and released for road delivery to us. We have had to apply at the local Land Registry office for our "we own a property in Spain" certificates (although we are not official residence yet) and on Monday first thing (which is 10am in Spain) we will pick up our official Tax Clearance stickers from the local(ish) Tax Office.

The Tax Office gives you official stickers (with your Spanish tax number on them) that are then stuck onto your paperwork by the customs officers.

:-)


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## Montydog (21 Mar 2016)

sounding good


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## Bonus (24 Mar 2016)

Hard to believe that this will be our "Workshop and Laundry" one day . . . watch this space!


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## Bonus (28 Mar 2016)

Yesterday we went for "Easter Sunday Lunch" with Ramon & Rosa, the old farmer and his wife who owned the property we bought. They are our neighbours and seem to like us very much :-)

Lunch was exactly as you would expect it in the house of an old farming couple. We ate in the kitchen in front of a lovely open log fire. There were many courses with lots of home grown ingredients and four different puddings of which we had a bit of each! The chicken we ate had been walking around the farmyard the day before, the wine and schnapps, of which there were several varieties, were homemade and of the "rocket-fuel" variety - fetched from the wine cellar once we arrived.

I took Ramon and showed him with our drawings what we plan to do with our house, while Wendy helped Rosa in the kitchen :-)

What a lovely homely couple - it was a very nice afternoon and we came home and predictably nodded off a bit!

I'm enjoying the "meeting neighbours" part of our Adventure. . . .


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## Bonus (1 Apr 2016)

Our container has been checked and cleared by customs 

We've paid the final customs fee - for some sort of "scan" (imagine the size of the X-Ray machine that scans 40ft containers!) and for storage over the Easter holidays. The container is due to be delivered to us at our storage unit (4km from our house) next Thursday morning.

We were worried that we would end up paying some import duties on our belongings but it seems our "proof of residence outside of the EU for the last 12 months" was good enough. Initially Spanish customs wanted a letter from the British Embassy confirming we'd been living abroad but when we phoned them to ask for this letter the Embassy told us they have "no clue where British citizens are around the world" and that they do not supply these letters, that Spain know this and should stop asking! Anyway our SA docs (utility bills) were enough.

So, one week and I will have my beloved bikes and Mrs Bonus will have her beloved shoes!


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## Bonus (9 Apr 2016)

Our shipping container was unpacked in Barcelona into a removals lorry that could fit down the lane to our village. Our house is (quite obviously!) not ready for our stuff yet but our neighbour, the old farmer whom we bought our property from, has given us the use of one of his barns for storage! It's dry and secure and only 30 meters from where our own front door will be - so it's perfect. We have bought some things back to our rented apartment with us. 4 bikes and a selection of boxes containing clothes and things that we need now. Slowly but surely we will hunt through the remaining 100 odd boxes sorting out what we need now and what can be left boxed in storage for later. We completed the unloading and storing with the help of neighbours and the farmer with his tractor. The farmers wife provided a big cooked brunch for everyone mid morning. Such a lot of friendship and generosity. We've certainly landed in a nice place.















View attachment 124301


Happy days . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (15 Apr 2016)

First ride tomorrow in a little while . . . . :-)


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## Jerry Atrik (17 Apr 2016)

Really enjoy following this thread . So jealous .


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## Bonus (28 Apr 2016)

Yesterday we took a drive to a local Historic town of Alquezar, which we'd been told was worth visiting. It certainly was beautiful and it was only an hours drive through some stunning scenery.


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## glenn forger (28 Apr 2016)

Please keep posting photos Bonus, this is my Number One thread for daydreaming.


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## Bonus (28 Apr 2016)

Will do G F!

Glad to be of service . . . :-)


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## Bonus (3 May 2016)

"Operation Back Garden" progress pics . . . .


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## Bonus (3 May 2016)

If anyone asks which is the "before pic" there will be trouble . . . :-)


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## Bonus (4 May 2016)

Somehow, Bonus knew that he'd live to regret being too lazy to terrace the back garden properly . . .


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## Bonus (6 May 2016)

Mrs Bonus getting back on the bike after a few months off. We rode right up until the container was packed in SA - but it's still been a few months off the bike for her so she's suffering. I started riding as soon as I got here because I bought one bike with me on the plane :-)

Here I am squeezed into the rather small lift at our rented apartment









with my MTB :-)


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## Bonus (16 May 2016)

We asked three different builders to quote us on our building project and they are starting to get back to us with prices now. We have a meeting on Friday morning with the first builder we talked to. The other two are not far behind.

It has taken longer than I expected for them to put their quotes together, but they are quoting everything from the new roof on top down to the water service trenches from the street at the bottom . . . and everything in-between.

We should also hear from the municipality this week regarding planning permission. When I spoke to them recently they said that everything was going well and the council architect was happy apart from a small question that needed to be cleared up with our architect.

Slowly but surely . . . . . Meanwhile, to keep ourselves busy, Mrs Bonus is practising her recipes on me and I'm doing what I can at the house in preparation.

:-)


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## Bonus (19 May 2016)

Keeping busy while I wait for quotes and planning permission . . . it's a tough job, but . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (25 May 2016)

We've had a good couple of weeks. . . . 

Last week we stopped at a pavement cafe for coffee and got talking to a couple from Colorado in the US who were touring the area and had hired an MTB each. We ended up riding together on some of the local Zona Zero trails around Ainsa. It was good for me to get out with other riders for a change - usually I ride MTB alone. They have taken our details and they are watching our "blog". They've also given me the details of a business local to them that does MTB tours with a view to sending people our way once we're up and running :-) We rode up to our place and they had a good look around - they plan to come back next year and spend more time here in Ainsa and less time touring around.

Aside from a few days of good riding I've been spending my time with the continued job of "taming the garden" whilst Mrs Bonus practices her recipes for Tapas dishes, and we're both still trying to learn Spanish. 

We're still waiting for our planning permission application to come back from the council but in the meantime we've had a quote back from the first of the three builders we've talked to.

Slowly but surely, we're getting there . . . .


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## glenn forger (25 May 2016)

Need any native flower seeds Bonus?


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## slowmotion (26 May 2016)

The stonework of your new home looks pretty good and solid. Well chosen.


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## Bonus (2 Jun 2016)

We've finally had the first part of our planning permission application approved! :-)

We now have permission to connect to the municipal fresh water and waste water systems in the street. I'll get digging tonight after dark . . . . ;-)


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## si_c (2 Jun 2016)

Bonus said:


> We now have permission to connect to the municipal fresh water and waste water systems in the street. I'll get digging tonight after dark . . . . ;-)



It's a dirty job...


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## Bonus (8 Jun 2016)

Today we visited the council offices to chase up our outstanding planning permission application . . . . and we were given a letter of "points that need addressing before the application can be passed" . . . . dated 16th APRIL!

We should have been given it 7 weeks ago!

We've passed it on to our architect, who promptly rang the council office and demanded to know "what they were playing at". So, now the architect can modify the drawings to suit the local area guidelines and then they can be re-submitted.

Finally some progress, but not impressed with a council office where everyone thought that "someone else had done it"

:-)


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## Bonus (10 Jun 2016)

One of the things I'm really enjoying here, and missed badly when I was in South Africa for the last 8 years or so . . . . riding in daylight late on a warm summer evening! :-)

In SA in summer we were getting up and out on the bikes by 6am. Much after 9 or 10am it was just too hot to still be out riding. It was a way of life I got used to and enjoyed . . . but I always missed going out for a ride at 7 or 8pm at night and getting home 2 hours later and it was still light.

The middle of the day here can be very hot - hence the idea of a post lunch "Siesta", which is a tradition we've adopted with much enthusiasm! But the evenings are fantastic. Hit the roads or the trails any time after 7pm at this time of year and you can enjoy a lovely warm ride, the evening views across the mountains & valleys etc and still get home in daylight. No lights, no arm warmers, and riding until 10pm! What more could I ask for . .. ?

:-)


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## Bonus (16 Jun 2016)

An old school friend of mine from my days as a kid in South Africa has come to visit :-)

He and his wife, who live in the UK now and tour around France for two weeks every year, have stopped by at a local campsite with their Camper Van (a mode of transport we will be discouraging once our B&B is up and running!!) so today we will take them out and show them some sights.

Will be nice to catch up :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (16 Jun 2016)

Keep up the reports, @Bonus . I've been following this thread with great interest. In September, I'll be doing a week-long cycling tour of the Pyrenees (French side) followed by the French Alps, and I'm looking forward to it.

Regards,

--- Victor.


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## Bonus (16 Jun 2016)

User said:


> Sounds like most council offices in the UK...



Was the same in South Africa. The saying there was that your letter/file/info had been filed in "File 13" . . . Which meant the bin. Standard practice was for someone to be given say 10 letters to deal with for the day and they'd shred 3 of them so they could go and sleep in a cupboard or on the roof. We've seen it all, so this is actually quite easy for us :-)


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## Bonus (16 Jun 2016)

Shut Up Legs said:


> Keep up the reports, @Bonus . I've been following this thread with great interest. In September, I'll be doing a week-long cycling tour of the Pyrenees (French side) followed by the French Alps, and I'm looking forward to it.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> --- Victor.



Nice. I keep meaning to go and visit the Tourmalet, it's only a couple of hours from here.


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## Shut Up Legs (16 Jun 2016)

Bonus said:


> Nice. I keep meaning to go and visit the Tourmalet, it's only a couple of hours from here.


That one's early on the list. I can't wait.


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## Bonus (20 Jun 2016)

We have a few little jobs to do today - talking to the architect and chasing our planning permission application etc (man, I'm getting bored to death of repeating this line!) before coming home and packing for our drive up through France to the UK where we will be visiting some family and friends for a fortnight.

Then it will be back here for the summer and hopefully to start getting on properly with our building!

:-)


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## Bonus (20 Jun 2016)

Today I've been chopping and stacking firewood . . . now it's time to wash my bike.





There's nothing to look at around here . . just the same old mountains and scenery . . . . ;-)


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## Bonus (28 Jun 2016)

We are currently in the UK on a quick catch-up trip, visiting friends & family. Great to see some of our old school friends again :-)

Challenging and confusing times for the Brits at the moment, but it looks like as far as we are concerned, living & working in Spain isn't going to change for us in any way any time soon :-)

Hopefully by the time we get back to Ainsa in a week or two's time our planning permission will have been granted and we can start building! 

:-)


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## Bonus (6 Jul 2016)

My new passport came today - I discovered it was out of date at border control in Calais when we came over here. Luckily they still let me in_._

The car is going in for it's MOT on Friday and then we can start make plans for our drive back to Spain and to hopefully more sunshine than we are currently getting in Surrey! 

:-)


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## Bonus (16 Jul 2016)

We are back in Spain now, safe & sound after a few weeks in the UK with friends & family. 

It was a long drive through France but the countryside and villages are beautiful and once we get down to the Spanish border we're only 45 mins from Home :-)

Yesterday first thing we met with our architect at his offices to discuss the last of the obstacles holding up our planning application and today we met with him again (acting as our interpreter) and with our neighbours at our property to discuss the issues further. It looks like everything is going to work out ok. There are just some concerns regarding where exactly the boundaries of our respective properties lay. One of the little oddities you get when buying a rural property surrounded by fields :-) 


Let's hope we're nearly there now - all the cycling and sight-seeing we're doing to keep ourselves busy is exhausting!


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## Bonus (24 Jul 2016)

Temperatures in our part of Spain last week peaked at 38 degrees! 
Riding first thing in the morning and in the evening is fine - midday is a no-no.
Luckily the Spanish enjoy a midday "Siesta" in their culture which takes care of just such a situation

:-)


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## Bonus (29 Jul 2016)

We want to get some additional building quotes - so just spoke to 2 different builders on the phone, neither of whom spoke any English. 

Mrs Bonus and I between us seem to have successfully arranged meetings for Monday morning and afternoon. Funny how the words go out of your head as soon as the person answers the phone and you break out into a sweat! ‪

#Livinontheedge‬


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## Bonus (12 Aug 2016)

Last night and continuing over this weekend in Ainsa is the annual "Fiesta of the Meteor Shower" . . . 

The meteor shower, which occurs every August and falls on August 11th & 12th this year - comes as a result of the Earth moving through the trail of debris called the "Perseid cloud" which stretches along the orbit of the Swift-Tuttle Comet.

Here in Spain any excuse to "socialise, dance, drink alcohol and eat rich food" will do apparently.

It's a tough life ;-)



:-)


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## Bonus (14 Aug 2016)

Zona Zero Route 13, Ainsa, Spain . . . .

1) Picture of the Ainsa mountain - thankfully I wasn't riding up it!
2) One of the features of "Countryside riding"
3) Some days all the trails seem to go up . . .
4) Ainsa lake - glacial water but warm enough to swim in :-)


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## Bonus (17 Aug 2016)

The kitchen fluorescent tube in our rented apartment has started flashing. 

I wrote "The light in the kitchen is not working properly. I think it needs a new lamp" into the phone translator and changed it to Spanish to send to our landlord. Before I sent it I thought I'd just check that it was correct so I translated it back to English. 

It says "The kitchen is not working. The lamp is guilty" . . . . ;-)


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## mjr (17 Aug 2016)

Still often even broken Anglo' Spanish will beat phone-translated stuff, as that demonstrated...


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## Bonus (17 Aug 2016)

Miming works well too. Many of our conversations are like a game of Charades!


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## Cuchilo (17 Aug 2016)

Bonus said:


> The kitchen fluorescent tube in our rented apartment has started flashing.
> 
> I wrote "The light in the kitchen is not working properly. I think it needs a new lamp" into the phone translator and changed it to Spanish to send to our landlord. Before I sent it I thought I'd just check that it was correct so I translated it back to English.
> 
> It says "The kitchen is not working. The lamp is guilty" . . . . ;-)


Move the fuse in it . Take the cover off and you will see a round fuse ( in the side at one end normally ) about the size of a 10p . Give it a wiggle or remove and put it back in . If that doesnt work take the fuse to a shop and point at it to get a new one 
P.s turn the light off first !


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## Bonus (22 Aug 2016)

Today we went exploring around the Ainsa lake. Actually it's a reservoir - "the Mediano", fed by the Ara and Cinco rivers from the Pyrenees which in turn feeds a hydro-electric power station down stream.

The water level is low at the moment (as is usual for this time of year) so we had the chance to drive down into the dam itself and have a good look around. In winter after the rains I'll have to take some "comparison photos".


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## si_c (23 Aug 2016)

Those photos are astonishingly pretty. It's really becoming clear why you moved there


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## Bonus (31 Aug 2016)

The Long and Winding (and treacherous!) road to our ongoing quest to obtaining planning permission for our project . . . . . . (Part 1)

Most of our posts on here have tended to be light-hearted and happy - and for the most part that has been exactly how things have been going for us over here in _España._ We have been very lucky - we've made some very good friends who have taken us into their homes & lives and treated us amazingly. We've been given help (and food!) without asking and generally treated like family. When the Spanish people say "mi casa su casa" (my house is your house) they really mean it. On top of that, the riding here is out of this world!

The professional people we've dealt with, the architect, our translator & solicitor and our financial advisor have become friends. All going "above and beyond" in order to help us with anything unplanned that has come up or anything we've struggled with. We are grateful to them all for making our lives easier than they could have been. Of course it's not all down to "luck" - I'd like to think that we're good people ourselves (well Mrs Bonus is anyway) so maybe it's true that you do get back what you put out there . . . .

However, as with any good story, there has to be a couple of "baddies" in the plot. Too much sugar will give you diabetes after all . . . . .

We applied for planning permission back in the middle of March. We knew that it could take a bit of time and we were prepared for that - mentally and financially. We chased-up the office of the municipal architect ourselves for the first ten weeks or so - but then when we really seemed to be getting nowhere our architect started chasing for us. Initially he had left it to us because he felt the municipal office would take us more seriously than they would take him - on the basis that at any one time he might be chasing them for half a dozen different projects.

Once he took over the chasing it became apparent that "all was not well". There was some confusion in the municipal offices as to whether we'd received a particular letter from them or not. (despite me visiting and asking for it a trillion times!) Adding to the confusion was the fact that we'd requested any post they sent to us to go to the previous owners house (Ramon the farmer) - because our property didn't have it's own post box. Eventually our architect went with us to the municipal offices and we discovered that the letter we'd been waiting for had been sitting with them for seven weeks. . . .

Not cool, but what's done is done. The seven weeks had gone and we just had to get over it and move on, which we did. (I have mentioned this missing letter on here before, so for some people this might be a repeat, but it's important with regards to what happened next). 

Thinking that everything would now be ok we fell into what turned out to be rather a false sense of security. It didn't take long before the next bomb-shell came our way. While our letter had been sitting in somebodies "In Tray" the Spanish law regarding what you can and can't do when renovating a rural property had changed! They had now placed percentage limits on the total area of a finished project when compared to the original pre-renovation property . . .

Oh joy . . . :-)

Our architect consulted with a local lawyer, with an old friend in the government in Zaragoza and with a couple of local municipal advisors. The situation was clear - in this case where the change in law was nothing to do with public safety or similar, the municipal architect was obliged to take the date that we applied for planning permission, some weeks before the law changed, into account. To cut a long story short, after some badgering and raised voices the municipal architect agreed and our original plans & measurements would again be accepted.

Thinking that everything would now be ok we fell into what turned out to be rather a false sense of security. It didn't take long before the next bomb-shell came our way . . . (you will see that this is a recurring theme!)

Whilst on quick trip to the UK to see family and friends we received an email from our architect. One of our neighbours - a 90 year old man called Pepe had been to the municipal offices and objected to our planning application . . . . 

In Part 2 you can find out what happened with 90 year old Pepe - now nicknamed "the busybody with far too much time on his hands!" . . . . .


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## Bonus (6 Sep 2016)

The Long and Winding (and treacherous!) road to our ongoing quest to obtaining planning permission for our project . . . . . . (Part 2)

When you buy a property in a developed or built up area the boundaries of the property are generally clear. Fences or walls exist and all parties concerned usually know where their property ends and someone else's begins. In the case of rural properties like ours, the lines are usually just as clear, but they will often be lines formed by trees & hedges, rivers or ancient stone walls. The principal is the same though - the agreed lines are the limits of the property.

Here in Spain the department that looks after boundaries and the like is called the "Department of the Catastral" - (Department of Maps). Or as we've named them now - the Department of Catastrophies.

It turns out that some 90% of all the rural maps held by the Catastral are incorrect. They thought they were doing ok but with the advent of Google Earth and similar mapping systems it turns out that they are not doing ok at all.

It's not entirely their fault - farmers have had a habit of selling off bits of property over the years but not telling the council or the Catastral (Capital Gains Tax avoidance) and so the maps are simply out of date. Now this isn't a problem if both parties are still alive, have their faculties and are still friends, but it becomes a huge problem if any (or all) of those criteria are not filled. Guess which camp we fall into . . . . . . _;-)_

So, Ramon the friendly Farmers family sold some of their land many years ago without doing the correct paperwork. Then as the farm was left from one generation to another the neighbours gradually fell out with each until present time . . .

In the Pic attached you can see a green arrow leading from the end end of the municipal lane onto our front garden (which will be where our drive is) but it crosses a piece of property numbered 03 - this land belongs to Pepe. Pepe was annoyed that his enemy (or rather his families enemy) has sold a property (to us) and made some money so now to be difficult he has decided that maybe he doesn't want us driving over his land. The land in question is actually a big flat turning area where cars and farm vehicles can park or turn. The department of planning permission in Ainsa have said they will not proceed until this issue is resolved . . . .

Now the story get both complicated and intriguing - the architect called for a meeting on site to resolve the problem. The meeting included us - fresh back from the UK, Pepe the land owner, Ramon Snr (the previous property owner), estranged Ramon Jnr - who owns property No 5, the Architect and the Estate Agent. The estate agent says she was under the impression that access to our front garden was allowed because of the "historic right of way" that has been set over the years - but she is also the niece of Pepe, so she doesn't want to get too involved. Ramon Snr insists the historic right of way dictates access, but he won't talk to Pepe directly, only to the architect. Estranged Ramon Jnr says (grudgingly) that his dad is legally right but that he told him to have this stuff written down "before the property went on the market!" because he knew this would happen! The architect who is trying to sort this all out is not doing it purely out of the goodness of his own heart . . . .he owns the estate agency who, if push came to shove, would be sued for selling a property and not disclosing existing problems . . . .

Halfway through the meeting the "Family of Pepe" arrived. This is another niece and her husband and their 24 year old son. It turns out that they actually own the house and the land, not Pepe. Now they are annoyed with Pepe for causing trouble with the new neighbours (us) but they can't show their anger with Pepe in front of Ramon Snr - enemy of the family . . .. The niece and the architect come to an agreement that we will continue to drive across the land as always and this agreement is explained to us by their son - the only one in their family that speaks English.

Of course this is how it should have been from day one. There was never a chance of Pepe stopping us from accessing our land - but we didn't know that and it was a big worry.

So, we have an agreement written up, the architect draws up a plan showing all of our actual boundaries in their correct positions and everyone is happy. The agreement is signed the next day in the architects office and we take it to the municipal office for the town architect explaining to him that he can now proceed with our planning application . . . From here everything should be ok, right?

Two days later we get a message from the architect to say that Alberto, a different neighbour (and friend of Pepe's) who has a holiday home with land adjoining us on a different side has issued an objection to our planning application . . . . .

Grrrrr

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water . . . . .

(to be continued . . . . .)


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## Lpoolck (6 Sep 2016)

Hopefully you will continue to get over these speedbumps. Sounds like pepe has nothing better to do, I am not sure how this affects him?


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## mjr (6 Sep 2016)

Lpoolck said:


> Hopefully you will continue to get over these speedbumps. Sounds like pepe has nothing better to do, I am not sure how this affects him?


Presumably he lives in casa Pepe and would rather things die than change? There are many such people.

That said, why is @Bonus putting in planning applications without talking to the neighbours to identify if they've any "red lines"? I know you're not required to, but it seems a fairly simple way to reduce delays. When I was part of a planning committee, I was always surprised that it only seemed to be some of the large developers who bothered to consult and try to address objections _before_ applying. Even then, not all of them. I'm struggling to remember who it was during my term that annoyed everyone enough that 150ish people from a fairly small village turned up to a planning meeting.


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## Bonus (11 Sep 2016)

It seems that the root of these issues and the "less than helpful manner" of the neighbours comes down more to a generations old fued between different sets of cousins than it does to us. We are simply caught up in it.

The good news is that although its delaying us a bit now and costing us in lawyers fees etc, in the end we will have iron-clad agreements regarding access to our property and boundaries. So we and our next of kin will never have the same problems that these cousins are having now because their forefathers didn't do things properly.


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## Bonus (16 Sep 2016)

"The Long and Winding Road Part 3" . . .

Today we finalised a draft agreement between ourselves and our neighbour Alberto. His lawyer will prepare the agreement for us all to sign on Monday morning at our architects office. Our architect, Pedro Miguel, assures us that once this is signed on Monday there is no reason for the council not to issue us with planning permission very quickly.

The "Alberto issue" has not been a pleasant one. The planning objection with Pepe was a nuisance and a worry but it was never really unpleasant and with hindsight it was worth getting it sorted out before rather than after we did our renovations - because vehicular access to our front garden in essential. This latest issue has just been unpleasant.

In a nutshell . . . .

the architect designed our property so that the north-west facing wall of our "tower" (shown in black on the sketch) which faces the mountains and has the best views, would contain six windows. 2 on the ground floor - lounge and dining room, 2 on the middle floor - bedrooms, and 2 on the top floor - bedrooms. In order for the council to grant us planning permission to put windows into that wall (which currently has none) we would either need to own the land marked with green stripes or have permission from the person that did to do so.

According to all the existing documentation, we do own the land but our neighbour, who owns the land marked "Field", disputes this fact, claiming that the existing ocumentation / agreement was incorrectly drafted back in 2008. He has flagged up this dispute between the two of us to the municipality will now not proceed with our building license until the matter is resolved.

So we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Firstly the municipality will not proceed with any dispute active. We are told that our documentation is good and that we can go to trial and almost certainly win - but it could take a year or more to get there. Meanwhile the project will just sit. Alternatively we can concede that the land belongs to Alberto, we would have to sign an agreement saying so and he will sign an agreement allowing us to put our windows into our wall and will sign over to us a strip of land tight against the wall of the tower allowing us to get between the road and our back garden (plot 152). With this agreement the municipality would be happy and we should have our planning permission very shortly.

We're not happy. It feels too much like we're being "blackmailed" by someone willing to "sit it out for as long as it takes" but the advice of our architect and all of our friends is to "sign the agreement and get on with our lives".

We have to decide by 11:30 Monday morning and either sign or not. We have the weekend to decide . . . . 

... oh and tomorrow is Mrs Bonus's Birthday!











:-)


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2016)

We are off out to visit an abandoned village . . . . pics to follow :-)


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## ColinJ (18 Sep 2016)

I hope that the project goes ahead after all that you have put into it! It is a real shame that these problems have emerged so late in the process.

It looks like the kind of place that I would like to visit, and I am sure that many other CycleChatters would be interested too. Hmm, Spanish forum rides ...


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2016)

Cheers Colin :-)

There are some hills here for you to "climb slowly" . . .


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2016)

The village of Janovas near us. Was abandoned when they were going to build a dam and flood the valley. Then they changed their minds. Now I see people are starting to renovate a few of the buildings . . .

You can ride through this village on Zona Zero Route 6 Light.

I imagine it's a bit creepy at night!


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2016)

One



more . . .


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## mjr (18 Sep 2016)

And I guess any unpleasant or ugly things will be directed at Alberto's ill gotten land? Any dead wildlife catapulted over that wall and so on...


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## Bonus (19 Sep 2016)

I did hear talk of all the local slugs headed towards his vegetable garden . . . . ;-)


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## Bonus (19 Sep 2016)

This morning we signed an agreement with our neighbour with respect to putting windows into the front wall of "the tower". We've taken the agreement to the municipal architect up in Ainsa Old Town and the secretary there has said we could have the license "in a week or so". I'll believe that when it happens - meanwhile we plan to go back on Thursday morning to chase things up. We've had enough of waiting now - winter will be on its way soon!

We appreciate all the good wishes, support and ideas on how to dispose of a neighbours body if necessary. We certainly have some good and creative friends around us . . .

B.


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## mjr (19 Sep 2016)

Bonus said:


> We appreciate all the good wishes, support and ideas on how to dispose of a neighbours body if necessary. We certainly have some good and creative friends around us . . .


 He didn't go that far, but I knew someone who was so annoyed with his neighbour that he jumped the fence in the dead of night and, uh, "adjusted" the markers for the foundations of a new building that seemed sited mainly as an FU to him (and was approximately three floors tall before he objected to loss of light - it was one level before they got permission, but that was still taller than the wall beyond it).

I've not looked for a few years and I can't see it on Streetview because they've planted hedges in front of the twisted walls, but as far as I know, there is still a building with an interesting discontinuity where they cut a layer of bricks about ankle-height to get the building back on the level and it's slightly smaller than originally planned. I wonder how much that cost. Presumably it was cheaper than demolishing and starting over, but can't have been by much...

I still don't really understand the beggar-thy-neighbour attitude, but maybe that's because I only really remember having one problem neighbour over the years and our current ones seem especially lovely.

Good luck!


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## Bonus (20 Sep 2016)

If you have to be stuck somewhere waiting for council officials to sort themselves out, Ainsa is not a bad choice of place to be. . . . .

Zona Zero Route ZZ019 - 23km long, 670m of climbing, 70% single track . . . .





Nothing can spoil this view. Man I love this place.


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## mjr (20 Sep 2016)

Bonus said:


> Nothing can spoil this view.


Alberto and Pepe are applying to build a tower block in the morning...


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## Bonus (20 Sep 2016)

and I'm planning on burying them in the concrete foundations . . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2016)

What a weekend! Yesterday we spent the day picking grapes down in the Ramon & Rosa's vineyard, today we spent the day at the farmhouse sorting, stomping and pressing. Tomorrow we will pick again and Tuesday we should finish the last of the processing. Then the grape just must sit for a while :-)

We've enjoyed it but I can tell you these old guys know how to do a hard days work. And all of it with a chat and a smile - as if it were no work at all.

Here's some pics, including one of Mrs Bonus with one of next years "glasses of wine".


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## Shut Up Legs (25 Sep 2016)

Nice. It reminds me of the French cycling tour I just finished a bit over a week ago, one of the highlights including 3 days spent on the French side of the Pyrenees, climbing such peaks as the Col du Tourmalet. Absolutely gorgeous views and nice weather (high 20s).


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## Bonus (26 Sep 2016)

S.U.L - The Tourmalet is just over the border from us.

Primarily Ainsa is known for it's MTB trails but the road riding here is great too. Loads of famous T de F climbs within reasonable driving distance.


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## Bonus (26 Sep 2016)

We have heard from the Municipal Architect in Ainsa and he is happy with our house plans and the agreements we have with our neighbours regarding access to our property etc. 

He has forwarded our file to the regional architects office in Huesca (the main town nearby) for final approval. . . . we might actually be getting there now! 

:-)


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## Bonus (29 Sep 2016)

5 days of picking grapes, stomping grapes and eating grapes! All done now - yesterday we finished cleaning up. Now we wait a fortnight for the grape juice to ferment.

We were finished by lunchtime so I was able to get back out on the Zona Zero trails yesterday afternoon for a ride.


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## Bonus (3 Oct 2016)

Today we are going to look at cars in the nearest big town, Barbastro. After 6 months of residency in Spain you either have to buy a Spanish car or register your foreign car with Spanish plates. It's quite expensive to do and for us, with a British car, there's also some retro work to do because the headlights point the wrong way etc. 

So, we're looking for a four wheel drive SUV type vehicle with a tow-bar that will do us for day to day stuff initially but also be able to get us up the access roads in the mountains to the top of some of the climbs because we are going to offer "uplifting" to those of our visitors who "like to ride down but don't always like riding up". . . . 

Personally I'm loving the climbing :-)


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## ColinJ (3 Oct 2016)

Will you be doing airport transfers too? 

Where IS the nearest airport? Oh, and the nearest decent bike hire business?

(Just fantasising about a potential future holiday!)


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## Bonus (3 Oct 2016)

Once the building starts (soon hopefully) and we have an idea of timescales we'll get a website up and running that will cover everything. 

Essentially we will be "running a B&B" but actually our plan is to provide a home from home for people wanting to either road ride in the Pyrenees or MTB in and around the trails of Zona Zero, Ainsa. We want people to be able to make the most of their time here so we're keen to offer as many extra services as possible. Suitable meals, packed lunches, kit & bike cleaning facilities, tools available, good local knowledge of the trails/roads, uplifts to some of the trails and drop off points for road riders wanting to start somewhere away from base. Maybe even a "fetch me please" service for people who hit the wall miles from home! 

I believe the nearest airport serviced from the UK is Zaragosa (from Stansted) which is 2 hrs from here. Barcelona is next at around 3 hours. We'll have details of airports, airlines and travel times available once we're ready. Also travel times to here from the UK by car. It's not a bad drive - we've done it a few times now!

There are MTB hire shops in town and I'm going to see about trying to negotiate a decent price for our guests. Not sure about road bikes, will have to check.


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## Bonus (10 Oct 2016)

Now that we're heading into winter up here in the Northern Hemisphere (although it's still lovely weather where we are in Spain) we spent some time at the weekend going through the barn that Ramon the friendly farmer is lending us to store our furniture and belongings in until our house is ready. We only expected having to use it for a few months in the Spring but of course all the delays have knocked that for six. Everything is still clean & tidy and well wrapped up though and we even dug a few more things out to use at the apartment in the meantime.

Today Ramon and I drained the 1600 litre, 200 year old wooden cask that he has in his cellar and that we'd filled with stomped grape juice two weeks ago. It's finished fermenting and was ready to store. He has 4x 200 litre stainless steel tanks and an assortment of about a zillion old wine bottles that we've now filled and shelved. At the moment he still has about 400 litres of last years wine left to finish. By then the new stuff will be ready to go. It was hard work - because Ramon insisted on us both frequently testing the wine as we drained it out of the cask . . . . a tough job, but someone has to do it!

:-)


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## Bonus (17 Oct 2016)

On Friday morning we went into our local council office to check on the progress of our planning application. We were told that the regional architect in Huesca has approved our plans and they have been returned to the architect in Ainsa, who had approved them previously. Now the local council architect just needs to make sure that all of the paperwork is in place and sign it off. We are hoping that will happen this week . . . .

Meanwhile, on Friday afternoon I got a call from Angel, the man behind the whole Ainsa Zona-Zero MTB/Enduro project to see if I was free to help him with some trail work. I had been in and introduced myself to him at the bike shop a while ago - my intentions coming here were always to get involved and help out wherever I can - and he'd said that he'd start working on the trails in the autumn and was very keen to have any help. He's a great guy, speaks a bit of English and is passionate about the trails.

Here are a couple of pics taken this afternoon where we are creating a new single-track using an ancient sheep path through the forest . . . .












:-)


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## Bonus (19 Oct 2016)

Finally !!!

We have been told that our planning application is fully approved and permission has been granted! We will receive the temporary "certificate of license" tomorrow by registered post and then the official certificate once we've paid the council their fee. (which is hopefully not to much!) 

We can now go back to the bank - who agreed with our business plan "in principal" but could not proceed with our building loan application without the building license being issued.

#sighofrelief


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## Bonus (19 Oct 2016)

This morning we took a drive down to the "Dam wall" end of the currently almost empty Mediano reservoir. The reservoir is named after the old village of Mediano which was situated in what is now the middle of the lake. The vacated houses were demolished before the valley was flooded - only the church was left standing.

Everything shown in these photos is under 10m of water during the rainy season. The top of the church tower, from the white tide-line upwards, is the only part higher than the high water level.


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## Starchivore (20 Oct 2016)

Que bonito es! 

Really enjoying following your story. Espero que tengas toda la suerte con el proyecto. And looking forward to the next update and hopefully some more photos of the area.


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## Bonus (20 Oct 2016)

Thanks Starchivore! I'm enjoying telling it (and living it!) 

:-)


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## Bonus (20 Oct 2016)

After an afternoon of trail-building in the forest on the south side of the Peña Montañesa, I took this video of the landscape towards Ainsa.


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## Bonus (23 Oct 2016)

The Pyrenees - I never get tired of looking at them. . . . .


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## Bonus (23 Oct 2016)

I've started a "Tumblr Blog" covering cycling in and around the area we live in. First attempt at Blogging so not sure how it will go!

http://mtbainsa.tumblr.com/

:-)


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## mjr (24 Oct 2016)

<fx>Tumblrweed rolls past...</fx>


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## Bonus (27 Oct 2016)

Took a ride up to the abandoned Castle of Muro de Roda today. The route includes around 400m of climbing over a 5km stretch.

You can get into the castle - they still use it for holding some of the nearby village fiestas. If you climb up the inside of the tower you can ring the bell at the top!


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## Bonus (28 Oct 2016)

I think this quote from Angel at the end of the “MTB Zona Zero Documental” video sums up life here in Ainsa, Spain …

“If you see a stone that bothers you, you stop and you remove it, the same as everyone else”


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## Bonus (29 Oct 2016)

Last Tuesday we visited the local municipal architect and she told us that our Planning Permission License was passed and that she would post it to us on Thursday, registered post. (She only works Tuesdays and Thursdays)

By this morning, a week after it was posted, we still hadn't received the letter and we were worried that we had missed the postman (for signing) so this morning we went to the architects office to check on things.

Apparently the letter hasn't been posted yet because the architect hasn't signed it off.

Seriously, these people would test the patience of a Saint!

:-(

#hotimpressed


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## ColinJ (29 Oct 2016)

"_Mañana ..._"


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## Bonus (29 Oct 2016)

Si.


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## Bonus (30 Oct 2016)

A good way to get the bottom half of your car buffed up in Ainsa town :-)



View: https://youtu.be/ednrvcjWwRk


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## Bonus (3 Nov 2016)

We went to see the municipal architect today to chase up our planning application - which she had said she would send out by post nearly two weeks ago.

She was very apologetic and gave excuses of having been at meetings in other areas of the district but promised that if we go back tomorrow just before close of business (2pm on a Friday) she will personally give us the signed license in our hand.

We told her we'd be back tomorrow but in fact we are going to Zaragoza tomorrow for the day so it will be Monday before we go in and fetch it. Better that she expects us tomorrow though . . . .

;-)


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## Bonus (3 Nov 2016)

Last week Angel (from Zona-Zero, Ainsa) and I checked out an old disused & overgrown path, around about 1.5km long, near the village of Torrelisa. He wanted to clean It up to provide an alternative downhill run on Route 7.

The first thing we did was walk the path to see how bad it was (it was bad!) and whether it could be turned back into a useable bike trail or not (It could).

Then this week we went back with tools and started work. Stage 1 consists of cutting and removing the biggest branches with the use of a chainsaw and clearing the bigger fallen rocks off the whole length of the path. Stage 2 sees us doing a second pass for the smaller bushes and branches with a petrol strimmer (weed-eater) and clearing away the debris and any smaller stones we missed the first time. 

Today halfway down the path we discovered an old natural spring that riders can use for drinking water :-)

Some "Before and During" Pics of Angel and his three dogs . . . 




















km


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## Bonus (7 Nov 2016)

Found this bridge just off "Route 6 Light" the other day. You would use it if the weir just upstream of here became submerged due to a high river water-level.

You can see here how wide the river bed is and it looks like it's too wide. A few hours heavy rain up in the mountains though and this boulder strewn dry riverbed becomes a torrent . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (7 Nov 2016)




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## ColinJ (7 Nov 2016)

Looks great!



Bonus said:


> You can see here how wide the river bed is and it looks like it's too wide. A few hours heavy rain up in the mountains though and this boulder strewn dry riverbed becomes a torrent . . .


I used to think that some of the storm drains I saw on the Costa Blanca looked a bit OTT, with mere trickles or no water at all in them. Then I heard about THIS TRAGEDY in the area!


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## Bonus (7 Nov 2016)

We have our Building License! Finally. We went and signed for it today at the municipal architects office. Now we can move forward. What a relief . . . . 

It is officially time to break out the champagne!

:-)


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## ColinJ (7 Nov 2016)

Bonus said:


> We have our Building License! Finally. We went and signed for it today at the municipal architects office. Now we can move forward. What a relief . . . .
> 
> It is officially time to break out the champagne!
> 
> :-)


Cava, surely!


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## Bonus (7 Nov 2016)

ColinJ said:


> Looks great!
> 
> 
> I used to think that some of the storm drains I saw on the Costa Blanca looked a bit OTT, with mere trickles or no water at all in them. Then I heard about THIS TRAGEDY in the area!




There was a terrible flood through a campsite in Biescas, about an hour from here, back in the 90's. Flash flood. Funnily enough it's where we went to watch the Giro go past in September.


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## ColinJ (7 Nov 2016)

Bonus said:


> There was a terrible flood through a campsite in Biescas, about an hour from here, back in the 90's. Flash flood. Funnily enough it's where we went to watch the Giro go past in September.


The storm drainage channels going down to the sea near Altea have been landscaped and have footpaths on them. Not a problem when they get the usual slow build-up in water level, but as the Finestrat and Biescas examples prove, sometimes a wall of water comes rushing down ...!


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## Bonus (10 Nov 2016)

Yesterday we had a meeting with our architect, Pedro Miguel. He went over our Building License with us (3 A4 pages of legal Spanish, obviously) to check that everything is in order. There were no surprises. We have to start the project within a year and finish within three years of the license being issued. If we need an extension after that we can apply for one - that's quite common. The property should be built "as shown on our drawings". Published safety guidelines must be followed by the contractor on site. Don't unduly interfere with the neighbours etc.

Of course we now have a fee to pay - calculated as a percentage of the cost of the total works. A percentage of this fee is government tax.

In some cases the percentage of tax can be reduced - "for rehabilitation of ancient buildings that fall within special council guidelines". Our building is not special in that way (although it is very special to us) so we get no reduction. On the plus side though, buildings that fall under that "special" heading with the council can only have certain modifications made to them. We would rather pay the full fee and get the finish we want than pay a little less tax but not be allowed to do "this or that" with our building. . . .


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## Bonus (11 Nov 2016)

Managing in Spain while learning Spanish . . . .

Neither of us are fluent in the Spanish language but by now (here for 9 months) we speak enough to get by day-to-day with all the usual "casual" stuff.

Before leaving South Africa we had 10 1hr lessons with a great guy from Colombia (which we now wish dearly we'd tried harder at!!). Since getting here we've continued teaching ourselves by using lessons found on the web etc and of course by talking to people around us who can only speak Spanish.

We mostly manage ok with the easy stuff - you do have to use a bit of imagination with the phone translators, they are not perfect. For the more important/official things we found ourselves bilingual people. Our solicitor and financial advisor speaks pretty good English. Our architect the same. Between us with our basic Spanish and them with their basic English we do ok.

As far as the actual learning goes, it's easy enough to learn a couple of hundred words. Verbs, Nouns & Adjectives etc. The difficulty comes with putting them into a sentence that follows the rules of Spanish language and so makes sense to a Spaniard.

You get a good idea of the structure of Spanish by listening to a Spanish person speak "bad" English. When they make mistakes with the word order of English it's because they are translating from a Spanish sentence word by word. Equally if we translate an English sentence into Spanish word by word it will be "understandable" but poorly constructed.

We say "the blue car", they say "the car blue". We say "short trousers" they say "trousers short". Once you understand this rule it's not too hard to get it right. Tenses are more complicated as are some of the masculine/feminine associations.

On the other hand there are some words that are easy to remember because there's only a single letter change, like:

Guy/Girl is Chico/Chica
Son/Daughter is Hijo/Hija
Brother/Sister is Hermano/Hermana . . . . .

:-)


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## mjr (11 Nov 2016)

Bonus said:


> The difficulty comes with putting them into a sentence that follows the rules of Spanish language and so makes sense to a Spaniard.


The thing that I always find difficult is the scarcity of subject pronouns, which are usually implied by the form of the verb.


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## Bonus (13 Nov 2016)

We are off to Ramon the friendly farmer & Rosa's for lunch and champagne this afternoon. Rosa has been saying for months that we will celebrate together when we finally get our building license and of course we got it this week.

While we're there I will show Mrs Bonus the new lambs that were born yesterday and the day before. 5 lambs in 2 days! Sweet little things.


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## Bonus (15 Nov 2016)

It's mid November, the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day in Ainsa, Spain. 

Tuesday is Market day and although it's not what most people would call "hot" I am still comfortable in my shorts.

This is a picture of the Market in the car park next to the Rio Cinca. In the background is Ainsa Old Town, up on the hill.


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## Bonus (16 Nov 2016)

We've learned our first Spanish swear word :-)

The word is "Hostia!"

It has a silent H (H is always silent in Spanish) so it's pronounced "Osteeya". It's not a BAD word - I suspect we can use English BAD swear words if we ever need to and we'll be understood just fine.

It's a sort of cross between "Dammit", "I don't believe it" and "Stone the crows!"

Ramon the friendly farmer taught us it (by example of course) Rosa has fits of laughter when we use it mid-conversation.

haha we're fitting in here just fine :-)


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## ColinJ (16 Nov 2016)

Bonus said:


> We've learned our first Spanish swear word :-)
> 
> The word is "Hostia!"
> 
> ...


Judging from '_Narcos_', I think _'Puta'_ forms the basis of some pretty serious swearing in Spanish!


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2016)

I recorded a couple of videos this morning so people can see a bit of where we live.

Hope you enjoy them :-)


View: https://youtu.be/_lP8OiSHAx8


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2016)

From Guaso Hill looking towards Boltaña. . . . .


View: https://youtu.be/zbgzLtAmKQw


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2016)

Halfway down the Hill


View: https://youtu.be/qhI92OYvtXg


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2016)

Front Garden . . . .


View: https://youtu.be/fA8l8nr3eM4


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2016)

Back Garden . . . .


View: https://youtu.be/WHOX43Na4u0


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## Bonus (18 Nov 2016)

We need to take out a loan to help with the building costs of converting our "Barn" into a home and B&B business, so we had to employ an independent financial assessor to assess the property. He looked at the property some months ago but couldn't finish the assessment without planning permission being granted.

Now that we have planning permission he has finished the assessment and we talk to our first bank on Monday morning.

Meanwhile this weekend we must go though the builders quotes we have received and compare them . . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (24 Nov 2016)

Ramon the Friendly Farmer & Rosa's Farmhouse Courtyard.


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## Bonus (24 Nov 2016)

The chickens really do come home to roost!


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## Bonus (26 Nov 2016)

We've had an interesting week. . . .

On Monday we saw the bank and things are looking fine there. The interest rate for borrowing over here is between 1.5% and 2.5% at the moment.
Then on Tuesday Mrs Bonus found an interesting website that explained and gave examples of typical contracts between Spanish builders and their clients. Some very useful stuff for us to be aware of.

On Wednesday we had a catch-up meeting with our architect to discuss a few things. We also spoke to him about two additional licences that Mrs Bonus had read about on the "Contracts" website.

The first is called the "License for first occupation" which is where, at the end of the build, they come and check that the building was built according to the drawings you submitted. The second is called the "License of confirmed functionality" which is the one that checks that the rooms we are building for the B&B part of the house are "fit for purpose".

They are both either free or have already been paid for when we paid the bill for the Planning Permission Certificate.

Tomorrow we are looking at builders quotes to compare builders . . . decision time ;-)


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## Bonus (27 Nov 2016)

Where in the world is Ainsa, Spain . . . . ?

Ainsa is situated in the foothills on the southern side of the Pyrenees mountains, which run East-West and form the border between France and Spain. Ainsa is 45km south of the French border and approximately half way between Barcelona and Pamplona.

From Wikipedia:
Ainsa is the main town in the Ainsa-Sobrarbe municipal area, in Aragon, Spain. Besides the surrounding mountain landscape, the main sights of the town are the 12th-century Iglesia parroquial de Santa María church and the 11th-century castle are the main sights of the town.

In the cycling world, Ainsa is most famous for being home to the Zona Zero MTB trails which, in 2015, hosted Stage 7 of the 2015 Enduro World Series races.


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## Bonus (28 Nov 2016)

Up until a fortnight ago I was still riding in beautiful sunshine wearing shorts & a short sleeve top (with a sleeveless vest underneath). Then the weather turned and it rained for a few days, followed by me having a head-cold for a week while the sun came back! I recovered from the head-cold (I was at deaths door, naturally) but by then the rain had come back again. After a few days of rain the skies cleared and we could see that the first snows had secretly fallen up in the mountains! 

The Peña Montañesa, which is 2295m high at its highest peak and overlooks Ainsa, has a smattering of snow covering its top couple of hundred meters while the Alto Pyrenees (the Big Guys north of here, closer to France) have had some serious snow.

Winter is coming - but as long as we can still see blue skies and some sun I think we can cope


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## Bonus (6 Dec 2016)

Beautiful weather here at the moment! Apparently it's normal for December. November can be a bit wet but the sun comes back in December



:-)

For anyone who's lived in the UK (and maybe most of northern Europe?) for a winter, you'll appreciate how lucky we are here!

Rode in summer kit (with a vest) yesterday and will do the same again this afternoon . . .


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## Bonus (6 Dec 2016)

Ainsa Old Town from the Castle Wall. Autumn Sunshine . . .


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## Bonus (10 Dec 2016)

I spent a couple of days this week working in shorts and a T-shirt with Ramon the Farmer - Splitting and Stacking Firewood from trees he felled and cut up in his Woods at the beginning of the year. The wood had dried nicely during the summer and was fairly easy to split using axes (I bought my big one with me from SA) and a wood splitting Maul (which has a head that is half-axe and half-sledgehammer).

We tractor-trailered the wood back up the hill to below the Farmhouse and stacked it in the wood store. Great fun and very rewarding work. I'd recommend anyone who hasn't done it to try it!


















A few more loads to do next week before the weather finally changes for winter . . . .


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## Bonus (10 Dec 2016)

What is Zona-Zero in Ainsa?

This summary from an article on the "BikeMagic" website sums it up nicely . . . . 

"There is a small but devoted scene of local mountain bikers, unlike any we are used to in the UK. Riders of all shapes and sizes share the hillside and the sport brings the townsfolk together in riding and maintaining the ever-growing number of trails.

The local government made the forward-thinking decision to signpost and advertise the area as a mountain bike trail centre and it is now growing in popularity amongst Spaniards and foreign tourists alike.

Trails vary from short loops around the town to epic descents from high up in the Pyrenees mountains, which sit as a backdrop to the town. All the rides are clearly detailed on a trail map and are well marked with coloured wooden posts and signs. The longer rides are reasonably arduous but never venture a huge distance from civilisation, so it’s easy to return to town or to a tar road if necessary.

From up high, rocky traces of singletrack negotiate steep mountainsides with an epic backdrop of cliffs and in springtime snow too. These longer trails really are fantastically adventurous and take you on a journey from summit to valley encountering every terrain imaginable in-between, along with tiny traditional hamlets and rest-stops along the way.

Expect dusty rollercoasters down low and sometimes precarious singletrack up high. But above all, be ready for an adventure to remember"


These trails are what we call "Zona-Zero" . . . .


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## Bonus (11 Dec 2016)

Zona-Zero was host to Stage 7 of the Enduro World Series 2015 :-)


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## Bonus (17 Dec 2016)

The Estate Agent, Pilar Maria, who showed us the property that we ended up buying, shares an office with an architect (Pedro Miguel) who gives advice to people like us who buy properties that need either restoration work (as in the case of someone buying an old house in an abandoned village) or, as in our case (with it being a barn conversion) - a major design change.

When we first saw the property with Pilar Maria it was a Tuesday morning in June 2015. I fell in love with it when I saw it and so she arranged a meeting for us with Pedro Miguel for the next morning so that we could discuss what was possible "design wise" with the property. Wendy and I went back again to the property on our own that evening to have another look at the property "before tomorrows meeting" and we actually decided that it was too bigger project - too much work - and that there were too many obstacles in getting it turned into something we could live in and use for the B&B business that we wanted to start.

The next morning we met with Pedro Miguel and we went through our long list of reasons why we should not buy and renovate the property. One by one PM was able to reassure us and dismiss our problems with sensible answers - not as someone who was desperate to "push a sale through" but as someone who really wanted to help us get to where we wanted to go.

This week we have had what was probably our last meeting with PM before the building work finally starts after Christmas.

As well as producing a full set of around 30 construction drawings/plans for the property and a 138 page "Execution of Project" document that covers literally every aspect of the project - from the exact details of the very first old existing wall that needs knocking down to the quality specification of the final coat of paint in the kitchen, and everything in between - PM has assisted us with a myriad of other things . . .

He and Pilar Maria helped us find somewhere to store our furniture before it arrived. When the furniture truck turned up he was there to help us negotiate with the driver to take our belongings to a different location than the one on the shipping contract and then he helped us unload the truck and store our stuff. He has acted as translator for us dozens of times - when we've had difficult meetings with neighbours to sort out various issues that have come up and for things totally unrelated with our project. He has checked and translated official documents for us, he came to the bank with us and he came to the council with us to help push our planning application through. He has been the "calm person" standing with two quite often not very calm people (even more so as time plodded on and we seemed to be getting nowhere!) and he has managed to slowly but steadily get us to where we are now.

It's easy to forget how much help someone has given you - above and beyond anything they were ever obliged to give you, but I was reminded of it this week at our final "pre-build meeting" when an IT chap came into the office to sort out a computer problem and PM introduced us as "my friends, Tony & Andrea".

:-)


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## Bonus (18 Dec 2016)

It's been a busy week and sadly I've been neglecting my riding and trail maintenance lately. . . .

On Thursday I did manage to join Angel from "Zona-Zero" though and we did some trail-clearing out near Route ZL-004, which is one of the "Light" routes. This particular one is near the "Muro de Roda" which is a very old castle up on a hill. The plan is to clear several old paths and cut a few new ones in the area to form a network of trails with Route 004 as the "Base route".

The weather has turned a little colder but was still pleasant. Here's a pic taken just 10 days before Christmas . . . . I'm sure it's not that different to the UK and the rest of Northern Europe . . . 

:-)


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## Grant Fondo (18 Dec 2016)

Lovely pics, only ever ridden San Sebastian to Oviedo over the Picos, would recommend


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## Bonus (22 Dec 2016)

Been busy exploring and managed to pick up a little bit of mud crossing a farmers field . . . after a long dry summer I'm not used to this!


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## Bonus (6 Jan 2017)

Our first Christmas in Spain . . . .

It's been nice. We've been well looked after (and very well FED) by our neighbours, the families of our neighbours and by the British couple who live in a town 60km away but have a weekend place in our village.

Christmas and New Year have been pretty much as I expected they would be, because I've had many years of Christmases in the UK - but for Mrs Bonus it's been very different. Coming from South Africa she's used to Summer at Christmas! This Winter weather is killing her and she's a long way from family. Face-Time has helped us keep in touch though :-)

We had supper on Christmas Eve in a nearby town with family of neighbours. The meal started at 9pm and finished at 2am. Some of the other guests arrived just after midnight!

Christmas day was a huge meal with Ramon & Rosa and some of their friends. Many varied courses and much wine!

Boxing day with the British couple and they did a traditional Christmas roast. Very nice.

New Years Eve was quiet and then on New Years Day we were invited to our local church up on the hill for the "blessing of the New Year". It was all in Spanish and the church is Catholic - but I think I got the gist of it . . . .

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2017 is a good one for you all.

Remember, wishing your dreams would come true is a plan, but making them come true is a better plan.

Bonus & Mrs Bonus


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## Starchivore (6 Jan 2017)

Happy New year- that sounds like a brilliant few days of celebration over Christmas, it's great that you have such good relations with neighbours.


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## Bonus (7 Jan 2017)

First week of January and between around 11am and 4pm the weather really is beautiful!

Checking out more local trails for the bike and soaking up the winter sunshine . . . .


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## Bonus (16 Jan 2017)

The winter weather that a lot of northern and eastern Europe has been experiencing over the last few weeks was headed towards the Pyrenees yesterday and got there last night.

Up in the Alto-Pyrenees - places like Bielsa & the Ski resort of Benasque - nearly a meter of snow has fallen and the tunnel from France that our friends from the UK came through when they visited us back in the summer is currently closed, as is the tunnel at Somport, north of Jaca.

Ainsa has a bit of a cold wind blowing through it at the moment but sunny skies - no rain or snow here and it was up around 11 degrees when we popped to the shops earlier.
Cold but certainly not too cold.

Guaso today was sunny and fairly warm if you kept out of the slight wind :-)

We can see the snow that fell on our nearest mountain, the Peña Montañesa, last night but it's all above about 2000m. You can see the bad weather behind the mountains but, despite the snow blowing towards us from France, it's not making it as far as us.

This is the sort of "bad weather" I don't mind - when you can just see it in the distance . . .


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## Bonus (22 Jan 2017)

This picture of Ainsa "Old Town" being used in the latest tourism initiative from our local area council.

(From Facebook)






Corona de Aragon
22 November 2015

Hello. Very good morning. We want to collaborate from crown of Aragon with this initiative of treasures of Aragon to publicize locations of our land, Aragon. We need your help. The shape is very simple, give the likes and / or share this message. The first town we want to make known to the whole world, is Ainsa. Help us, we want to reach 25.000 people reached. Thank you.


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## mjr (23 Jan 2017)

Bonus said:


> This picture of Ainsa "Old Town" being used in the latest tourism initiative from our local area council.


Yuck - they let cars drive among the restaurant tables in the main square?


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## Bonus (2 Feb 2017)

It's been a little while since I updated our "Cycling B&B" thread properly . . . . . . things did not go as planned for us at the beginning of the month and we've consequently found ourselves being kept busy with all sorts of things we didn't expect!

It's sometimes been difficult to stay positive but we're still alive and kicking and not ready to give up just yet






Over the next couple of days I will post about all the "tricky stuff" that's being going on over the last few weeks . . . .

Bonus.


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## Bonus (10 Feb 2017)

Here's a piece Mrs Bonus wrote for our FB page as a follow up to my post last week . . .

"Well getting through the red tape in Spain is certainly a little slower than we expected . . . and as one door opens it seems only to reveal another closed door on the other side.

During 2016 we opened many doors - and that helped us to maintain our positive mind-sets. At least we haven’t come across a closed door that has remained shut. For that we are grateful. But each closed door has meant a delay.

Delays started with our architect losing his business associate to cancer in November 2015 - just as he was supposed to be starting our drawings. His increased workload and the fact that we weren't actually here to chase him, meant that the drawings we expected in January where not ready until the end of March.

On the day we received our house plans we took them straight to the local council offices so that we could get our building license (planning permission). We expected this to take between 6 weeks and 2 months - but it turns out that the council architect, a young lady called Eva, only works Tuesdays & Thursdays . . .

Eventually, after about 4 months we had a call from our architect to say that there was a problem with the drawings. The problem was that the law had recently changed in Spain regarding the amount of renovation work you can do on an existing property - and now our house was suddenly too big. We had to employ a solicitor to help us and the architect convince the council that because our planning application was submitted BEFORE the change in law, we should be exempt. We got there in the end but it had been another delay.

The next closed door was put in our way by some of our neighbours and the "100 year old family feud" they were having between them. They didn't even have the decency to both lodge their complaints at the same time! More expense and more time. We got there in the end but the months were stacking up . . .

We finally got out license in early December. 6 months later than we expected. The cost of the planning permission building license includes a portion of tax - and the rate of tax depends on the type of building. It looks like our building has been incorrectly classified . . . the council are currently checking this for us and we don't have to pay the bill until the investigation is finished . . . so they can take as long as they like in this case!

The latest closed door is the door to our bank, who had originally agreed to lend us the "top up" amount we needed to pay for the building work. In the time it took us to obtain our planning permission the EU Court ruled that Spanish Banks had acted unlawfully when granting mortgages with "minimum interest rates" attached. Long story short - Spanish Banks are going to have to pay back around 5 Billion Euros between them to customers with illegal mortgages.

This has changed the landscape in terms of who banks will lend money to and how much they have available to lend. We are currently waiting to hear from our bank as to where we stand, but in the meantime, we can't sign contracts with our builder . . . who was expecting to start in the second week of January . . . .

In two weeks time Bonus will have been in Spain for a year. I joined him a few weeks later. As much as we have manged to keep our heads up during this very long year, it has taken its toll on our finances and our senses of humour.

This thread started out as a “what to do/not to do” or rather “how to do it successfully” thread but later became our daily encouragement and motivation thread.

Thank you all for your relentless patience and participation in our “adventure” and keep watching this space . . . the orchestra have taken their seats but the fat lady has not yet sung...."


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## Bonus (10 Feb 2017)

It's nice, when things are crawling along at a snails pace and the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be on a dimmer switch, to be given some professional reassurance





When our first choice of bank seemed to be dragging it's heels with regards to our top-up loan, we started talking in tandem to a second bank. One that specialises in loans for properties in rural areas. The manager there loved our ideas and our business plan but before he could consider our application his risk department needed us to have a "Viability Study" carried out by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, who are based in the nearby town of Huesca. It's a free service that takes about 10 days to complete. We sent them everything we could - business plan, the architects project, a dozen emails with lots of "extra" ideas we've had . . .

We met with Susana, the lady from the Dept of Commerce, this week and she gave us her report. We're thrilled to learn that according to her, based on everything we gave her (and we gave her a lot!) and everything she knows about the expanding tourism and investment in the local area etc etc, we will be successful with our venture





Of course there will be hard work and long hours, but we can manage that - the view out of the window will remind us why we're doing it.

We've passed the report on to the bank manager and I think he's as happy as we are.

Now we just have to wait . . . for a change.


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## Bonus (12 Feb 2017)

I've been working here on a side project for a little while now that we thought we'd keep to ourselves until we were sure I'd understood our neighbour, "Ramon the Friendly Farmer", correctly. As it turns out, Ramon and I both understood each other fine and it's "all systems go", so here's the story . . .

As most of you will already know, when we were looking for a place to set up and run a B&B we concentrated on looking at places that we thought would appeal to cyclists. We want to cater for everyone but we would also like to have a reputation for being somewhere that can meet the specific needs of cyclists.

We started looking along the Pilgrimage route "El Camino de Santiago de Compostela" but finally settled on the village of Guaso just outside Ainsa, Aragon, in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains.

With its network of well kept local roads threading their way between the mountains and with the hundreds of kilometers of amazing world class Enduro and Mountain Bike Trails of "Zona-Zero", this place is almost perfect. The only thing we really found lacking in the area, and this was bought to our attention by several families that we got chatting to last summer, was mountain bike rides suitable for mums and children. . . .

During our first year here we've got to know Ramon & Rosa, our old "semi-retired" farmer neighbours very well and it became apparent that they own quite a bit of the local countryside. The full extent of which I didn't appreciate until one day I offered to help Ramon cut some trees down for next years firewood and he took me on a tractor-tour of the farm to get to the woods where the trees were.

Standing there in the middle of what felt like nowhere, but was actually not too far from our houses through the trees, I was stunned at how big and how beautiful the area was. Amazing views, private woods, streams, fire roads, sheep paths, abandoned houses - you name it, he's got it. More importantly, I was impressed with how much of the area was relatively flat. I complemented Ramon on his land and told him that it would be amazing for cross-country mountain bike cycling - and perfect for the families of guys who came to stay with us to ride the fairly tough "Zona-Zero" routes. Ramon smiled and said "You are welcome to use this land anyway you want".

So (and THIS was the bit I needed to make sure I'd understood correctly!) Ramon was allowing me to build what would essentially be our own private mountain bike park, suitable for the families of our guests (and for Mrs Bonus) on his land - right outside our own back door!

I've now been trail-building for three weeks. I've shown Ramon the trails I've cut so far and he's very happy with it all. He's used his tractor to help me clear the main dirt road that goes from the top where our houses are down into the center of the flatter area - the rest I've done by hand myself. It's hard work but it's very rewarding.

I tested out the first 3km of twisty-trails on Saturday and I'm happy with what I've done so far . . .

We're amazingly lucky to have been given permission to do this and I'm loving every day of building it.





This picture outlines the rough boundaries of the land we will be using. . . . .


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## Bonus (12 Feb 2017)

Some pictures of work on our "Bike Park". 

Ramon the Friendly Farmer helped me with the main dirt road from our houses down to the flat area in the middle of the farm.


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## ColinJ (12 Feb 2017)

I hope all of this hard work pays off in the end ... It seems a massive investment of time, energy and money. Good luck with it!

(I have probably already posted that earlier in the thread, but I hadn't anticipated how many difficulties you would encounter on the way.)


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## Bonus (13 Feb 2017)

We are sure we will get there in the end! :-)


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## Bonus (22 Feb 2017)

The other day I skipped doing any work on our "Bike Park" and took Ms Bonus for a look around. We walked some of the trail I've done so far and then we went a bit further down the farm to see an area that I haven't really explored yet.

As you can see, there's a lot to do yet!

Looking forward to doing more work soon - I want to get at least one basic circuit finished asap.


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## Bonus (22 Feb 2017)

A bit more work on the bike park . . .

The "Bike Park" and the Farm above it are all on a hillside so whenever it rains, even if it's only a light rain, you end up with quite a bit of water coming down and funneling into a few specific places. No problem for the tractor but not so good for cars or bikes.

I diverted the water away from this access road further up the hill and now Ramon the Farmer is using the tractor to level off what was previously was a "part-time river" . . .

Really pleased with my old car. For a quite heavy front wheel drive estate car - it can get almost anywhere!


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## Bonus (22 Feb 2017)

Today I walked the entire length of the Mountain Bike Trail that I've cut/cleared/built so far. From our house in Guaso, through the farm yard and down onto the farm land. 

I took tools with me because I knew I had to widen a couple of corners that I had thought were ok but turned out to be a bit too tight on a bike (I'm on a 29er) when I tested the trail the other day. 

Aside from that it was just a case of trimming a few bushes and kicking a few stones out the way as I walked - most of the trail was good. I'm pleased. It's only about 3km long so far but it's a good start. More trail building tomorrow :-)


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## Cuchilo (22 Feb 2017)

Is all this work on someone elses land ?


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## Bonus (22 Feb 2017)

Cuchilo said:


> Is all this work on someone elses land ?



From 6 posts up . . . 

_"So (and THIS was the bit I needed to make sure I'd understood correctly!) Ramon was allowing me to build what would essentially be our own private mountain bike park, suitable for the families of our guests (and for Mrs Bonus) on his land - right outside our own back door!

I've now been trail-building for three weeks. I've shown Ramon the trails I've cut so far and he's very happy with it all. He's used his tractor to help me clear the main dirt road that goes from the top where our houses are down into the center of the flatter area - the rest I've done by hand myself. It's hard work but it's very rewarding."_


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## Cuchilo (22 Feb 2017)

You could have just said yes


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## Bonus (1 Mar 2017)

For the last week or so I’ve been splitting my time between working on the first section of Bike Park MTB Trail - which is now complete :-) and working on the main dirt road that goes down onto the farm.

I’ll test the newly completed first section of MTB Trail on my bike tomorrow to see how it feels.

The dirt road, which needs some serious re-modelling to try and prevent it from flooding and becoming waterlogged for a week whenever it rains, is more of an ongoing project. It’s about 1000m long and has several sections that turn into quite a muddy-stream when it rains, so I’m trying to slope it into waterways I’m cutting beside the road. The first dodgy section is done and we will see next time it rains whether I got it right or not. The other problem areas will be dealt with one by one … .

Mud-fest part one - before and after pics …


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## Bonus (3 Mar 2017)

"Zona Zero", the name given to the world famous Mountain Biking Trail Area that we live in the middle of, has been given the "Seal of Tourist Excellence" for the third consecutive year :-)

Well done to everyone involved. These are the trails that I ride every time I take my MTB out and the award is well deserved!


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## Bonus (7 Mar 2017)

Summer and Winter water levels at the local "Mediano" Reservoir . . . .


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## Bonus (15 Mar 2017)

We would like to be able to tell people that stay with us about places close to Guaso that are worth visiting. To that end we like to visit and get to know places ourselves and last Sunday we visited "Graus". It's an easy 45 min drive and worth going to see.

Here are some pictures from the San Pedro Church on the hill above Graus. The foundations of this church were laid around 1184AD. Then it was built properly in the 14th and 15th Centuries. 

I fear we may have an equally long wait between starting and finishing our project . . . .

In actual fact you could visit Graus and then on the way home visit the submerged village of "Mediano" quite easily . . . so I am working out a few "Day Trip" Routes that people can easily follow. . . .


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (15 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> Today we visited the council offices to chase up our outstanding planning permission application . . . . and we were given a letter of "points that need addressing before the application can be passed" . . . . dated 16th APRIL!
> 
> We should have been given it 7 weeks ago!
> 
> ...



Welcome to Spain... Everything runs slower here.. And if you chase them they might get offended.. Delicate balance there...


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## Bonus (15 Mar 2017)

The_Weekend_Report_Guy said:


> Welcome to Spain... Everything runs slower here.. And if you chase them they might get offended.. Delicate balance there...



For sure!
We got our planning permission eventually . . . . waiting for the bank now ;-)


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (15 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> For sure!
> We got our planning permission eventually . . . . waiting for the bank now ;-)



Oh my God..! They are killing me..! Took them like 9 months to give me my NIE..! 

Glad to see that you got the thing rolling.. Me still work in progress here in Malaga.. So far I am taking people for a ride but not taking care of their bike rentals and or place where they stay... 

The impression they had of the place and the riding around here was good.. (you can go and read the reviews) How is that going for you there? Any happy customers yet?


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## Bonus (15 Mar 2017)

No customers just yet - not until the house is built. But several friends and "friends of friends" have been over and everyone loves it here.

Once we're up and running we have several ideas, aside from the cycling, to make peoples trips here as full and as enjoyable as possible. Hence us scoping out local attractions etc. Meanwhile I'm riding the trails and the roads and getting to know my way around. 

It's a tough job, but . . . . :-)


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (16 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> No customers just yet - not until the house is built. But several friends and "friends of friends" have been over and everyone loves it here.
> 
> Once we're up and running we have several ideas, aside from the cycling, to make peoples trips here as full and as enjoyable as possible. Hence us scoping out local attractions etc. Meanwhile I'm riding the trails and the roads and getting to know my way around.
> 
> It's a tough job, but . . . . :-)



Oh I know the feeling..!! Since I am not working yet all I do is ride my bike.. Is such a hard life.. 

Take a look when/if you want at the pics I am taking while riding... Just follow the Facebook link...

I do not have the money to go and buy a property.. So Recently I got in touch with a guy that has something similar already mounted... We are learning from each other... And I am using his infrastructure to do the bookings and give estimates to those that want it... 

To be honest all I really care is to give people rides that they remember for a long time... He is more into MTB (I got myself a 26'' to start) I am more of a roadie... He is much stronger then me on the roads so we can split the groups according to level.. 

I am having fun..!!! And I can see you are as well...! Who knows maybe one day I head up North and check the roads there... A few local guys were talking about doing the Purito Rodriguez sportive...


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## Bonus (17 Mar 2017)

The nearest road-climb from my house (and there are many, believe me!) is the climb from just outside Boltaña, up to the village of Campodarbe.

It starts about 6km from home and is a 7km climb that ascends around 450m (1476ft). You can go up it as many times as you like and every time you go up you get to roll back down again.

What more could you ask for in your own back garden?


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (17 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> The nearest road-climb from my house (and there are many, believe me!) is the climb from just outside Boltaña, up to the village of Campodarbe.
> 
> It starts about 6km from home and is a 7km climb that ascends around 450m (1476ft). You can go up it as many times as you like and every time you go up you get to roll back down again.
> 
> ...



Sounds soo inviting..! 

I don't know much of Spain yet.. Besides my area a bit and a few rides in Alicante last year.. Will have to fix that..!


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## Bonus (19 Mar 2017)

I started checking out the "Zona-Zero" MTB routes and Road Cycling in the area when we got here and we've always reported on local places of interest that we've visited - now we've started doing the same for local "Walks".

Here are some pics from a walk we did last week. We started at the "Vultures Dinning Room" (2 mins outside of Ainsa), where we parked the car and we finished at "Partara" which is the viewing point up on the hill that Angel from Zona-Zero dragged a bench up to!

It took us about an hour each way at a casual pace. We climbed from 600m to 859m and we saw lots of birds of prey on the way - from below and later from above! Very impressive but very hard to take pictures or video of!

The Vultures Dinning Room is, as the name implies, a place where local meat companies drop off meat to help feed the local Vulture population (they often "hover" over me when I'm climbing on the MTB!).























Vultures and a variety of Eagles/Kites/Hawks are all indigenous to the area - but I'll talk about that in another post . . .


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## Bonus (19 Mar 2017)

The view from the top is magnificent. 

It's not too hard to get to by foot or by bike (it's on Zona- Zero Route 5) and you can sit down at the top and have a picnic :-)


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## Bonus (25 Mar 2017)

March 25th and it suddenly snowed! Two days ago I was working in the sun with shorts and a T shirt on, one day ago we were hibernating because it suddenly got cold . . . and now this!

Tyre Snow Chains recommended on the road up to France.
Some Pics of Ainsa in the snow.
The v




















illage of Baniston and Baniston Church
Possibly the worlds smallest snowman . . .


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (25 Mar 2017)

Great views..!

Even if I am not a big fan of the snow... Did you take the MTB in it? Maybe you will need to consider a fat bike route for the Winter months..?

Oh I started working with someone else offering the bike tours around here.. http://www.bikekick.eu/ check it out.. Maybe it give you ideas for the future.. (prices, packages etc)

Enjoy the snow..!!!


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## Bonus (26 Mar 2017)

A new "Fat Bike" for the winter months . . . Now there's a thought that Mrs Bonus would have an issue with I'm sure! 

:-)


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## ColinJ (26 Mar 2017)

Sorry for raising a potentially stressful subject, but after all the work that you have been putting in, doesn't the uncertainty of Brexit scare you? My nephew is going out to the Benidorm area to do labouring work on some properties in that area. The owner bought them AFTER the 'leave' vote was delivered, which struck me as a risky thing to do.


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## Bonus (26 Mar 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Sorry for raising a potentially stressful subject, but after all the work that you have been putting in, doesn't the uncertainty of Brexit scare you? My nephew is going out to the Benidorm area to do labouring work on some properties in that area. The owner bought them AFTER the 'leave' vote was delivered, which struck me as a risky thing to do.



Hi Colin - it's a valid point. 

To be honest I have so little idea of how Brexit is actually going to pan out and what the consequences globally might be, that it doesn't even register on the "worry-radar" just yet.

I suspect that Spain will continue to be a place that Brits like to come to on holiday and I don't imagine the Brits living here being "asked to leave" in a hurry. 

There might be tax implications specific to "foreigners" but to be honest, whatever comes our way - we'll deal with. Don't forget, we came here from South Africa, not from the UK. I'd been in SA for the last eight years (and had another ten there when I was a child) and Mrs Bonus had been there since she was three years old. If you can deal with the problems that South African officialdom throws your way (and I won't go into that on here) and survive then I'm sure we can "make a plan" here too.

We have Spanish residence, which we got before the vote. We also bought our property before the vote. Maybe that will make a difference. 

Also we are going to be living in a small village among the locals and running a business that pays into the tax system. That might be an advantage over being, say, a retired Brit over here who lives in a community full of other Brits and keeps his money to himself. (so to speak)

We will watch with quiet interest for now but, along with the Global war on terror, the various wars in the middle east, what's going on in US politics and the various European Parliamentary crisis' . . . well pass the biscuits and let's have a cup of tea.

:-)


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (26 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> Hi Colin - it's a valid point.
> 
> To be honest I have so little idea of how Brexit is actually going to pan out and what the consequences globally might be, that it doesn't even register on the "worry-radar" just yet.
> 
> ...



Key part you have a residency.. the rest goes on the plus side.

Well done in getting that done right away..


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## The_Weekend_Report_Guy (26 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> A new "Fat Bike" for the winter months . . . Now there's a thought that Mrs Bonus would have an issue with I'm sure!
> 
> :-)


Just in case... You didn't hear it from me


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## ColinJ (26 Mar 2017)

Bonus said:


> Don't forget, we came here from South Africa, not from the UK. I'd been in SA for the last eight years (and had another ten there when I was a child) and Mrs Bonus had been there since she was three years old. If you can deal with the problems that South African officialdom throws your way (and I won't go into that on here) and survive then I'm sure we can "make a plan" here too.
> 
> We have Spanish residence, which we got before the vote. We also bought our property before the vote. Maybe that will make a difference.


Oh yes, I HAD forgotten that you came from South Africa. Sounds like you should be ok.

As a Brit, If I had money to spend on property in an EU country, I wouldn't fancy doing it right now.


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## Starchivore (29 Mar 2017)

Haven't been on the forums for a while, but glad to see it's all going well still. I still haven't been to Spain but intend to soon- to have an explore of a few places and subject the locals to my Spanish.


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## Bonus (29 Mar 2017)

Our snow only lasted a day or two on the ground down here in town, although I can see that there is still plenty up on the slopes of the mountains.

This guy is hanging around "just in case" I guess.


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## Bonus (14 Apr 2017)

This clip of Peter Sagan riding the Stage 7 Time Trial at Tirreno-Adriatico (2017) reminded me of something we noticed when we got to Spain.

In the UK if you want to cross the road on a Zebra Crossing you walk up to the edge of the pavement, look both ways and very quickly cars will stop for you and you can cross safely.

In South Africa if you want to cross the road on a Zebra Crossing you walk up to the edge of the pavement, look both ways . . . wait for a gap in the traffic and run like hell. Safety is for sissies.

In Spain if you want to cross the road on a Zebra Crossing you walk up to the edge of the pavement whilst concentrating intently on your phone. Without looking either way you may walk straight out onto the crossing. It is the total responsibility of the vehicle driver to see you and to stop. There is no such things as "I couldn't stop in time". You must stop in time, end-of :-)

On the plus side - when you are the pedestrian the same rules apply :-)


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## Bonus (20 Apr 2017)

This morning we met with the bank manager, who helped us prepare our responce to some enquiries from the banks head office "Risk Dept". Then later we spoke on the phone with the nice lady at the risk office answering what are hopefully their last few questions. Tomorrow I have to check a couple of things with the builder and get the answers back to the risk dept. 

Edit: I might actually phone the lady at the risk dept. from the builders house while I'm there and let them speak to each other! 

#finalfewhurdles


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## mjr (25 Apr 2017)

Bonus said:


> In the UK if you want to cross the road on a Zebra Crossing you walk up to the edge of the pavement, look both ways and very quickly cars will stop for you and you can cross safely.


I think your memory of the UK is somewhat idealised. Many motorists here don't stop for yellow/red lights any more, let alone any zebra crossing that someone's not already on.


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## Bonus (29 Apr 2017)

mjr said:


> I think your memory of the UK is somewhat idealised. Many motorists here don't stop for yellow/red lights any more, let alone any zebra crossing that someone's not already on.



For the last ten years or so, whilst in South Africa, I've only visited the UK on hols - so you are probably right. Rose tinted glasses and all that.

I did notice, reading about crime online and how hard it is to even get the police to come out sometimes that all is not well :-(


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## Bonus (29 Apr 2017)

Zona Zero Route 5. Towards the end there’s some nice single-track and then a bit of a drop …

Being an XC rider, I haven’t ridden the drop yet but the single track was cool. One day I’ll ride the whole lot I’m sure :-)


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## Bonus (8 May 2017)

Worked with Ramon the friendly farmer on the farm this morning for a while and then did some trail-clearing on the "variation" part of Route 3 Light / Route 9 which goes past our front door.




I do love my "office"


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## ColinJ (8 May 2017)

There is something about that 'office' that I like, but I can't quite put my finger on it ... 

I've forgotten whether you have mentioned road riding in the area? I do a lot more riding on the road these days than on my mountain bike. What are the local roads like? 

I also can't remember if the subject of bike hire ever came up earlier in the thread? Do you plan to offer it, or is there a decent bike hire company in the area?


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## Bonus (9 May 2017)

ColinJ said:


> There is something about that 'office' that I like, but I can't quite put my finger on it ...
> 
> I've forgotten whether you have mentioned road riding in the area? I do a lot more riding on the road these days than on my mountain bike. What are the local roads like?
> 
> I also can't remember if the subject of bike hire ever came up earlier in the thread? Do you plan to offer it, or is there a decent bike hire company in the area?




Road riding around here is excellent Colin. There are good condition roads with little traffic heading N, E, Sx2 & W. 
You can certainly hire MTB's locally - I will check if you can hire road bikes.


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## Bonus (11 May 2017)

We've broken the Golden Rule of Farm Life and fallen in love with a little black lamb! He's one of three born about two months ago. The other two are white, which the majority of the babies are.

We've named him "Jack" as suggested by Wendy's daughter last night. After a week of getting used to us he now comes to us as soon as he sees us to get stroked behind the ears and under the chin






Rosa actually asked me if we wanted to adopt him when she saw me stroking him the other day. I offered to buy him and keep him on the farm (rather than our apartment, obviously) but she said no, it's a gift. So now we have a pet - presumably she understands that we don't eat our pets . . .?


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## Bonus (13 May 2017)

Trail Clearing today with Angel and his dogs above the village of Escalona, just north of Ainsa. The trail passes the abandoned hilltop village of Muro de Bellos.

A good days work - I will go back in the week and test the trail :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (15 May 2017)

Great thread, @Bonus . 
Every time I read one of your updates, and see the photos, I think of my upcoming trip to Italy and France, for more alpine cycling. On the 6th July, the 14th and last day of cycling I'll be doing over there, if all goes as I planned, I'll be riding up to Port de Boucharo, which is right on the France / Spain border, and just under 40km (straight line) from Ainsa.


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## Bonus (17 May 2017)

Shut Up Legs said:


> Great thread, @Bonus .
> Every time I read one of your updates, and see the photos, I think of my upcoming trip to Italy and France, for more alpine cycling. On the 6th July, the 14th and last day of cycling I'll be doing over there, if all goes as I planned, I'll be riding up to Port de Boucharo, which is right on the France / Spain border, and just under 40km (straight line) from Ainsa.



Nice!

Port de Boucharo is quite a way from us by road - thanks to the mountains! By road it's north of Broto, which is on part of the road the Vuelta took on stage 15 last year - when, essentially, CF lost the race. . . .


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## Bonus (18 May 2017)

Trail building with Angel & David up in the hills above Morrillo de San Pedro yesterday.

Sometimes you have to do some "trail clearing" just to get to where you want to do some trail clearing!
Yesterday was mostly breaking and shifting rocks. Hard work, but it is a fantastic piece of single track - I look forward to trying it soon!


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## Bonus (18 May 2017)

ColinJ said:


> There is something about that 'office' that I like, but I can't quite put my finger on it ...
> 
> I also can't remember if the subject of bike hire ever came up earlier in the thread? Do you plan to offer it, or is there a decent bike hire company in the area?



I spoke to the owner of the local bike hire shop yesterday - he says you can hire MTB's and Electric-MTB's but not road bikes.


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## Bonus (23 May 2017)

Zona Zero have added a new route to their collection. Route number ZZ-032.

This route runs north from Fiscal (which is west of Ainsa), alongside the river Ara and is categorised as difficulty "Red".

:-)

Full details here: http://bttpirineo.co...amino-chinebral


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## Bonus (26 May 2017)

Had my first road ride in a while on Thursday evening. 

The sun isn't setting now until past 9:30pm and the evenings are warm and beautifully clear. Mrs Bonus prefers to ride mornings.

The local roads, which are all in very good condition, are quiet and the drivers are considerate and courteous. We rarely have a car pass us that isn't so far away that it's over on the other side of the central line. If there isn't space to pass us safely then the cars wait until it is. No close passing, no horns or verbal abuse. 

What a pleasure . . . .

:-)


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## ColinJ (26 May 2017)

Bonus said:


> Had my first road ride in a while on Thursday evening.
> 
> The sun isn't setting now until past 9:30pm and the evenings are warm and beautifully clear. Mrs Bonus prefers to ride mornings.
> 
> ...


Sounds great!

What is the local broadband like ...? (In my pre-Brexit fantasies I thought perhaps I would retire to somewhere like Ainsa, but I'd want a BB speed of at least 10 Mb/s.)


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## Bonus (29 May 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Sounds great!
> 
> What is the local broadband like ...? (In my pre-Brexit fantasies I thought perhaps I would retire to somewhere like Ainsa, but I'd want a BB speed of at least 10 Mb/s.)



We have 12Mb/s using a router with a Sim card which costs us about 54 € a month. Limited to 50GB/Month though - which is not much if you're using the internet in earnest! An additional 50GB will cost you a further 20 €


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## Bonus (29 May 2017)

On Sunday I rode with some of the Zona Zero guys - Angel, Rafa, David and Kiko on the new route that we've been clearing and building recently. We fitted a few signs but apart from that it was just "ridin."

Most of the route was rideable on my Epic but on occasions I had to get off and step over rock obstructions. Angel, David & Rafa rode 99% of the route, Kiko and I were "brothers in slowness" on the descents but I held my own on the climbs :-)

Rafa supplied transport to take us and our bikes up into the hills and then we all rode along the ridge and back down into Ainsa - via several inhabited/uninhabited villages, fetching the transport vehicle and trailer a bit later on. (It's nice that you can leave a Merc Combi and Trailer in the middle of nowhere for 8 hrs and it's still there when you go back for it!)





























Some rare shots of me NOT wearing a SKY shirt!

Beautiful scenery & views, hard but rewarding climbs, wicked singletrack and some demanding descents. A fantastic day with good mates. Perfect.


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## Bonus (29 May 2017)

A quick Picnic next to a natural spring, then Angel showed us that he actually can descend anything!



























Cleared a fallen tree and finished the ride with a ride down a cool shallow stream. :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (29 May 2017)

Bonus said:


> The sun isn't setting now until past 9:30pm


It looks like the sunset times will be about that when I'm in the area in early July. That will make my rides all the more enjoyable. 
After my 11 day supported tour ends, I'll be riding on the 4th to 6th, spending those 3 nights at a cyclists' B&B in Saint-Savin, just south of Argeles-Gazost. My riding plan involves about 80, 100 and 120km respectively on the 3 days, since there are so many nice climbs to do.

The waiting is killing me...


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## Bonus (3 Jun 2017)

The details of the new Enduro/XC Tech route (# ZE12) have been released on the Zona Zero website.

All in Spanish I'm afraid but copy & paste to "Google translate" works well!

It's the route built recently and tested last weekend. I really enjoyed it - although it was beyond my expertise level in places, everyone else seemed to manage ;-)

There are a couple of Variations available (shown on the map) and several others that I know about that are not on the map . . . . inside information for people that come and stay with us when we open :-)

http://bttpirineo.com/es/rutas-btt-pirineo/ze12-maxi-piojo-1


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## Shut Up Legs (4 Jun 2017)

Either Google Translate failed me, or _piojo_ is Spanish for louse, and _el piojo_ is "the lice"? 
Is there another interpretation I missed?


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## Bonus (4 Jun 2017)

Shut Up Legs said:


> Either Google Translate failed me, or _piojo_ is Spanish for louse, and _el piojo_ is "the lice"?
> Is there another interpretation I missed?



No, you're absolutely correct. The "Meson de Piojo" translates as "the Lice Inn"!

Apparently it stems from the fact that when it was open - many many years ago - the beds were so close together that if one person had lice you'd all have lice by the morning.

Now it's just an abandoned ruin. . . . . Can't imagine why the business failed :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (4 Jun 2017)

Bonus said:


> No, you're absolutely correct. The "Meson de Piojo" translates as "the Lice Inn"!
> 
> Apparently it stems from the fact that when it was open - many many years ago - the beds were so close together that if one person had lice you'd all have lice by the morning.
> 
> Now it's just an abandoned ruin. . . . . Can't imagine why the business failed :-)


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## Bonus (9 Jun 2017)

Mrs Bonus and I have moved into a new phase of our "Adventure".

At the end of May, after a lot of consideration, we moved out of our rented apartment in Ainsa and into a wing of Ramon the Friendly Farmer & Rosa's Farmhouse - which is very close to our own property in Guaso.

They have been on at us for ages to move in with them - I think they've actually adopted us now. I expect the paperwork is in the post. . . . 

It will be very convenient when building work finally starts on our Project (I'll cover that point in a separate post) and in the meantime it is convenient for me working on the Bike Park that we are building on Ramon's land next to our house. 

It was less than a 10 minute drive from Ainsa to Guaso but by the time you get from the apartment down to the car etc etc it makes "popping over to do an hours work" very inefficient. This will be much better . . . Plus it's nice to be close to our own place :-)


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## Bonus (10 Jun 2017)

On Friday myself, Angel, William (from France) and Matty (from Argentina) accompanied as usual by Golfo, Lili & Lolitta, cleared & repaired an old trail between Morcat and Castellazo.


















At its highest point it is around 1200m above sea level and from up there the views are stunning. It was a hot day and hard work - but it shouldn't need doing again now for quite some time at least :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (10 Jun 2017)

Nice! How's the weather there at the moment? I'm looking forward to seeing the Pyrenees again from the start of next month. I'll be there for 5 days, riding up various cols.


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## Bonus (10 Jun 2017)

Shut Up Legs said:


> Nice! How's the weather there at the moment? I'm looking forward to seeing the Pyrenees again from the start of next month. I'll be there for 5 days, riding up various cols.



Currently Hot in Guaso & Ainsa. Topped out at mid 30's yesterday. 
Mornings and evenings are great though - and not dark until nearly 10pm at the moment. 

Thunderstorms predicted further up towards France over the next few days. . . . .


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## Bonus (10 Jun 2017)

There are free Spanish lessons every week on a Tuesday up in Ainsa old town, for people wanting to learn the language. 

Last week was the last lesson of the term and instead of meeting in class we met and had a picnic at a place Andrea and I suggested. The abandoned hilltop village of "Muro de Bellos". As with all these local places there are spectacular views and our teacher, Roberto, was able to point out loads of local landmarks to us.

Roberto bought with him a home-made guitar that held a secret . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (15 Jun 2017)

We're suffering a mini pre summer heatwave here this week. 39 degrees yesterday.

Thankfully it's cool at night and lovely in the mornings until around 10 ish. Phew.


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## Bonus (19 Jun 2017)

A week or so ago Jack and his mum & sisters were moved from the "Nursery" to the "Junior Barn" where he will now stay for a 6 to 8 weeks - until he is around 6 months old.

For the first few days after the move he was too busy playing with all his new friends (all the babies & mums were moved from the nursery pens over the space of a week) to pay us any attention - but for the last day or two he's been snuggling up to us again. 

Our pet - Jack the Lamb . . . .


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## Bonus (27 Jun 2017)

I had a little accident a fortnight ago. Not my fault - woman pulled out in front of me without looking. I needed four stitches to a cut on my face and there was no damage to the bike. I'm all better now but the accident highlighted some important things that people coming here should be aware of. I'm sure we'll put this little list up on our website when we build it but we'll also remind people when they arrive here.

1) The number to use for all emergencies (road traffic or otherwise) is "112". Then ask for the appropriate emergency service. Police, Ambulance, Fire or Mountain Rescue.

If anyone else at the accident says "they've already made the call" don't be afraid to do it yourself anyway. Two calls are better than none.


2) Normal rules apply if it's a traffic accident - don't move anything, don't leave the scene, do swap details etc.


3) Seriously consider holiday insurance. I had no intention of crashing and the accident wasn't my fault, but it still happened.

UK citizens can apply for a "European Health Insurance Card" to take on holiday with them and so should be covered by their UK National Insurance number abroad. In this case I would have gone to the local emergency clinic 5kms away for free. (This situation may change after Brexit . . . .) I suspect other EU countries will have a similar agreement with Spain regarding healthcare.


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## mjr (27 Jun 2017)

Bonus said:


> I had a little accident a fortnight ago. Not my fault - woman pulled out in front of me without looking. I needed four stitches to a cut on my face and there was no damage to the bike.


Glad the bike's OK. Keep those brakes covered and hedge your bets - You might like to share your story with your local cycling campaigners and see if it can help get local politicians to actually tackle the perpetrators of motoring violence instead of inflicting useless so-called "safety" equipment on the victims. This is why I've no intention to cycle in Spain again any time soon, so am not a potential tourist for your business.


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## Bonus (28 Jun 2017)

mjr said:


> Glad the bike's OK. Keep those brakes covered and hedge your bets - You might like to share your story with your local cycling campaigners and see if it can help get local politicians to actually tackle the perpetrators of motoring violence instead of inflicting useless so-called "safety" equipment on the victims. This is why I've no intention to cycle in Spain again any time soon, so am not a potential tourist for your business.



Thanks mjr

Thankfully this sort of thing is very rare around here. Everyone I talk to is shocked at my bad luck. In my case the woman was in a hurry to get to work at the restaurant that she and her husband own - isn't there always a reason why someone HAD to jump a light or a stop street?

Down in the coastal areas it's another story. more traffic and less tolerance, combined with drink & drugs. Over half a dozen cyclist have been killed down there this year so far. Today it was a 50 year old cyclist hit by a lorry.


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## mjr (28 Jun 2017)

Bonus said:


> In my case the woman was in a hurry to get to work at the restaurant that she and her husband own - isn't there always a reason why someone HAD to jump a light or a stop street?


Not always. In many parts of England now, it seems to be sheer brainlessness of a "there's no traffic police or cameras any more" attitude. I'm glad it's rare around you and long may it remain such!


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## Bonus (8 Jul 2017)

Last night Mrs Bonus and I had my first "Post-Accident" ride along the river bank from Margudged (the village I had the accident in as it happens!) to Ainsa and back 
:-)

Seems I'm ok. Just need to reclaim some fitness after three weeks off :-(


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## Shut Up Legs (9 Jul 2017)

I was on the Col de Tentes (2207m) in the Pyrenees only 3 days ago, and thought of you. I was so close to Spain, but the dirt track from the Col to the border isn't suitable for road bikes, so I had to skip that bit.


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## Bonus (11 Jul 2017)

Shut Up Legs said:


> I was on the Col de Tentes (2207m) in the Pyrenees only 3 days ago, and thought of you. I was so close to Spain, but the dirt track from the Col to the border isn't suitable for road bikes, so I had to skip that bit.



I hope you've missed the various thunderstorms we've all been having? We're off up to France for Thursday & Friday to catch le Tour :-)


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## Bonus (11 Jul 2017)

We've had a nice couple of days with our British friends from down in Catalonia. They came to stay while they tested out their new camper van.

The trails were a bit wind & rain battered when I took them for a ride yesterday because we had an overnight storm, but they got to see a bit of the surrounding countryside.

Was nice to speak mostly English for a couple of days! :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (12 Jul 2017)

Bonus said:


> I hope you've missed the various thunderstorms we've all been having? We're off up to France for Thursday & Friday to catch le Tour :-)


I did, it seems they arrived shortly after I left (unwillingly ). On the day I rode up to Col de Tentes, it was hot, but briefly rained a tiny bit while I rode between Luz-Saint-Sauveur and Gavarnie, but that was all the rain I saw that day. Even up on the col, it was mid 20s and fine.


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## Bonus (19 Jul 2017)

There's been a complete lack of updates recently - the pesky Tour de France has got me all distracted.

On the other hand, I did specifically choose this part of Spain because of the mountains and the proximity to le Tour & le Vuelta :-)

We will be promoting both of those Grand Tours, and the tour of Catalonia, the Enduro World Series and any other races "within shouting distance", next year.

With stages being so close, it would be a crime not to try and see something. That's my story anyway. . . .


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## mjr (21 Jul 2017)

Bonus said:


> With stages being so close, it would be a crime not to try and see something. That's my story anyway. . . .


And you need to be able to give visitors tips on how to pick good viewing spots, too.


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## Bonus (29 Jul 2017)

Angel Cheliz, who owns the "Intersport" sports shop in Ainsa and who is one of the founding members of the whole "Zona-Zero MTB" concept - showing off the latest edition of route maps.

There are now 52 official base routes and too many variations and link-ways to even count. Somewhere in the region of 800km of track in it's various forms, Singletrack, Jeep track, Fire roads, Antiguo (ancient) paths . . . the list goes on.

I've barely scraped the surface so far!


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## Bonus (31 Jul 2017)

For the past month or so, as well as watching "le Tour de France" on TV and "live in France", "Mrs Bonus and I have been giving some serious thought as to which path we should take next on our Big Adventure . . . . . Should we stay here and "soldier on" or is it time to cut our losses, relocate, either to the UK or somewhere busier in Spain, where we can both get jobs, save some money and then maybe rethink in 6 months time?

In a nutshell - all of the banks we've spoken to have said the same thing - they love our ideas - particularly the ones that involve us providing services that will set us apart from your average Spanish "B&B", they approve of our business plan - which is conservative in its estimates and they can see that our passion for what we enjoy in life - essentially cycling & cooking/providing - means that we will enjoy our jobs enough to ensure that we succeed.

However . . . over at the head offices of these various banks, the "Risk Departments" whose hands, post financial crisis of 2008-16, are tied behind their backs, are struggling to approve us the top-up loan we need without us having some sort of independent income.

This is not something we, or anyone we spoke to at the outset of our journey (including the banks!), expected and the game-changer has been the fact that the banks can no longer accept your property as security against a loan you apply for. The reason being that Spanish banks are up to their ears in repossessed properties that they have no hope of selling, possibly for years.

We've decided that we're not ready to give up just yet and so we're going to push on with our dream . . . . but we're going to have to change the way we plan on getting there slightly . . . .

Over the next few days we'll post our various changes and, as always, encouragement and ideas will be warmly received!

Bonus.


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## woodbutcher (31 Jul 2017)

Bonus said:


> For the past month or so, as well as watching "le Tour de France" on TV and "live in France", "Mrs Bonus and I have been giving some serious thought as to which path we should take next on our Big Adventure . . . . . Should we stay here and "soldier on" or is it time to cut our losses, relocate, either to the UK or somewhere busier in Spain, where we can both get jobs, save some money and then maybe rethink in 6 months time?
> 
> In a nutshell - all of the banks we've spoken to have said the same thing - they love our ideas - particularly the ones that involve us providing services that will set us apart from your average Spanish "B&B", they approve of our business plan - which is conservative in its estimates and they can see that our passion for what we enjoy in life - essentially cycling & cooking/providing - means that we will enjoy our jobs enough to ensure that we succeed.
> 
> ...


First of all let me wish you every success with your project, combining two of my favourite occupations, cycling / cooking . Oh and of course eating.
To get to the point, l have recently bought a secondhand mtb from a guy here in SW France and while chatting to him he told me about his son who worked with Cannondale and has this set up in the Pyrenees. Just might be worth contacting him for info etc http://mikecotty.co.uk/challenge-rides/raid-pyrenean/


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## ColinJ (31 Jul 2017)

Good luck, Bonus. It would be a great pity if all of your hard work went to waste!

One thing though ... if "_Spanish banks are up to their ears in repossessed properties that they have no hope of selling, possibly for years_", wouldn't you have big problems trying to sell _your_ property too?


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## Shut Up Legs (31 Jul 2017)

After following your efforts since you started this thread in October 2015, I almost feel like I've been living there also, @Bonus . I hope you manage to make it work somehow.


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## Bonus (1 Aug 2017)

woodbutcher said:


> First of all let me wish you every success with your project, combining two of my favourite occupations, cycling / cooking . Oh and of course eating.
> To get to the point, l have recently bought a secondhand mtb from a guy here in SW France and while chatting to him he told me about his son who worked with Cannondale and has this set up in the Pyrenees. Just might be worth contacting him for info etc http://mikecotty.co.uk/challenge-rides/raid-pyrenean/




Cheers for that - I will check out the site.


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## Bonus (1 Aug 2017)

ColinJ said:


> Good luck, Bonus. It would be a great pity if all of your hard work went to waste!
> 
> One thing though ... if "_Spanish banks are up to their ears in repossessed properties that they have no hope of selling, possibly for years_", wouldn't you have big problems trying to sell _your_ property too?




Cheers Colin. Lots of work so far but it's all been fun.

We don't plan on selling our property any time soon. We will either follow Plan A and build it up as a B&B and run it until we get too old to carry on . . . or we will put the B&B plans on hold while we work elsewhere in the country or Europe and it will be our "place in the country", which we will renovate as slowly or quickly as income dictates.


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## Bonus (4 Aug 2017)

"La Batalla Del Inframundo" (The Battle of the Underworld) - This is the name given to a race being held on 23rd September this year at Zona Zero.

The sales pitch (translated by me!) goes along the lines of.....

"YOU CAN JOIN THE BATTLE OF THE UNDERWORLD - The GIANT TRAIL of ZONE ZERO.

We have good news. We have obtained a sponsorship of the last minute that allows us to reduce the registration to 67 euros and 120 euros for mixed couples.

In case you think it's an easy ride, the man in the photo will be the "broom man". Basically he will be dedicated to "finishing off" the stragglers. (read that as you like! lol)

Come and win the coveted Sword of the Victor engraved with the motto: "PUNISH THE BODY AND RELEASE THE SOUL".

In the Territory of Zona Zero - Survive and be Counted!"


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## Bonus (8 Aug 2017)

From the Zona Zero Website:

"The fate is cast, we have been tasked with defeating Mordor on 23 September - We need everyone's help, get your bike ready and come. And if we don't win, we might as well have a good time"


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## Bonus (9 Aug 2017)

The Enduro World Series calendar for 2018 has been published. Stage 7 will be here in Ainsa Sobrabe on 22nd and 23rd September!

Fantastic news :-)

https://dirtmountainbike.com/racing-events/enduro/enduro-world-series-2018-calendar-released.html


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## Bonus (15 Aug 2017)

We've had lots of feedback and support since we posted that we had decided to stay here and push on with our project. Thanks for all the private messages and suggestions - some of the ideas people have put forward are things that had crossed our minds and some of the ideas are new to us. In any case it's always good for someone else to suggest an idea that had previously crossed your mind but that you weren't sure was a good one or not :-)

We're going over everything now and formulating a plan to move forward, at whatever speed we can manage under the circumstances.

These are exciting times for us and as frustrating as it has been not to be able to just "get on with it" up until now, we're slowly coming around to the idea that maybe things going slowly has been a good thing, and maybe we'll be better off for it in the long run . . .

Coming to terms with the fact that this is an "Adventure" to be enjoyed on the way - rather than just a relocation, business start up and then "noses back to the grindstone" asap to pay for it all!

We've certainly enjoyed it so far . . .. Let's see how this goes now . . . .


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## woodbutcher (15 Aug 2017)

Bonus said:


> We've had lots of feedback and support since we posted that we had decided to stay here and push on with our project. Thanks for all the private messages and suggestions - some of the ideas people have put forward are things that had crossed our minds and some of the ideas are new to us. In any case it's always good for someone else to suggest an idea that had previously crossed your mind but that you weren't sure was a good one or not :-)
> 
> We're going over everything now and formulating a plan to move forward, at whatever speed we can manage under the circumstances.
> 
> ...


Great attitude Bonus....l recon that will see you through the rough and the smooth. 
Meilleurs vœux et bonne chance 
Most of all enjoy the ride !!


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## Bonus (16 Aug 2017)

Tomorrow morning we're having a meeting at our property with the builder we'd like to use for our project. We have a number of issues to go over with him and it's important that he fully understands our changed position - for that reason I've asked a very good Spanish friend of ours who lives in Zaragoza to join us and translate. Mikel and I first met when he visited the company I worked for in Johannesburg to carry out some training for us and he's been helping us ever since. . . .

Our preferred builder is a local guy who survived the Spanish financial crisis of 2008 intact and who lives close enough for me to "go and get him if he doesn't turn up for work" :-)

We need to establish whether the prices on the quote he gave us when he originally quoted the job are still valid, and if not, by what percentage. Also we need to make sure he's ok with doing much less work than previously expected, because we will be doing more ourselves, and with spreading the reduced work over a longer period of time, as our finances dictate.

Probably not hugely appealing from the builder point of view but let's see what he says tomorrow . . . .


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## Bonus (18 Aug 2017)

We had a very good meeting with our builder yesterday and everyone is happy with the path we are taking :-)


The prices quoted last year are still relevant.

He is happy for us to do whatever work we can ourselves and for him to do the bits we can't.

He also understands that we will be stretching the project over an extended period of time and so it will be start/stop/start/stop for him but he's ok with that too. He will fit us in around other projects he's working on.


We had the meeting at Ramon & Rosa's farmhouse, with our good friend Mikel helping to translate for us and of course with the builder being local, it turns out that his parents and both Ramon & Rosa's parent were old friends. I like that.

I think this is going to work out just fine.

:-)


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## Starchivore (19 Aug 2017)

Que bueno- claro que vais a seguir adelante. 

I'm a sporadic visitor to the forums but I always like to look up your progress in Spain.


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## Bonus (19 Aug 2017)

Starchivore said:


> Que bueno- claro que vais a seguir adelante.
> 
> I'm a sporadic visitor to the forums but I always like to look up your progress in Spain.




Cheers Starchivore - Slowly but surely :-)


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## Bonus (21 Aug 2017)

Visited my friend Angel in the Intersport shop today and got my hands on the Sword of the Inframundo!


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## Bonus (23 Aug 2017)

Sometimes in the heat of summer here we have veld fires and because it is so hot and often a bit windy, they can take hold really quickly. So the Spanish Airforce have a fleet of Canadair CL-215 planes that they use to "water drop" when necessary.

Thankfully there are no fires anywhere near here at the moment (Portugal is currently suffering) but because we are next to the Embalse de Mediano (The Mediano Reservoir) we often see planes circling as they practice scooping and dropping water.

I would love to see them practicing close up but they don't do it at regular intervals so the chances of being in the right place at the right time are slim.

Maybe one day I'll get lucky . . .


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## Bonus (25 Aug 2017)

Mrs Bonus out on a training ride between Ainsa and Barbastro. Beautiful Clear Skies, Good Roads and Strong Legs!


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## Shut Up Legs (25 Aug 2017)

Hmm... summer!  That was nice while I was in Italy and France in late June / early July. I still have part of the tan I got while over there. Here in Melbourne, it's still definitely winter.


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## woodbutcher (25 Aug 2017)

Shut Up Legs said:


> Hmm... summer!  That was nice while I was in Italy and France in late June / early July. I still have part of the tan I got while over there. Here in Melbourne, it's still definitely winter.


This summer is lovely but there is a weather warning for temperatures in the upper 30's and probably high humidity next week so riding the bike is going to be a sweaty experience


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## Shut Up Legs (25 Aug 2017)

woodbutcher said:


> This summer is lovely but there is a weather warning for temperatures in the upper 30's and probably high humidity next week so riding the bike is going to be a sweaty experience


Saves you having to visit a sauna to lose weight, I guess.


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## Bonus (26 Aug 2017)

Here in Spain there are "high temp" and "risk of bush fire" warnings most days over summer.

I find it most comfortable to ride early or late. Midday is not an option for me, but Mrs Bonus loves it!


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## Bonus (28 Aug 2017)

Here in Spain when you commission an architect to prepare a complete "Project" for you, he supplies you with two things:

Firstly a complete set of drawings. Drawings of how the property looks now and how it will look like when it's finished. Detailed schematics of the heating, electrical and plumbing layouts and detailed drawings of how various parts of the project - the roof, walls, floors etc, should be constructed.

Secondly he gives you a "Project Book". This is a 100 plus page book that he puts together which details all the rules and regulations pertaining to how the building work should be carried out on your specific build, which standards of materials must be used, etc etc.

The Project Book also contains "The Budget". This is a step by step list of every single job that needs to be carried out in the process of turning our agricultural barn into a house & home (or in our case, a home and a B&B!). It starts with the removal of the existing barn roofing, finishes with the final coat of varnish on the staircase handrails and includes every single activity in between. Each item has a "cost" next to it - the price of which comes from the official "Big Book of Pricing for Builders". The Builders themselves see this "Budget" (and no doubt have a copy off the Big Book) and when they quote you for a job, they quote, "mas or minus", in line with the architects recommended prices.

This means that for every job that needs to be done throughout the project, we know how much the architect says it should cost to do and how much the Builder wants to do it.









We will use this comparison to work out exactly how much the builder is going to charge us for each separate job that we ask him to do and we will use it to work out how much we are saving by doing certain jobs ourselves.


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## Bonus (29 Aug 2017)

The "Intersport" sports shop in Ainsa has a bike workshop and Angel stocks a wide range of replacement Rear Mech Hangers there.

As with any MTB cycling holiday though, I'd advise you keep one of your own spare in your kit just in case . . . . I was in the shop chatting to Angel yesterday when a lad brought his bike in with a broken hanger and his own replacement part. He'd stacked on his first ride on the first day of a two week holiday! 

Angel fitted it for him and fixed his bent brake lever and he was back on the trails by the afternoon :-)


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## Bonus (3 Sep 2017)

I've spent this weekend riding Zona Zero with a group of guys from Denmark!

About 6 weeks ago a chap asked to join my FB page "MTB Ainsa!" (which is pretty much the FB version of this thread)

https://www.facebook...18185251605562/

He said he was flying down from Denmark with some friends to ride the Zona Zero trails and was reading up all he could about the area on-line. I gave him some help & info regarding bike hire shops etc because they were not all bring their own bikes and then when they got here on Friday Mrs Bonus and I met them for a beer up in the Old Town Plaza. I offered to show them some of my favorite trails and so we all spent two days exploring together.

A really nice bunch of guys, into XC with "techy" descents, similar level of fitness and bike skill to me and not adverse to climbing - although Denmark is very very flat apparently, so it was hard work for them :-) Saturday was 55km, 1033meters of climbing and a max temp of 37 degrees C. The average temp was quite a bit lower thankfully.

This is exactly the sort of thing we are going to try and do for people when our B&B is open. Help them plan before they get here and then feed them, look after them and show then around once they are here.

On Saturdays ride we ended up coming though our village, Guaso, and we stopped in at the farmhouse for a coffee with Mrs Bonus and Rosa the Farmers Wife - who was very happy to have 5 "Guapo Hombres" (good looking young guys) in her kitchen while Ramon the friendly Farmer was out! I did the translating while they took photos of Rosa and her kitchen before we carried on with our ride. We stopped and had a look at our "house to be" on our way past and they loved it and the views. They are sure it will be fantastic once it's all done and they want to come back next year and stay with us - let's hope we have somewhere for them by then!

They enjoyed the riding, I enjoyed the English speaking company and Rosa enjoyed having visitors. It was a nice, though fairly tough, weekend.

Bent, Pauli, Jakob, Jan and Soren . . .


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## Bonus (5 Sep 2017)

Saturday & Sundays Rides. Was a fantastic weekend!

https://www.relive.c...ew/g13978627978

https://www.relive.c...ew/g14017666568


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## Bonus (5 Sep 2017)

Some Pictures of our Project as it is now and as it will be once it's finished.

The first pic is of the back of the property with the sloping back garden - This side of the house faces North and North East - towards the Pyrenees. We have lovely views from here so the sloping back garden will be terraced into flat sitting areas for meals and sun bathing. It gets sun first thing in the morning but is nice and shady later in the day.

Second pic is the front of the property, which faces South & South West. Shaded in the morning (good for cleaning bikes in the cool!) but gets the afternoon sun later on. There will be some parking and a front garden with a little terrace here. Also our firewood stack will be up here.

Last pic is of the west side of the property. The Kitchen door will drop down a meter or so and the tower will be raised up just over a meter to allow for three floors. Mrs Bonus wants herbs growing here next to the back door for when she's cooking :-)


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## Bonus (7 Sep 2017)

We are trying to keep track of the many Fiestas and Carnivals that happen locally over here through the summer so that if visitors ask us if there is anything on, we can tell them.

It involves drinking Beer & Wine, eating lots of food and watching Carnivals . . . it's a tough job, but someone has to do it!

Last Monday was the Barbastro Fiesta & Carnival. It's 45km away and we have friends who live there so we were invited to visit for the day :-)


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## Bonus (7 Sep 2017)

A few more . . .


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## Bonus (8 Sep 2017)

Every evening I feed the moms with Ramon the Friendly Farmer and then we let the babies run around in the open-sided barn for a bit while I fill the water troughs. Today I took a little video . . .


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## Bonus (19 Sep 2017)

We've had a hectic last couple of weeks. It's been a combination of fun times, stressy times and plain old hard work. It takes it's toll on you, emotionally and physically, but it also motivates you to "get on" and make plans to change the bits you're not happy with . . .

The next couple of posts will cover everything that's happened in the last fortnight . . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (20 Sep 2017)

Who doesn't like a Party!?

"Fiesta" is Spanish for Party and here where we are we have two different types of Fiesta. 

The most frequent kind is the Religious Fiesta, which is held at a Hermitage - a small Chapel named after a Saint and often found on remote hilltops or tucked away in among farm buildings. Following the Mass there is always plenty of nice wine and bread to eat or, if the hermitage is on a remote hilltop - we take a picnic :-)

Years ago remote hermitages were maintained by the Hermits that lived in them. Nowadays the village or the family on who's land the Hermitage lies tend to look after them. Guaso has 6 of these Hermitage Chapels and therefore 6 of these Fiestas a year, including two in August and one in September - so we've been to three in recent weeks! 

The second type of Fiesta is the sort of thing we're more familiar with. A "town" Fietsa starts in the afternoon with a Carnival and then has a Fun Fair, Beer stalls, Traditional Dancing, Fireworks etc etc and involves drinking and dancing in the streets. In the evening there are live bands on stages in the town Plaza and more drinking and eating.

We've also been to two of these in recent weeks!

For the moment we are all partied out . . . .


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## Bonus (21 Sep 2017)

This Saturday is the Zona Zero race - "La Batalla Del Inframundo" (The Battle of the Underworld) in Ainsa, Spain.

This promo video shows you the views from one of the highest points of the race followed by one of the descents. Not sure who the rider is but he's having fun!



:-)

I really am happy to be living in such a beautiful place!


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2017)

Mrs Bonus Road Riding between Ainsa and Campo.

A beautiful day, little traffic and fantastic scenery . . . .


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2017)

Who doesn't love to buy a new car!?

When I first drove down to Spain from the UK with an old Mazda 626 full of our belongings, the plan was for the car to last 6 months. After that, if you plan on living here you have to either get yourself a Spanish car or have your UK car registered in Spain - Spanish number plates, Spanish Road Tax etc etc.

Registering a foreign car is a bit pricey - maybe to encourage you to buy a local car? And in order to get our car through the Spanish version of the Road Worthy / MOT test, we would also need to replace the headlights with ones designed for driving on the Right Hand side of the road instead of the left. The whole exercise wasn't really viable with such an old car so we started looking for a second-hand Spanish car . . . .

The second-hand market for cars here is not good. Cars tend to be expensive. Because so few new cars were sold during the Spanish Crisis that started in 2008, there is a "hole" in the second-hand car market.

We scoured the local car sales places (of which there are not many) and the internet in an attempt to find a suitable car but, as our building planning application dragged on and on the task of finding a car got put on the back burner . . .

During the summer months our foreign car was hidden among many other foreign cars here on holiday, but as the season headed towards a close we decided we really needed to get ourselves a cheap & cheerful car - that would be legal on the roads here.

Eventually Mrs Bonus found a car that seemed suitable and, after some trips to the nearby town of Huesca and lots of question, we settled on a Hyundai Santa Fe





It's quite old and has a fair few miles on the clock but it was affordable, came with new tyres and a new battery, it's clean and tidy and it has four wheel drive - which is essential if you live in the mountains and like to venture up paths designed for tractors!

The size is taking a bit of getting used to, but the steering wheel is on the correct side and we had a tow bar fitted so that we can use our bike rack and the trailer we bought over from South Africa.

One day it would be nice to look for cars online and not have to always select the "Lowest Price First" option, but maybe that will come in time. Meanwhile, we are very happy


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## rich p (24 Sep 2017)

I didn't realise what an ambitious project you'd given yourselves till I saw the pictures a few posts above.
Good luck!
And hurry up or I'll be too old to come and join you!


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## Bonus (26 Sep 2017)

rich p said:


> I didn't realise what an ambitious project you'd given yourselves till I saw the pictures a few posts above.
> Good luck!
> And hurry up or I'll be too old to come and join you!



:-)


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## Bonus (29 Sep 2017)

We have finally started some work on our property!

A few weeks ago we invited a young English couple that we met at "Learn Spanish" class in town to come and see our "Viking Hut" before going out for Pizza & Beer.

They loved our place and, whilst showing them around, I explained to Ben that although we knew we couldn't start work on the actually "building" without enlisting the help of a builder, I would have been happy to start working on the sloping back garden - if it weren't for the fact that in every article I read about terracing & landscaping a sloping garden, "Step One" was to build a suitable retaining wall!

The existing very dodgy 1m high wall needed to be replaced by a good strong 3.5m high stone wall (leaning back at 15 degrees). Now, this isn't something to rush into . . . You stand a chance of the existing garden "slipping" when the old wall is removed if you're not careful and then I'd be in a world of mud!


View attachment 376151


To cut a long story short, Ben told me to stop being such a baby and that he'd help us get started if I got the materials ready :-)

So, here we go . . . .


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## Bonus (29 Sep 2017)

I spoke to Angel from Zona Zero this week and he told me that last Saturdays "La Batalla Del Inframundo" was a huge success! 

I couldn't ride but we did pop in to the registration on Friday evening up at the Ainsa Castle and it looked great. The race was well organised and well subscribed. I helped clear some of the route earlier in the year. I'm glad it went well. Hopefully it will become an annual event and next year I'll have a go!


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## Bonus (30 Sep 2017)

Had a bit of a homesick moment this morning :-(

We asked to have a towbar fitted to the new car when we bought it last week. Earlier this week I unpacked and checked over the Thule bike rack we brought with us from SA and yesterday I bought a couple of new number plates. One for the bike rack and one for our trailer - which we also bought over from SA.

This morning I put the bike rack on the car and tested the lights etc, then took off the old Johannesburg "GP" number plate and fitted one of my new Spanish ones.

In a previous life, we would have been loading our bikes onto this exact bike rack and driving out to Northern Farm or The Cradle of Humankind for a Saturday morning ride. That thought just struck me out of the blue and for a moment I missed our old lives :-(


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## Bonus (2 Oct 2017)

Ramon the Friendly Farmer has given us permission to use as many building stones from his land as we want to, for our house. This pile used to be a sheep refuge for bad weather but it fell down sometime before he was born! So these stones have been laying here for at least 75 years and the last time people worked with them was probably around 150 years ago!

I'll pick out all the useable ones :-)



Thankfully the stones are in the middle of nowhere!


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## Bonus (3 Oct 2017)

Sorting out stones from the ruins of the old Casette down on Ramons land . . . .


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## Bonus (3 Oct 2017)

Ramon the Friendly Farmer going down with his old trailer so we can load the first lot of stones.








Two loads later and we have enough stones to keep us busy for a while! We've piled them on the edge of our neighbour Javi's land. Ramon introduced us and Javi is more than happy to help :-)

It is nice when everyone works together!


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## Bonus (4 Oct 2017)

Dismantling the existing retaining wall . . .

Taking down the retaining wall is easier than expected.

It's a dry stone wall, so once you clear the vegetation from along the top of the wall and cut the grass in front of the wall, you can unassemble the stones quite easily by hand or with a crowbar. Then gravity puts them down on the ground for you





We're taking away the front face of stones, which go back about 30cm and then clearing away some of the loose rock that lie behind the front face. All of the stones can be re-used. Ones with decent flat faces can be used on the new front wall again and anything odd shaped can be cemented behind the front face for additional strength.

The final concreted wall will be between 40 and 50 cm thick and behind the newly concreted bit we will leave the original loose stones. Not sure how deep into the hillside the existing wall goes but it looks like it's around a meter! So, with the new cemented front face, the cemented loose rock behind it and the existing loose rock that is tied into the hillside - we should be fine!


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## ColinJ (5 Oct 2017)

Looking good! 

My passport is due to elapse next year, but I think that I will renew it in case I decide to come and check out the B & B.

How is your Spanish coming on? I know someone who has lived on the Costa Blanca for over 20 years and he can get by ok in casual Spanish, but as you said in an earlier post, it is important to use an interpreter when discussing technical subjects. (I am not sure that I would be too keen on having a 3rd party present translating intimate details for a Spanish doctor though! )


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## MacB (5 Oct 2017)

Bonus, love your write ups very informative and entertaining, would say don't overthink the retaining wall. There's nothing to stop you putting something cheap, quick, functional and ugly up then face it with the drystone at your leisure. 

I'm no expert I watched them doing it on one of the C4 Grand Designs programmes accompanied with words of wisdom from Kevin McCloud.


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## Bonus (5 Oct 2017)

After one day of wall building with our friends from the UK who live down the road - Ben & Corina





Corina & Mrs Bonus on the cement mixer, Ben laying stones and me labouring!

We concentrated on getting the corner started, and in the right place according to the limits of the property, and then working our way up the hill. We left one very big base stone in place and after a few meters we were able to incorporate some of the exiting wall "as is" . . .


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## Bonus (6 Oct 2017)

2nd day of work and the wall is looking good! 

The corner is solid and the front wall slopes back "mas o minus" the 15 degrees it needs.

We're making use of some of the very big stones that are there from the original wall. They aren't going anywhere and they're in the right place - so it's fine.
Filling behind the wall with small rocks & stones and cement to give the wall enough depth.

:-)


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## Bonus (6 Oct 2017)

Promo Clip for the "Inframundo" race the other week . . .


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## Bonus (8 Oct 2017)

After two long hard days of working with our friends (and with lunch supplied by Rosa, the farmers wife!) we'd made a great start on our retaining wall and we were left with the beginnings of a good strong wall with a nice level top for Mrs Bonus and I to continue building on.

Yesterday we added a bit to it on our own, following the lines that we'd already started . . . and I think we're doing ok . . . 

Rufina and Luna (Ramons sheep dogs) came with me to check out the wall in the sunshine this morning. Luna (in front) is the attention seeker, Rufi is the naughty one!











:-)


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## Bonus (11 Oct 2017)

A phone was found by someone out on one of the trails used for the Zona Zero "Inframundo" race the other weekend. They handed it in to the Tourist Information Office in Ainsa and now it has been reunited with the person that lost it.

Firstly, it's cool that it was spotted - dropped "somewhere" on the 66km long route!

Secondly, it's cool that it was handed in.

I do love this community we live in here in Spain.

:-)


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## Bonus (12 Oct 2017)

Yesterday was my birthday . . .

Wow! It was like Christmas & Birthday all rolled into one!

I got . . . 2 tons of sand - which I had to fetch and then unload myself with a shovel . . .

#feelingblessed . . .

LOL


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## Bonus (12 Oct 2017)

I thought there might be a surprise in the cement mixer. There was just sand!


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## Bonus (13 Oct 2017)

Last night we went to bed shattered!

The retaining wall is coming on nicely but it's hard work. Buying a property on a hill means you can have great views and (eventually) beautiful terraced gardens with water features etc, but actually working on a garden that slopes this much is hard work.

Every wheelbarrow of rock or cement has to be dragged up a hill, or equally has to be rolled down a hill. A runaway wheelbarrow is no fun at all!

Happy days. It will look good when its done :-)


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## Shut Up Legs (13 Oct 2017)

Bonus said:


> Last night we went to bed shattered!
> 
> The retaining wall is coming on nicely but it's hard work. Buying a property on a hill means you can have great views and (eventually) beautiful terraced gardens with water features etc, but actually working on a garden that slopes this much is hard work.
> 
> ...


So, no surprise birthday presents buried anywhere?


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## Bonus (15 Oct 2017)

Mrs Bonus and I are both looking for jobs at the moment. . . .

It would be good to find something locally, but the two main fields of employment around here are Tourism and Agriculture - both of which are seasonal and both of which are covered either "within the family" or by employing . Of course once we're up and running with our B&B we will fall into the tourism bracket ourselves. In the meantime we're hoping to find something, pretty much anything really, that will help us cover our living expences.

We're looking at On-Line work, which we could do from home, but we're also looking for "proper jobs" further afield. We may end up renting and staying local to our work during the week and coming home to Guaso at the weekends, but we're ok with that.

So, as well as all our building work last week, Mrs Bonus and I had to find time to make a trip to the nearby town of Sabiñánigo so that we could visit the Department of Employment and register ourselves there.

We found the employment office easily enough, on the outskirts of town. Nice modern offices with plenty of parking. Went inside and waited for someone to become available, which took no more than two minutes. So far so good. . . .

We sat in front of a middle aged Spanish woman who, we soon realised, was clearly not happy with her lot in life!

We spoke to her in our best Spanish but apparently she struggled to understand us. Strange because let's face it, we didn't go into the "Employment" office to discuss the Philosophies of Medieval Kings & Queens or Particle Acceleration using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN . . .

Anyway, she turned to her colleague (a middle aged Spanish man), and told him he would have to help her because this was going to be VERY COMPLICATED. I moved over to his desk and, after 20 minutes, I was registered on their system as being available for work, he'd filled in my Personal Profile, issued me with a temporary password to access my account of their system, registered my driving license and told me encouragingly that although unemployment was a problem in Spain, maintenance engineering and knowledge of Variable Speed Drives was in demand. He also told me that his brother-in-law was from the UK and that he hoped we were happy, having moved to Spain.

During the same 20 minutes Mrs Bonus got almost none of the above done for her. When the lady was "finished" with her she ended up coming to join me and my helpful man and he did all the bits the lady didn't do properly.

Thankfully the office wasn't staffed but two unhelpful people. If it had been then instead of coming away feeling quite motivated, I would have come away feeling pretty despondent - like Mrs Bonus did.


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## Bonus (23 Oct 2017)

Had a great Sunday ride which included around 1200m of climbing with my friend from the UK and his daughter. As always, the views were amazing and it was a beautiful sunny day - but not too hot.

https://www.relive.cc/view/g15051447456


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## ColinJ (23 Oct 2017)

Bonus said:


> Mrs Bonus and I are both looking for jobs at the moment. . . .


How about offering English language lessons?


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## Bonus (24 Oct 2017)

ColinJ said:


> How about offering English language lessons?



She's been doing a bit of that, and enjoys it. We need something bit more consistent though.


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## Bonus (24 Oct 2017)

This is fantastic news for us - partly because we are Roadies as well as MTB'ers and partly from a business point of view. Opening up the area to allow Roadies to enjoy it as much as the Dirty Riders already do is a great move!

*********************************************************************************************

There are only a few weeks left until the new Zona Zero initiative comes into being!

ZONA ZERO ROAD - A project dedicated to the road bicycle . . .

After many months of work and thanks to the selfless help of a few local volunteers, without whom it would have been impossible to make any progress with this project, on the weekend of November 17-19 we will welcome "Zona Zero Road" - a project that is dedicated to the road bicycle and reaffirms the position of the region of Sobrarbe as a world center for cycling tourism.

A total of 13 routes (with many variants) will allow the lovers of the "skinny wheels" to explore Sobrarbe and its surrounding areas, but this time by road.

Taking in many towns within the Sobrabe and neighbouring regions, the valleys of Añisclo & Ordesa, or those of Chistau & Pineta are just some of the routes proposed in the Pyrenean region. The route to Alquézar passes through Biello Sobrarbe and the villages and canyons of the of the Sierra de Guara.Natural Park.

There is also a Spanish/French "cross-border collaboration" with plans for routes that cross the Pyrenees to join the Aure and Louron valleys, where you will find some of the most mythical climbs of le Tour de France, including the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Tourmalet and Col d'Aze.

The routes will be presented on the Zona Zero website www.bttpirineo.com with illustrative photos, maps, profiles as well as a route summary and the average gradients of the climbs.

The Route Profiles have a design that is very similar to those used for the stages of le Tour de France and have been made, just like the maps, using the free Route Editor on the "www.cronoescalada.com" website - to whom we are especially grateful for their help!

Next year will see the installation of route signs, the publication of leaflets and brochures and an upload to the web of the exhaustive profiles of each mountain climb. . . . .


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## Bonus (28 Oct 2017)

Mrs Bonus & I can now add "Climbing the Peña Montañesa" to the list of local activities that we can tell our visitors about!

It was a tough day to the summit and back but well worth it.

We have some friends and their daughter from the UK staying with us for a few days. On Thursday the five of us climbed the Peña Montañesa - the mountain to the north of Ainsa that overlooks this whole area. It's a good 8hr walk up and back and we had a picnic two thirds of the way. Summit height is at 2295m and we started in the car park at around 1000m.


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## Bonus (28 Oct 2017)

The Top . . . .


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## Bonus (4 Nov 2017)

We had one of my old school friends and his wife come over from England and stay with us a few weeks ago. It was great to catch up - it's been a long time. We were together at Witbank High School back in the day. Of course now Mrs Bonus has a load of "info" on me that she will use when she needs to get the upper hand . . .

We picked my friends up from Zaragoza airport, which is the nearest airport to us - about a 2 hour drive. It was the first time we'd ever been there and what a pleasure. Reminded us a bit of Lanseria airport - only much smaller and quieter. Parking is reasonably priced and right outside the front doors, the cafeteria was clean and had some decent food & drink and because it's not very busy, getting through check-in and security were a breeze. I'm really pleased because this is our "local" airport :-) 

Having someone stay with us who's never been here before is good for us - because it reminds us of how we felt when we first found this place. There's just no way around the fact that eventually you just get used to wherever you live and can even take it for granted. In the same way that someone living near a railway line or a freeway eventually gets used to the noise, if you live in somewhere quiet like Guaso, you get used to it.

We can see Monte Perdido, which is the third highest mountain the the Pyrenees, from our garden - but you do get used to looking at the mountains, you get used to it being so very quiet, you get used to the lack of fences and to living in a small community where, if you hear a car coming, you can usually tell who it is before it comes into view by either the engine sound or what time of the day it is!

It doesn't hurt to have someone remind you of how lucky you are to live where you live and how very beautiful it all is.

So . . . thanks to John & Michelle for re-motivating us!

:-)


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## Bonus (9 Nov 2017)

Our Spanish car pulling our South African trailer 





It wasn't easy bringing the trailer over here. You have to de-register it in SA to take it out of the country which turned out to be a bit complicated, but it's such a nice trailer and I really thought we could use it here - so we bought it over.

In Spain it has the same plate as the car towing it and there's no additional tax to pay.

We have big plans for it . . . watch this space!


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## Bonus (10 Nov 2017)

The “Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido” is a vast National Park with World Heritage status. It is rich with wildlife, mountains, lakes & forests and is home to the third highest peak in the Pyrenees mountains - the Monte Perdido (the Lost Mountain) - which summits at 3355m.

The park is about an hours drive from our house - and we still haven’t been and had a look!

We can see the Monte Perdido from the farmhouse kitchen window though :-)


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## Bonus (15 Nov 2017)

Last week we were invited to the local movie theater in Boltaña to see the premier of a movie that was made locally with financial help from several local councils and "Crowd Funding".

The film was called "Ara Salvaje" which translates into "the wild river Ara" and it's a story about a local man, Martin Campoy, who wanted to ride, document and promote the last remaining wild river in this area, the river Ara.

The film was in Spanish but we got the general idea of what was going on. More importantly we got to see some fantastic footage, including shots taken from a drone, of the river Ara that passes through Boltaña and Ainsa on it's way from the top of the mountains down into the Mediano Dam.

We cross this river every time we go pretty much anywhere from our house and we swim in it in the Summer. Rivers are important here and this movie did a good job of showing that.

Watch this Promo clip that was made when the rider and his wife were originally fundraising and get a taste of where it is that we live . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (18 Nov 2017)

Some time ago Mrs Bonus and I joined an online worldwide network of Expats called "Internations". 

Yesterday we drove through to Zaragoza to do some shopping and then in the evening we attended an Internations get-together held in an Irish Bar in the center of Zaragoza. 

We spent the evening speaking lots of English and chatting to people from Spain, Portugal, Germany, the UK, the US, Russia and Equador! We had a lovely evening and made some new friends . . . and we we're home by 3am!


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## Bonus (22 Nov 2017)

Last week I posted a link here to a locally made cultural movie. (two posts above this)

This week on Monday at our "Learn Spanish" lesson, which is held at the Adult Education Center up in Ainsa Old Town, I mentioned going to the premier of the movie to our teacher, Carmen, who - it turns out - is the Mayoress of the village of Broto, which features in the movie and who had also been invited to the premier.

We had a nice little chat, in Spanish of course, about the film, the area it was filmed in and the people who made it


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## Bonus (24 Nov 2017)

Tomorrow will be our final day of picking Olives!

For the last two and a half weeks we've been helping Ramon & Rosa pick olives for a few hours every day. They have around 50 trees, some big & some small, that needed to be done. Half are up here at the farm and the others are down on the land near the river. We've had beautiful weather and it's certainly been "an experience" but by now all four of us are sick to death of it and will be glad when the last tree is finished tomorrow!

I guess we have around a thousand kilos of olives by now which will be taken to the olive processing plant down the road and pressed into oil.

You only harvest olives every two years - so whatever they get from this batch has to last that long . . .

Ramon and Rosa. Rosa always has a smile ready :-)










Mrs Bonus and Ramon's baby that he bought brand new 45 years ago!









Wherever you are on the farm, the view is spectacular :-)


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## ColinJ (24 Nov 2017)

I'm sure when on holiday in Corfu I saw a special 'olive tree shaking machine' to make that job easy ... 

Yes - one of these!


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## Bonus (25 Nov 2017)

Yeah I've seen videos of variations of that online. Haven't seen one in use here - although at the proper commercial olive growing plants they can't possibly do it all by hand, so must have some.


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## Bonus (26 Nov 2017)

We woke up to a surprise heavy mist this morning. I could barely see 5m out of the windows! By 10am the sun had burned through the mist up in Guaso though and it turned into another sunny day. 

We could still see mist down in the valleys so we drove up our hill to Guaso church and took a couple of pics and a video. Snow fell on the higher mountains last night too.


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## Bonus (27 Nov 2017)

We had the pleasure of meeting up with some FB friends who've been following our story from the Isle of Skye in Scotland when they visited the area a few weeks ago





Mark had contacted me initially via FB some time ago when he was thinking of buying some land over here and we've been chatting on and off ever since. Was nice to finally meet him in person, along with his partner Adele and his daughter Abi.

They came to Spain in a custom made camper van and spent some of their trip camping in and around Ainsa.

While they were here we all climbed the Peña Montañesa together, which I posted about a little while ago, and we did a few rides together. They also spent a day helping us pick olives with Ramon and Rosa and a day helping me with my "Garden wall building".

Was really nice to be able to just speak English for a while!


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## Bonus (29 Nov 2017)

I think we can safely say that Winter is here!

Beautiful clear skies and warm enough during the day when you're in the sunshine, but cold in the shade and temps dropping to below freezing overnight.

No wind or rain so far . . .


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## Bonus (2 Dec 2017)

First thing yesterday morning we had snow in Guaso! It settled but didn't last long - but it put us in the mood for a drive up into the mountains to test out our 4WD and just enjoy a sunny Pirenean winter





Still amazed by the beauty of the mountains that are only 40 mins drive from Ainsa.


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## Bonus (6 Dec 2017)

Last year I remember working outside and managing to wear shorts until a week before Christmas. I was very happy about that because, compared to when I'd lived in the UK, winter here seemed pretty manageable. 

This year however, I folded early, much to my disappointment. I assumed it was because the apartment we were in last winter was warmer than the farm house we're in this year, which allowed me to start the day "warm" before leaving to come to Guaso in the car to work in the sunshine . . .

Talking to the locals though, it seems that November and December so far this year have been much colder than in previous years - so last year actually was "warmer until later". Equally, June this year was much hotter than it has been in previous years.

Let's hope the trends return to normal next year!


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## Bonus (7 Dec 2017)

2018 is just around the corner and with it a new season of the Enduro World Series - which returns Zone Zero, Ainsa in Spain next September . . .

Can't wait! :-)


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## Bonus (10 Dec 2017)

The first two walls holding up the bottom terrace are finished





We had some help at the start from Ben & Corina (from the next village) and in the middle from Mark & Adele (from the Isle of Skye!)

Before and After Pics . . . . .


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## Bonus (11 Dec 2017)

Some more "work" photos . . .

Mrs Bonus clearing away the undergrowth for the next stage of the retaining wall. It's longer than it looks!

And me - you need a big spirit level for a big wall :-)


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## Bonus (12 Dec 2017)

Although it was sunny and warm today, "Storm Ana" gave us heavy rain for the last two days - and in winter when it rains down here - it snows up there!

The Pena Montañesa now has snow on it . . . . .


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## Bonus (18 Dec 2017)

Last Spanish lesson this afternoon until after Christmas.

We go every Monday at 5pm for 2 hrs. It's free, provided by the local council and the classes are very small - no more than 7 people per teacher.

In our class we have a couple from Australia, a girl from Brazil, a woman from Holland and a chap from Ireland. Spanish with an Irish or Australian accent sounds very funny - but they probably think the same about our accent.

The teacher speaks no English. She's the Mayoress of a local town and she enjoys teaching us - which makes it nice

:-)


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## Bonus (21 Dec 2017)

"Shortest Day" of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere today.

Here in Ainsa/Guaso we have Sunrise at 8:25:36 and Sunset at 17:29:59 . . . that's 9hrs 4mins 23 Secs of Daylight.

From tomorrow onward things can only get better . . . 

:-)


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## Bonus (22 Dec 2017)

"Rutas Carretera de Zona Zero" (The Road Routes of Zona Zero)

Zona Zero has released details of the "Road Bike Cycling Routes" that I talked about on here a little while ago.

There are 13 Routes in all - 10 are in Spain and 3 are in France, in the district that adjoins Zona Zero to the north and with which Zona Zero is collaborating for this special project.

On the website "https://bttpirineo.com/es/road" each route has a description summary, a map, a hill profile and guide notes.

The routes are all circuits and you are able to join them at any point and "do a lap". You can also combine routes to make routes to suit yourself.

The shortest route, ZR-06, is 45km long with 1300m of climbing.
The longest route is a variation of route ZR-01 which is 189km long and has 3900m of climbing.



I'm looking forward to going out and testing them all in Spring!


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## Bonus (1 Jan 2018)

We're planning on making this a "Big Year!". . . .

We have buildings to build, trails to ride, mountains to climb, work to find, a language to learn, gardens to plant, fiestas to attend, rivers to swim in, caminos to walk and Casa Vino to drink.

Looking forward to it all . . . Happy New Year everybody!

Bonus & Mrs Bonus


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## Znook (1 Jan 2018)

Bonus said:


> We're planning on making this a "Big Year!". . . .
> 
> We have buildings to build, trails to ride, mountains to climb, work to find, a language to learn, gardens to plant, fiestas to attend, rivers to swim in, caminos to walk and Casa Vino to drink.
> 
> ...



Looking forward to it! Have a great 2018 Bonus & Mrs Bonus


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## Bonus (2 Jan 2018)

Cheers Znook!


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## Bonus (5 Jan 2018)

Every year at Christmas time, Angel from Zona Zero and his dogs unveil a new route that he's put together as a Gift to everyone.

This year the Route is ZZ046 which starts and finishes in Tierrantona and goes up to the Muro de Roda church. It's in the same area as ZZ04 Light but takes some different paths.

In Angels own words (via Google Translate!) . . .

"Merry Christmas. Papa Noël has left us all a gift - a new route! It will be called ZZ046 and it is the first route of the new future for Zona Zero.
It is totally signed with arrows from Tierrantona, although you can leave from Charo or Aluján too and complete the circle. 23 km long, 875 m Climbing and 60% is on the trail"


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## Bonus (9 Jan 2018)

Our snow didn't last long, although the mountains are still beautifully covered, so after a couple of days of wall building I had to go scouting for more stones. Ramon owns 85Ha of land and it's dotted with old walls and old buildings and he's given me permission to pick stones from anywhere.

It really is a very nice way to work





The 4 wheel drive handles the track from the houses down through the woods easy enough and tows a fair load of stones back up again with ease.


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## Bonus (11 Jan 2018)

Back in November I did a couple of rides with some new friends we made who were over from Scotland.

These pics were taken at the top of Zona Zero Route 4 Light - The Muro de Roda (The Wall of Roda).

The views are fantastic, the climb is not too hard and the descent is very enjoyable.

Here's me and my friend Mark (or "The Large Child" as I tend to refer to him)


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## Bonus (13 Jan 2018)

For a month now every evening during supper we watch the News & Weather and they predict rain and/or snow for the following day - so I plan to skip a day of wall building and gardening to catch up with emails & paperwork instead





Spain has had snow all over in the last few weeks - bringing chaos to some roads and cutting off villages in the mountains - but for some reason Guaso is different. They call our village "The Caribbean of Sobrabe" because 99 times out of 100 the bad weather misses us and it's clear and sunny.

So we get to work outside and our paperwork is left for Mañana . . .

This picture taken from Guaso shows the mist in the valley bellow us and covering the towns of Ainsa and Boltaña.


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

Reasons to visit the town of Ainsa, in the region of Sobrabe, Aragon, Spain . . . .

Ten minutes drive from our village of Guaso, lies the beautiful Medieval Town of Ainsa, with its "Old Town" perched up the hill overlooking the "New Town" below it . . . .

_"The Middle Ages, with all its recollection and rawness, suddenly emerges on reaching Aínsa, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Sobrarbe. A Medieval aftertaste extends from the imposing castle of Aínsa to the streets that in their day were attached to the wall that surrounded the town"




_


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

_"The high degree of conservation and the spectacularity of the constructions that were created between the XI and XV centuries motivated that as early as 1965 its old town was declared an Artistic Historic Site._

_This Artistic Historic Site is a pleasant journey into the past where each step leads to a unique moment."_


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

_"The fortress retains all its power, you can see the pit that made it difficult to assault. The only way to save it was through a drawbridge that led directly to a huge courtyard in which the troops oncentrated and organized their functions."




_


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

_"Today the brave soldiers have given way to another more peaceful army. Thousands of visitors every weekend come to know the town, which are spellbound from the moment they enter the main square of the twelfth and thirteenth century, which also ends at the Castle._

_The walls of the castle open to a porticoed square, where each arch is different and houses the parish church. Then, any of the two streets that open to the right and left lead to a journey through the history of this town that dazzles its visitors."








_


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

"The square, considered one of the most beautiful and best preserved of the Spanish Middle Ages and in it, one feels immensely small.

The senses will reach us to perceive everything that tells about stones that house pieces of history of the province of Huesca."


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

_"With Romanesque essence, the Church of Santa María is one of the most important architectural elements of Aínsa."




_


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

_"Curious is also the story that surrounds the Covered Cross of Sobrarbe, based on the legendary appearance that symbolized the victory of the Aragonese troops over the Muslims in the Sobrarbe. 

Legend says….._

_ . . . before the battle, the number of Muslims was much higher than that of the Christians, however, they won thanks to the encouragement that their boss Garci Jiménez gave them, but above all because in the middle of the struggle they appeared on a holm oak a great glowing red cross, which was taken as a good omen and as a confirmation that God was fighting on his side against the infidel."




_


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## Bonus (30 Jan 2018)

_"In this area is also very important geological heritage, to enjoy a sample of this heritage we recommend a visit to the Geopark Space, located in one of the towers of the Castle of Ainsa. You will discover the secrets that the rocks have hidden for millions of years.

If you like risk and adventure you will find a very varied offer in these sports._

_There are other tourist attractions, such as the International Festival of Music and Theater in July, and the Morisma is celebrated every two years and for more than twenty years, the Sunday closest to May 22 is celebrated This traditional descent of navatas that, starting from the town of Laspuña, runs along the Cinca River until arriving at Aínsa. A tradition that recalls an ancient trade already lost and at the same time recovered by the inhabitants of the Shire of Sobrarbe."







_


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## rich p (30 Jan 2018)

Refreshing to see a beautiful square not spoiled by cars.


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## Bonus (3 Feb 2018)

We're having some spectacular clear sunny days here at Zona Zero and around Guaso generally. There can occasionally be a sharp wind but nothing like the weather a north west Spain is currently suffering!

Apparently next week will be colder, but they often say that and it doesn't materialize.
We will see I guess


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## Bonus (4 Feb 2018)

One of the things we'd like to be able to do once our B&B is up and running (See our Hub-Thread "Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure"!), is help our cycling guests to find their way around the trails, roads and caminos of the area and of Zona Zero in particular, safely and competently.

We'd like people visiting here to make the most of their time, on and off the bike. There is so much to see and do.

With that in mind I'm looking at getting myself a Guiding Certification with European approval.

Will post my progress through the in's and out's of Spanish bureaucracy and red tape as I go . . . . .

Wish me luck :-)


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## Bonus (5 Feb 2018)

It snows up in the mountains all the way through winter. We can see it from the comfort and warmth of our village, which is well below the normal snow line and ...if we want to go and play in it we can do. It's no more than 30 mins drive north.

Once in a while though, we get snow down here where we live - which is at 721m above sea level. When that happens we're like kids at Christmas!

This is a picture of the neighbouring village of Latorrecilla at 8am this morning.


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## Bonus (7 Feb 2018)

I’m so happy to see my friend Angel Cheliz get this award. He has been one of the main driving forces responsible for creating from scratch the hundreds of km’s long collection of MTB/Enduro trails that we now know as “Zona Zero”.

“On Sunday February 4 in Boltaña, Ángel Chéliz received the "Cruz de Sobrarbe” (The Sobrabe Cross).

For us, the prize awarded to Angel Cheliz is very special. A visionary, a child in an adults body that never stops dreaming, to see beyond what their eyes reach. Surely we are not the only ones to be grateful to him and his “comrades in battle” at the Pyrenees MTB Center, Zone Zero. For the passion he has instilled in much of this territory and its future. THANK YOU.“

There goes our little tribute.


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## mjr (7 Feb 2018)

Bonus said:


> _"[...]A Medieval aftertaste extends from the imposing castle of Aínsa to the streets [...]"
> _


 What does "A Medieval aftertaste" mean? Does it mainly mean that someone's been using machine translation instead of an English-as-a-first-language translator?


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## Bonus (17 Feb 2018)

It's how the local Spanish here say "Memories of the Medieval Past". :-)


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## Bonus (17 Feb 2018)

Guiding in Spain - the basic requirements:

I mentioned before that I was looking into getting myself a Guiding Certificate so that we could show visitors around "Safely & Legally". This Is what I've found out so far:

1) You need a Guiding Qualification with "European Approval".
2) You need a current "Outdoor First Aid Certificate"
3) You need Public Liability Insurance.

I'll be posting about what each of these involves over the next few mornings :-)


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## Bonus (17 Feb 2018)

Halfway through February and yesterday I spent the morning working outside with Ramon the Farmer. We were stacking firewood for next year and I was in shorts and a T-Shirt!

Is this Spring here to visit or here to stay? The next few days will tell

:-)


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## Bonus (20 Feb 2018)

Early last week I dropped off my CV to the 4 local campsites we have around Ainsa, in the hope of picking up some work over the summer.

A day later one of the sites messaged me to say they want to talk to me some more and the day after that my friend Angel, who I help maintain the local Zona Zero MTB trails with and whom I put down as a character reference, messaged me to say that the same campsite had rung him for a reference :-)

Going to see them this eve for a chat and we'll see what happens . . .


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## Bonus (21 Feb 2018)

So, starting work tomorrow then .... They want me work until the end of the month to see if I like it and if I do they'll give me a 7 month contract through the summer.

Phew


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## Bonus (22 Feb 2018)

Shame man, I think we broke Ramon the Farmers heart yesterday.

He's been keeping an eye on our progress of building walls and terracing our sloping back garden. He's always very encouraging and is amazed with what we've been able to do with what has always been a rather awkward bit of land.

So, yesterday we showed him that the first terrace was finished and the second one was well on its way. He was suitably impressed and asked us "what we were going to plant there?". I told him "Grass" - but he didn't understand - in fact he thought I was using the wrong Spanish word to describe the crop we were going to plant. So I explained in detail "Grass, so we can put out a garden table & chairs and sit with our friends drinking wine & beer and enjoying the view"

As a farmer, he doesn't get that we would do all that work, just to "sit" . . . . what about growing food, to eat???

Maybe once he and Rosa have sat and enjoyed a drink with us it will make more sense to him :-)


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## Bonus (28 Feb 2018)

Come to Spain they said, sit out on the pavement drinking cold drinks in the sunshine they said . . .


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## Bonus (28 Feb 2018)

No work today because of the weather, so time to catch up on our updates and "indoor jobs" :-)


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## Bonus (28 Feb 2018)

Finally stopped snowing this evening after nearly 40cm of snow had fallen in around 15 hours.

We are officially snowed in - no way to get the cars out until the snow melts or is cleared. As it happens, Ramon has a tractor so he can clear the road from home to the main road if we need to go anywhere.

Looks like another day at home tomorrow . . . .


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## Bonus (1 Mar 2018)

Couldn't get to work and couldn't work on our walls & garden . . . nothing left to do but to build a Snowman!


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## Bonus (1 Mar 2018)

It rained all last night and so today the snow has cleared a bit.

Ramon cleared the road from our houses to out of the village this morning so that we could get out in the car.

We went and had a look around - the big roads are all clear. The local council must have worked flat out to get it all done. I know they are used to bit of snow, but hats off to them for effort. 

Good to know that when an Atlantic Snowstorm hits us, we're only stuck for a day :-)


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## Bonus (8 Mar 2018)

My son is over from the UK for a few days and thankfully the snow and rain we had last week have gone away.

Today we walked some of the trails I'm busy building on Ramon the Farmers land. Did a bit of cleaning up and cleared some of my drainage ditches. It's looking ok, despite the fact that I haven't given it much attention since we started building our garden walls and terracing our sloping back garden.

It's good news for me that I can ignore my trails for weeks or even months if necessary and they don't fall apart while my back is turned!


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## Bonus (18 Mar 2018)

After a week of working flat out at one of our local campsites, bad weather stopped play for a few days. Then my son was over from the UK for a week.

Now I'm back at work - preparing the campsite ready for opening time just before Easter.

The boss' daughter, who takes care of the admin and cleaning side of things, asked Mrs Bonus if she'd be interested in helping out for a while too, so she's joined me there :-)

We are both currently "employed" and earning Euros . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (21 Mar 2018)

Would love to get to Stage 6 of the " Volta Ciclista a Catalunya" on Saturday. It's going to pass here about 40km away.

Just depends on work & weather!


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## Bonus (27 Mar 2018)

If you live in Spain and you want to drive legally you need to have a Spanish driving license - so we've started the ball rolling for exchanging our UK licenses for Spanish licenses.

You can live here for a period of time before you need to change your license, but we're almost at the end of that period now.

Hopefully it will be a painless exercise. . . .


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## Bonus (28 Mar 2018)

After 5 weeks of garden & building maintenance at the "Ainsa Camping" campsite, this week the site opened for Easter. (Holy Week - or Semana Santa as they call it).

Yesterday a few customers arrived, lots more today and by tomorrow night I believe they're going to be full.

It's been fun - hard work, but good to be bringing in some Euros, and it looks like the owners are going to offer us both contracts for the summer season.

Going back to work now so that we can check all the outside lights and timers are set up correctly and working. . . .


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## Bonus (10 Apr 2018)

A couple of days off of work now at "Camping Ainsa" thanks to the rainy weather. Most of what we're doing is outside at the moment.

We did a big Prep of the site grounds and the 27 chalets for a month leading up to Easter ("Semana Santa" here in Spain) and then the site was open for a week or so over the Easter weekend. Now it's closed again until the begining of May and we're doing more prep work. Then it opens through until the end of September.

I'm enjoying the job and it...'s good to have some money coming in. Trying to improve my Spanish "as I go along". My boss, Juan (the owner), is using the famous English method of just repeating the same word over and over with increasing volume until I say "OK I understand"






Mrs Bonus helped prepare the chalets before Easter but won't be going back during the season. She's going to rather concentrate on trying to get done all the things we need to do to keep our project going while I'm at work - lots of paperwork, a new business plan, applying for Spanish Temporary Residence and then Permanent Residence, sorting Spanish Driving Licences and liasing with the builders once we get going. Plus she has to look after me, which is no easy job at the best of times!

Onwards and upwards . . . .


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## Bonus (14 Apr 2018)

The weather here is driving us nuts at the moment!

We had a long almost entirely dry winter. It got colder much sooner at the end of last year than it did the year before. Winter came early - November was sunny but chilly :-(
It was fine for riding though - just had to wrap up, and although it was cold, it wasn't wet and muddy. In fact it was so dry that the percentage levels of how full the various dams and lakes in Spain were, got down to the low teens.

Where we are living, "Spring" seems to be constantly flicking between two states - one day it's 20 degrees & sunny and we see people on bikes all over - the next day it's raining all day, the trails are wet and muddy and no one is to be seen anywhere!

In the last few weeks in other parts of Spain there has been so much rain that some of the major rivers are now flooding through towns and villages. Thankfully we're fine where we are, although we've had a fair bit of rain come down in the last two weeks ourselves.

Today it's sunny again, yesterday I worked in waterproof clothes because it rained hard all day long! Living in the foothills of the mountains certainly makes life interesting . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (4 May 2018)

We have so much going on at the moment that proper updates have taken a back seat. This weekend we have some free time - so I'll try and get everything back on track.

The Big Adventure continues . . .

We are currently preparing revised paperwork for a new trip to talk to the banks :-)


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## Bonus (7 May 2018)

Today's an important day for us. Work want to discuss a "Summer Contract" with me.

Getting a good work contract for the summer will have a significant influence on how we proceed with our "Big Adventure" . . . so, fingers crossed that after 2 months of work so far, they feel I'm actually worth having around.

:-)


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## Bonus (10 May 2018)

Mrs Bonus and I drove through to Huesca, which is about an hour and a half away and is our nearest big administrative city - to finish applying for our Spanish Driving Licenses today.

Everything went OK, our paperwork was all correct and we've been given cover letters to drive with until the Licence Card itself comes in the post in a week or twos time.

Another step in the right direction . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (10 May 2018)

I had planned to get my "European Guiding Qualification" this Spring so that I could potentially start "working" this Summer, but because I've actually been working at a local campsite for the last couple of months, I've been putting the trip off.

Tomorrow at work I should find out whether I have guaranteed work over the Summer at the campsite. If I do then I will push the Guiding Course back until after the season ends - which is at the end of September. If not then I will plan to do it asap.


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## Bonus (24 May 2018)

So, as I mentioned in my last post . . .

Work at a local campsite has provided us with some income for the last few months and that income has been welcome.

The 6 month "summer work-contract" however, which they promised me and which would have helped us with regards to securing a loan from the banks to cover our renovations has not been forthcoming....

Had the contract been offered, it would have covered us up until the end of the camping season, which is at the end of September.

Our original plan was to work under contract until the end of September and then in October, the week after the contract finished, to travel down to Almeria in the south of Spain so that I could attend an MTB Guiding Course that will earn me my Mountain Bike Guiding Certificate and allow me to guide people safely and legally around the hills and caminos of the Zona Zero MTB trails, where we live.


Our intention from day one has always been to be able to show our cycling guests around, but we wanted to get the B&B built and up & running first. Now our new plan is to take a week away from work at the campsite, since I'm not tied in with a contract, and go down to Almeria in 10 days time to do the course sooner rather than later





When we come back we will have some paper work to complete and some insurance to take out, but essentially I will be ready to start guiding people who are visiting the area and instead of it being a service we offer our guests, it will be a business we run in order to help fund the renovations of our B&B!

Depending on how work goes between now and when I leave for the course (things have been rather strained lately for various reasons), I may or may not continue working casually at the campsite when we return. We will see.

Whatever the case, we have decided that we need to take back charge of our own lives. We've spent a lot of time over the last two years waiting for various people to deliver on their promises. Now it's time for us to keep the promises we made to ourselves and to each other and get this thing done by hook or by crook!

Wish us luck . . . . .


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## Bonus (25 May 2018)

The Enduro World Series is coming back to Ainsa this year....... It's going to be fantastic!

http://www.endurowor...-zero-sobrarbe/


The "Festival Zona Zero Sobrarbe"

EWS 2018 Round 7 - 22–23 September 2018 @ "Zona Zero" Sobrarbe.


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## Bonus (27 May 2018)

Doing some late night studying for my upcoming MTB Guiding Certificate . . .


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## Shut Up Legs (27 May 2018)

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.


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## Bonus (31 May 2018)

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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## Bonus (2 Jun 2018)

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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## Bonus (10 Jun 2018)

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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## Bonus (12 Jun 2018)

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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## Bonus (19 Jun 2018)

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.

:-)
























For


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## Bonus (22 Jun 2018)

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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## Bonus (23 Jun 2018)

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





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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## Shut Up Legs (24 Jun 2018)

Bonus said:


> 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
> ...


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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## Bonus (29 Jun 2018)

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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## Bonus (29 Jun 2018)

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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## Bonus (1 Jul 2018)

"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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## Bonus (2 Jul 2018)

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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## Bonus (5 Jul 2018)

"Bike Cleaning with a view"

After days of exploring, learning and logging local trails, the bike deserved a clean-up.


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## Bonus (13 Jul 2018)

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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## ade towell (14 Jul 2018)

Col de Portet is a lovely ride up and then down - good work on a montain bike


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## Bonus (15 Jul 2018)

ade towell said:


> Col de Portet is a lovely ride up and then down - good work on a montain bike



Yeah, the bike does weigh a bit more than a road bike. Loved it though :-)


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## Bonus (24 Jul 2018)

Tomorrow we're heading up the road to France to catch Stage 17 of le Tour.

We have a Plan A and a Plan B - let's see how busy the roads are and which plan we need . . .

Either way we'll be there to cheer the riders up the climb we rode a few weeks ago on our mountain bikes!

:-)


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## Bonus (27 Jul 2018)

Today we had our first swim in our local river with our friends after a nice picnic.

It was lovely.

Europe is cooking!


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## Bonus (28 Jul 2018)

Had a great morning last Saturday in glorious weather!

ZZ-019, Route 19 out of the village of "Camporrotuno" with some friends from Scotland and from Andorra.

Route 19 has lots of XC Singletrack and lots of Enduro Climbs & Descents.

No pics of me . . . I was the cameraman!


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## Bonus (11 Aug 2018)

My MIAS (Mountain Bike Instructors Award Scheme) qualification, certificate and ID card arrived in the post.

I'm now a fully registered MTB guide with a European approved organisation!

:-)


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## Bonus (13 Aug 2018)

Recently I've been looking for ways of joining sections of several different Zona Zero routes together in order to create some "day long" XC routes.

Zona Zero is great as it is for Enduro riders and I'm doing what I can to make it great for XC and Technical XC riders.

It's a tough job but somebody has to do it . . . .

;-)


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## Bonus (22 Aug 2018)

A few weeks ago a friend of mine thought to arrange a weekly social ride that starts and finishes in Ainsa.

The ride is about an hour and a half long and covers a bit of everything. Some fire road along the Rio Cinca, some technical climbing - not too difficult but hard enough to be interesting", some nice descending, some riding along a dry river bed, a bit of singletrack and finally a coffee stop.

This week was the third week and we were joined by four guys from Holland. It was a bit faster than usual today but great fun. We don't generally race because it's a social ride but today everyone present was happy to go for it a bit . . . so we did.


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## Bonus (27 Aug 2018)

Last week Mrs Bonus provided Picnics for our friends Jeroen & Marce who were running some of their "Office in Nature" courses locally. The courses were on Mon, Tues & Weds and were held at 3 beautiful outdoor locations near Ainsa.

The group sizes varied from 6 to 9 people and we provided different food each day because some of the people were attending more than one course.

We both enjoyed doing this - although it was very much her baby, I was just helping - and the groups were very happy with everything we did. They were lovely people and we got some great feedback and encouragement from them.

Now we've made some new friends





My MTB Guiding and Mrs Bonuses Picnics are two services we always planned to offer alongside our core B&B business.

They say that to enjoy life (and work) you should try to "do what you love" - and these are things we both love!


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## Bonus (5 Sep 2018)

MTB Ainsa Guiding . . . .

We've had our "Bilingual Flyers" printed. They look good :-)

We're out at a Fiesta & Carnival in a local town today followed by a big traditional lunch, but tonight when we get home we'll pop into Ainsa and hand some out. I'm targeting cars/campervans with bike racks/bikes on them as potential customers. Plus "the Chatterbox" Mrs Bonus will talk to anyone who looks remotely like a cyclist and give them a flyer :-)

I think today might be the last local Fiesta, because the new school year starts in a week or two.

The last 6 weeks have been crazy - every single town and village in Spain holds a Fiesta once a year and most of them are in the summer. Some have Processions or Carnivals, they all have a big evening meal and then they have music & dancing in the town or village Plaza until the following morning. . . . 

It's a hard life . . . .


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## Bonus (7 Sep 2018)

Mrs Bonus and I have volunteered to help out at Stage 7 of the Enduro World Series when it comes here in a fortnight.

We're down for helping during the week with registrations and general admin, and over the racing weekend we'll be in the Paddock.

Looking forward to it :-)


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## Bonus (12 Sep 2018)

On Monday morning there was an "Enduro World Series 2018" meeting held by the local organisers (Ainsa Zona Zero staff) for people who have volunteered to help.

We went through the layout of the Expo, Paddock and parking areas etc - which will all be in the Castle grounds (up in Ainsa Old Town) and discussed what the various jobs would be that need doing.

Yesterday we were sent an up to date "schedule of events" which included maps of all the routes for the World Series stages that will be held over the weekend of the 22nd/23rd as well as the route for Fridays "Enduro Challenge" which is open to non professionals.

At the moment there are around 400 Pros riding and 80 non-Pros taking part in the challenge.

It's going to be amazing :-)


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2018)

The Castle grounds in Ainsa where the EWS Expo and Paddock will be, are starting to take shape . . . .


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2018)

Helping out at Stage 7 of the Enduro World Series here in Ainsa . . . .

Our motto is "we'll tell you where to go....."


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2018)

Team Support vans arriving now . . .


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## Bonus (21 Sep 2018)

What we do on the Trails of Zona Zero!

#mtbainsa #zonazero #ainsa #biketrip #mtbholidays #mountainbike #mountainbiking #enduromtb #ews2018 #mtblife #worldenduro #lovethisplace!


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

More vehicles - excitement is building!


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

Setting up the stage in the Castle grounds ready for the EWS2018


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

More teams and suppliers arriving …


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

Ambulances on Standby!


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

Bike trailers ready for uplifting the riders …


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

The Bikes of the EWS 2018 in Ainsa














Giant . . . .


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

Cannondale . . . . .


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

GT . . . .


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

YETI . . . .


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## Bonus (22 Sep 2018)

Sam Hills Bike - Number 1


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## Bonus (23 Sep 2018)

EWS Ainsa - Results after day 1:

http://www.enduroworldseries.com/live/live-results/


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2018)

Friday was Practice day for the Pros and Challenge day for the non-pro entrants.

The "Challenge" consisted of three stages, 2 off road and a third which started on top of one of the walls of Ainsa Castle and rode through the streets and down the many steps of Ainsa Old Town. 

This section was also the Prologue stage for the Pros. . . .

The Challenge was tough and the day was hot. The atmosphere was amazing!

We started off the morning watching in the town of Boltana, which is a few km's from where we live.

Bikes everywhere and riders making last minute adjustments to their bikes . . . .

(Zona Zero Route 3 Light crosses this bridge in the opposite direction to these riders. I ride it a few times a week and I've never seen it like this!)


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2018)

This was the bottom of one of the descents on Stage 1 of the Challenge.

About half way through the stage, a tricky switchback descent.

(This is actually part of Zona Zero Route 10)


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2018)

Stage 2 of the Challenge includes this drop. I caught some nice vids of riders coming down here which I'll post later.

(This is part of Zona Zero Route 5)


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2018)

The third and final stage of the Challenge, which is also the Prologue for the Pros, started on the Castle Wall!


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2018)

Racing though the cobbled streets of the Old Town, Ainsa!


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## Bonus (24 Sep 2018)

What can I say? "Be the Leopard!" . . . .


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

Enduro World Series Day 1 - Bottom of Stage 3. Close enough that I got covered in dust a few times!


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

Timing Point at the bottom of Stage 3.


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

Sam Hill punctured coming down one of the Stages. One of his closest rivals, Martin Maes, who had come down before him, was still at the stage finishing area when he came in and he immediately set about helping Sam to save as much time as possible.

This is how we roll!


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

Day 1 Stage 4 had some nice drops and a fast finish . . .


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

Over the finish line and signing autographs. Sam Hill and his "puncture repair buddy" :-)


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

At the end of the day it was Fiesta time!


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2018)

Where we live and what we do!


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## Bonus (4 Oct 2018)

Ainsa, which is the town around which the Zona Zero MTB trails have been created, has been voted a "Rural Tourism Capital" :-)

Ainsa, and the areas surrounding it, have so many things to see & do that are spread over such a large area that even on a "busy" day you can hardly see anyone!

Mountains and amazing views, Abandoned villages, medieval Castles & Towns and over 1000 km of MTB trails . . .

We really are very happy to be living in such a beautiful area.


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## Bonus (6 Oct 2018)

Mrs Bonus and I have taken a new and quite significant step on our "Big Adventure"!

After a year of living on The Farm with Ramon & Rosa, which was fun & interesting to say the least, we have now moved 5km "down the hill" from Guaso to the pretty little town of Boltaña and into an apartment of our own.

We're still close enough to easily carry on with whatever work we can do on our own dream property, but after a lot of consideration and with some "from an outside point-of-view" help from friends here, we came to the conclusion that we really needed to be able to offer some accommodation to people here asap.

My MTB guiding and her "picnics" have been going well - and now we are in a place that allows us to easily offer B&B to visitors.

It is nice to have our own space again, even as fond as we are of Ramon & Rosa, and were looking forward to hosting visitors and spoiling them rotten in this special part of the world.

Of course Rosa cried because 5km away is just soooo far away. But we've seen them every day since we took the keys to our own place and actually they're ok. They know where we are and they know we'll be back, hopefully soon, and into our own place as their neighbours.


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## Bonus (10 Oct 2018)

On Sunday I did my first Spanish MTB race. An XC race held in the nearby town of Barbastro - which is about 60km away from us. I wore one of my "Cycling South Africa" shirts for a change :-)

The event was really well organised, the route well marked out and with lots of civilian marshals. Also there were police stationed at the two spots where the trail crossed or briefly used a road. There were a couple of semi technical and quite steep climbs where quite a few riders got off and pushed. Because I'm used to the technical climbs local to where we live in Zona Zero I didn't have any problems and I rode up them which enabled me to make up some time :-)

The climbs had spectators on them - which was cool. I understand enough Spanish to appreciate the encouragement and a couple of times spectators warned walking riders, who were lost in their own little worlds of pain, to move over because I was coming past. It was a nice gesture and very helpful. The terrain was very similar to what I used to race in SA. A mixture of Red Barn / Northern Farms - a hot day with a bit of a wind, fast dry dusty farm roads, singletrack, trees, sharp climbs and some nice long loose descents. Perfect.

My race was only 36km long - 2x 18km laps, with 330m of climbing per lap but I have to say, it was a hard couple of hours! It's been a while since I rode at race pace like that. I came 10th in my age group.

There were no issues with traffic at all and I only saw one rider crash - a guy that went into a gravel corner a bit "hot" and slid out. I did see a few mechanicals and Mrs Bonus saw some riders "retiring" after the first lap. She said they didn't look happy

There were free cold drinks & beer, sweets, biscuits & fruit at the finish line and the entry cost of 33€ (including a day license) included a goody bag with a free commemorative Cycling Shirt and a ticket for lunch at the prize giving after the race!

All in all really good value and a great day out. Friendly & well organised.

Well done to Club Ciclista Barbastro for organising it all.


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## Bonus (18 Oct 2018)

I’ve been doing some more exploring. This time I’m checking out some of the routes the Enduro World Series used when it was here …

Took a ride up a Pista (Stone Track) that goes “the back way” from the small town of Boltaña where we’re living now, up towards the village of Campodarbe.

When the EWS was here the other week they climbed this pista on one of their stages. The views, as always, are amazing.


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## Bonus (18 Oct 2018)

We've been in our new place for a couple of weeks now and Mrs Bonus has now got it just how she likes it :-) 

The place was rented "part furnished" but we've bought some of our own bits & pieces out of storage to finish it off. Living on the farm with Ramon & Rosa was fun but it really is nice to have our own space and our own "stuff" around us again.

Last night we had some friends around for dinner - including a new Dutch friend who's just got back from walking the Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage route (800km across northern Spain!) and Mrs Bonus was able to cook and look after everyone from her own kitchen.

A lovely evening, food & wine and amazing stories of what it's like to walk 800km is 5 weeks . . . 

Now the Camino has been bumped up our "to-do" list a bit :-)


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## Bonus (22 Oct 2018)

Today was a lovely sunny late summer/early autumn day and this lunchtime I was out testing some new bits of route in preparation for guiding people.

Took the first pic up on the Ainsa Castle wall, then rode down a flight of steps afterwards. Second pic is a view point looking north towards the Pyrenees and France … beautiful as always.


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## Bonus (28 Oct 2018)

On Friday we did a local walk up to the village of Sieste and back. A nice route, not too hilly, fully marked out and on good footpaths. Starts and finishes on the bridge at "La Gorga" (a popular river swimming spot on the edge of town).

The route was deserted and the sun was shining . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (29 Oct 2018)

A couple of days ago I did a nice “local” ride from home which included the Zona Zero Route 5 climb out of the back of Ainsa up to the top of the “Partara”. I’ve ridden it several times - it’s not too long or too technical and there are some nice flat “recovery” segments, but the bits that go up, really do go up. 

Great fun and there are several ways back down to try out … . :-)


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## Bonus (29 Oct 2018)

No shortage of signposts here ….


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## Bonus (1 Nov 2018)

After a brief surprise cold snap, the sun is back out again today :-)

The weather in November is normally very nice - the trees have started to change colour and the first snows have fallen up in the mountains.

Today I'm out testing more routes, finding good picnic-lunch spots and generally putting plans together for some epic days of riding in the Pyrenees.

Love my life!


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## Bonus (2 Nov 2018)

Did a ride from Boltaña today that came along the river, looped through the Ainsa Castle and then climbed up to the "Partara". Wanted to see how much snow had fallen to the north. Low cloud hid most the tops of the mountains, but there's certainly some snow where the peaks were visible.

There are several descents from the Partara so I came down the "Partara Express" first time then did the climb again and came down the descent that was used in the recent Enduro World Series held in Ainsa in September.

Both descents are ace :-)

Check out the Relive video here . . .

https://www.relive.cc/view/g26369463706


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## Bonus (12 Nov 2018)

Ainsa and the Pyrenees . . . it's not all about the trails and the singletracks.

Today I blew the cobwebs off the road bike, dug out my road kit and we went out for a spin. Beautiful weather, cool enough for arm warmers but warm enough for shorts! The drivers here are patient and courteous and, as always, the views were stunning . . . .

We're putting together a route that winds its way through the foothills of the Pyrenees and passes through some of our beautiful local villages . . . .











and


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## Bonus (13 Nov 2018)

What exactly is "Zona Zero" and where is it . . . ?

Zona Zero is the name given to an area on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees mountains that is home to a collection of around 1000 kilometers of signed and maintained MTB trails and, more recently, a collection of Road Routes.

The name Zona Zero means "Ground Zero" in English. Zona Zero is considered to be the "Ground Zero of Mountain Biking" in this part of the world. 

Years ago, when Mountain Biking first became popular here, local youngsters used to ride their mountain bikes along the fire-break tracks, sheep trails and ancient footpaths of the area. Slowly but surely over those early years, lots of the little paths - or Caminos as they are known, were "bedded in" through regular use and joined together to form a network of trails. The "Asociacion de Amigos de los Caminos Tradicionales de Sobrabe" (the association of Friends of the Tradicional Paths of the Sobabe area) was formed to look after their upkeep.

Then around 10 years ago Spain (along with much of the rest of the world) entered a period of recession. Spain was hit hard and entered what is today referred to as "The Crisis". The bigger towns & the cities of Spain suffered, but the rural areas were hit especially hard. Testament as to how hard the rural areas were hit can be seen today when riding through the deserted and abandoned villages that litter the countryside. . . .

The story goes that a group of local businessmen, councillors and the members of the "Asociacion de Amigos de los Caminos Tradicionales de Sobrabe" sat down together one day to discuss what could be done to save the medieval town of Ainsa and it's neighbours from suffering the same fate as was happening to the rest of the country and whether the cycling trails could be a part of the solution. Ultimately, this is how Zona Zero was born.

Today Zona Zero is a large and professional operation. Bilingual staff in the office, new trails are being added all the time, accurate and easy to read maps are available in shops, hotels and tourist information offices and this year an App called "ZTrails" was released. Zona Zero has twice hosted a Round of the Enduro Series. In 2015 and again this year.

Geographically, Zona Zero is situated about mid way between the Mediterranean coast to the east and San Sebastian over on the west coast, and is 45km south of the French border.

Surrounded by beautiful scenery, mountains and valleys, fields and forests, rivers and lakes . . and all covered in a web of trails, tracks and paths, winding between the many villages and hermitages of the area . . . . Truly a very nice place to live!


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## mjr (13 Nov 2018)

Bonus said:


> The name Zona Zero means "Ground Zero" in English. Zona Zero is considered to be the "Ground Zero of Mountain Biking" in this part of the world.


Phew! I was worried Franco had been testing weapons up there, as I understand he wasn't the biggest fan of the locals!


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## Bonus (14 Nov 2018)

You can follow us on Instagram . . .

@tonymtbainsa

for more pictures and videos.

:-)


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## Bonus (14 Nov 2018)

mjr said:


> Phew! I was worried Franco had been testing weapons up there, as I understand he wasn't the biggest fan of the locals!



As I understand it from the locals, Franco forcibly moved as many people as he could from rural areas into urban areas, because it was easier to control them there. 

Opinions here are still divided . . . .


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## Bonus (16 Dec 2018)

Last night was a "Pre-Christmas Fiesta" up in the Plaza of Ainsa Old Town.

A big bonfire in the middle of the square to keep everyone warm, buy an empty wine glass for €3 and then you walk around the plaza visiting the 20 odd tables of locally made wine for an evening of wine tasting.

It's a tough job but someone has to do it - we need to learn what we can about the area we live in, including what they drink . . . .

Almost every family around here owns a vineyard of some description and this annual competition is a good opportunity for them to all get together and compare notes. The bottles of wine we taste from are numbered, but only one person knows which number belongs to which farmer - so it's all anonymous until the end.

I was the designated driver . . . .


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## Bonus (25 Dec 2018)

Big meal and get together with friends last night - here in Spain they celebrate Christmas Eve more than they celebrate Christmas Day.

They don't start eating until 11pm though and then they see Christmas Day "arrive".

Today it's a big lunch with other friends and then home for a little siesta . . . .

Merry Christmas to everyone at CycleChat!


Tony & Andrea.


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## irw (27 Dec 2018)

@Bonus , out of interest, how is the actual building coming along? Have you done any more since sorting out the terraces, or is it all kind of on hold? Really interesting reading about the processes you're having to go through!


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## Bonus (30 Dec 2018)

irw said:


> @Bonus , out of interest, how is the actual building coming along? Have you done any more since sorting out the terraces, or is it all kind of on hold? Really interesting reading about the processes you're having to go through!



Hi irw - As far as actually building is concerned, everything is on hold. We've done what we can ourselves, but with it being a barn conversion, there's a limit to how far we can go without the finances in place.

We are putting together a plan to see if we can raise finance through private means. . . . .


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## Bonus (23 Jan 2019)

Woke up to snow this morning! Will take some photos of the mountains later today when we go out.

This is the first snow we've had since last year march!


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## Bonus (27 Jan 2019)

The weather on Wednesday . . . .


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## Bonus (27 Jan 2019)

The weather on Thursday . . . .

What a difference 24 hrs makes!


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## Bonus (8 Feb 2019)

I often work with our friend and neighbour "Ramon the Friendly Farmer", but today I was helping out a different farmer. A friend of Ramons called . . . Ramon. Well at least I won't have trouble remembering his name.

Today was a mid-winters day, The temperature was hovering around 15 degrees this afternoon and the sun was warm on my skin. Nothing like the 35 degrees plus that we get in summer, but certainly not bad for Winter.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it . . . .


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## Bonus (4 Apr 2019)

It's been a while since I posted on my "Foothills of the Pyrenees" thread. . . I tend to post anything cycling related on my "The Pyrenees - Road Riding, Mountains Biking etc . . . . " thread.

So, here's an update:

We are currently living in the town of Boltaña (pronounced Boltanya) which is 4kms away from the village of Guaso, where our "Project" is, and 6kms from the town of Ainsa which is the center of "Zona Zero MTB Land".

We're renting a three bedroom apartment which gives us plenty of space for ourselves and a spare twin room for friends & family to come and visit us.

We plan to rent out the spare room with a breakfast thrown in "Air B&B style" (but not actually through Air B&B) for visitors in the summer.

I'm currently working everyday - splitting my time between one of the local campsites, several local farmers and my MTB guiding. The work is 99% out doors, the weather has been lovely - we have only had 1 wet day in about 9 weeks - and I get to look at the mountains whenever I want to.

We are preparing new paperwork for another trip to the banks regarding a loan for our Project and we are also looking into options based on Private Investment and/or Crowd Funding.

Meanwhile we're living the dream. Loving the food, the people and the weather. Learning the language. Discovering new places and making new friends . . . .

Best wishes to everyone . . .

Bonus.


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## Starchivore (6 Apr 2019)

I haven't been on this forum for ages- very nice to be back on and to see that your project is proceeding well and that you're having a good time out there


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## Bonus (26 Apr 2019)

We've had a rather wet Easter here in Spain. Not too bad where we are but in some areas down on the Spanish coast they have had floods. It seems to be a world wide thing this week - "Durban", where we used to go on holiday when we lived in South Africa, featured briefly on the Spanish national news last night! 

Here in the mountains we don't seem to get any flooding. There is very little "flat land" for water to build up on. There are network of streams and rivers leading down to the lakes and the rivers are ancient and have cut themselves between rock, not soil, so they just fill up and move faster. It's quite amazing to see the rivers in the dry season compared to the same rivers in the wet season.


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## Bonus (23 Jul 2019)

Our heatwave continues . . . .

The sun is blazing when I finish work at 2:30 and we're having late afternoon temps of 37 / 38 degrees. Thankfully it cools nicely at night and we get to sleep ok.

We've been heading to the river every evening for a swim. There are so many places to swim that none of them ever get too busy. . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (25 Jul 2019)

Our swimming spot at 7:30pm last night . . .


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## Bonus (29 Jul 2019)

Now that "le Tour" is over, our afternoons & evenings will be free and we're going to be doing some more work up at our Project.

We're hoping to finish getting the sloping back garden terraced so that we can start using it!

:-)


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## Bonus (18 Aug 2019)

I spoke to Ramon the friendly farmer a couple of days ago about using a little piece of his land down by the river to grow our own Salads & Veggies next year. He has two vegetable gardens himself - one up at the house in Guaso and one down by the Rio Ara. Ours will be next to his so that we can help each other when necessary.

Looking forward to growing lots of stuff next year.

Everything they grow tastes so nice :-)


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## Bonus (25 Aug 2019)

This weekend, in fact starting last Thursday, it is "Fiesta Weekend" in Boltaña. There are street parties, bands in the evening and discos all night....

Typically there's a band on stage between 8pm and 10pm, then everything stops for a few hours for supper, then at 1am the dancing starts up again until 6am. They do this for 4 days straight. I say "they" because sadly I couldn't even if I wanted to! Zzzzzz

Tonight at midnight is the "end of weekend" firework show . . . we'll see if we can stay up that late and watch it.

Thankfully, because work for us has to carry on, all the party noise is some distance away from our rented apartment. The same thing goes for Guaso village where our Project is - the little Plaza is far enough away not to disturb us too much when they have their "all night parties" over their Fiesta weekend in early August.


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## Bonus (9 Sep 2019)

Seasonal working in Spain:

The weather here is starting to cool down a bit now as we head towards the end of Summer.

I've been working at the campsite for 6hrs a day, 7 days a week for nearly 5 months now and then MTB guiding in the afternoons or evenings whenever the opportunity arises. It's a lot of work but we have to earn it while we can. The campsite shuts at the end of September - it will take a few days to close it all down and then it'll just be a few days of maintenance during the off-season. I'll continue MTB guiding and start working with local farmers, including our neighbour Ramon, when they need me. . . .


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## Bonus (25 Sep 2019)

The last few we few weeks have been crazy busy - and it's going to get worse over the next few days! Can't complain at having work though :-)

I'm still working everyday at the campsite - I thought things were going to slow down in September but now that the school holidays are finished, all the people without children are visiting and tons of them are cyclists.

On top of that I've been either guiding people or training / trail-finding in the afternoons and then at night after I've been back to do the campsite "evening shift" (closing down the swimming pools etc) I'm trying to keep on top of paperwork, updates, answering guiding enquiries . . . .

Today and tomorrow in the afternoons I'll be joining Mrs Bonus, Ramon the friendly Farmer & Rosa up at the farmhouse to stomp the grapes they've all been picking from this years harvest.

And on top of everything, I've made good progress translating and updating our Dept. of Commerce Viability Study so that we can use it when talking to private investors about our Project. Just need to proof-read it once more to make sure it all makes sense . . . .

I guess we'll sleep in December when everything is finished!


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## Bonus (29 Oct 2019)

We had a few days of rain at the end of last week and over the weekend - first proper rain in months.

Once the sun came back out we could see that while it was raining down where we live, it had snowed up in the Alto-Pyrenees. No snow on the Pena Montenesa yet, but will be some soon I'm sure. . . . .

In the meantime, we're enjoying the sunshine . . . . :-)


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## Bonus (9 Nov 2019)

Fifteen minutes south of Ainsa, on the road to Barbastro, you drive through the "new" village of Mediano which sits alongside the Mediano Dam. This new village was built when the Mediano Dam was built and the valley containing the "old" village of Mediano was flooded.

Back in 2016 at the end of the summer (mid October) we drove down to new Mediano and walked from the car park across the fields to the remains of the old village. The houses have all fallen down over the years but the church tower remains standing.

This year we wanted to go back for another walk but the first rains came before we had the chance, so when we got there the water level had already risen.

When the dam is full you can only see the top couple of meters of the tower, but by then you can't get close enough to take a decent picture unless you hire a kayak!

The first two pics are from 2016, the rest are from last week . . . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (11 Nov 2019)

Those of you who've been following this thread from the beginning will know our story . . . .

We bought a property in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees mountains - in a popular Mountain Biking area with well maintained and signed trails, called Zona Zero, to renovate into a "Cycling friendly B&B".

We own the property outright, we have a full set of architects drawings, a Project Budget Plan, a Business Plan, a reasonable quote from a local Builder and a favourable Viability Study carried out by the department of Commerce.

The local banks all love our idea but are unable to help in the wake of the Financial Crisis that led Spain to being bailed out by the EU a few years ago. After talking to lots and lots of people - including showing pretty much all the visiting cyclists that I've been MTB Guiding this year- we decided to try the Private Investment route.

Sadly we don't have "wealthy friends or family" to ask, so it's going to be up to us to do everything we can to try a find what I refer to as "someone with a small suitcase full of money" . . . . 

Wish us luck!

Mr & Mrs Bonus


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## Bonus (13 Nov 2019)

We've registered with a website called "the Angel Investment Network"

https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.us/

It's free to register, you fill in what it is that you need investors for and then once it's approved they send out your "Pitch" to their network of Angel Investors. 

The main site is based in the US but they have a "network" here in Spain, so our Pitch should be sent out to the Spanish network of potential investors too.

You can see from the wording of the questions they ask and the accompanying notes, that the sites biggest traffic comes from Electronics start-ups, e-commerce start-ups, that sort of thing. But they do have a category for "Tourism & Recreation" which are essentially where we fall - in fact getting tourists to visit us for recreational purposes pretty much sums up what we want to do!

The service is advertised as "free" but (exactly as you would expect) when you get to the end of filling in a dozen sections of information and you're ready to "Publish your Pitch" you are told that the free service only does a few basic things - and holds back certain information from potential investors. If you want investors to get the whole thing you have to pay. They have a tiered pricing structure topping out at around $2500 for "everything".....

We've gone with the free option, let's see what happens . . . .

:-)


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## mjr (14 Nov 2019)

I hope you have good luck with the angels. They were an option when I started a company decades ago but I think (my memory of back then is not perfect and this won't be written down in anything I still have) we decided against them because there was too much risk of losing everything to an investor just because they put the capital in to get the business started.


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## Bonus (16 Nov 2019)

mjr said:


> I hope you have good luck with the angels. They were an option when I started a company decades ago but I think (my memory of back then is not perfect and this won't be written down in anything I still have) we decided against them because there was too much risk of losing everything to an investor just because they put the capital in to get the business started.



Yes I can imagine. We will have to be very careful as to what we agree to as and when someone does come along.
Cheers mjr.


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## Bonus (20 Nov 2019)

We've suddenly slipped into Winter!

Spring was amazing - in June I was riding until after 10pm and it hadn't got dark yet!

Summer was amazing - up to 43 degrees at times in August, swimming in the local river, big salads for lunch every day - perfect.

Autumn..... well, it lasted 2 minutes! October was nice, in fact it was very comfortable after the heat of summer, but then at the beginning of November the rains arrived and temps started to fall. Now the rain has gone and it's sunny during the day - warm even if you happen to be out in it, but at night and inside the flat (which, like South African houses, is designed for summer not winter) it is freezing! 

We'll be ok after we adjust ourselves a bit - dig out the winter clothes and riding kit and the hot water bottles - and if it snows then the cold will be forgiven, because it really is beautiful here when it snows, but for the moment while we pay our respects to the passing of Summer, the cold is a bit.... shocking!!! Brrrrrr


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## Bonus (27 Nov 2019)

You may have gathered from some of our posts that the region where we live - in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees - is strewn with abandoned or almost abandoned villages. 

The two main reasons for this are firstly the relocation of much of the rural population into the towns and cities by Franco leading up to and during the Spanish Civil War and more recently the natural migration of people, specifically youngsters, moving to places with better work opportunities.

Pretty much every ride I go on takes me past at least one abandonded village or farm house and they've become some much a part of the landscape I'm used to that I'm no longer surprised by them - although I still find them intriguing! 

The current government, in conjunction with local councils in our area are making an effort to encorurage people to move back into these villages, some of which are high in the mountains and consequently failry remote. Modern access roads and electricity & water supplies are all being put in and in some cases funding is being made available for renovation projects.

Guaso, where our Project is, doesn't fall into the "abandonded" category, but we're making enquiries with the local department of commerce just in case the option for funding or a low rate loan might be available.

You never know!


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## Bonus (2 Dec 2019)

Tomorrow we'll be doing some volunteer work at the Ainsa Red Cross (Cruz Roja) office.

There are probably 50 odd volunteers all told, and by all trying to do a bit each, no one ends up doing too much. 

Tomorrow we'll be driving the Red Cross van out to some small villages and dropping off EU Food parcels to people who need them.

No matter how tough life gets, or how bad off you think you have it - and believe me we both have our "moments", there are always people worse off than you.

:-)


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## Bonus (10 Dec 2019)

Our first little excursion into looking for a potential Private Investor on-line has now come to an end and although we haven't found an investor, we have learned a few useful things going through the process.

We tried out with the Angel Investment Network which advertised "Free Registration" and "access to 225,987 potential investors". I filled in all the sections of the online application form, giving details of our project, our business plan, our viability study and ourselves etc etc and at the end of several hours of work, was ready to "Publish our Pitch". Once you publish the pitch it has to be approved by the AIN before being given a Live status.

On clicking the "Publish" button, you are taken to a page that offers you various Paid options that enable you to enhance your pitch. Prices for the additional options range from $150 to $2500. Since this is our first attempt and we're really just finding our way here, I didn't choose to enhance our pitch. I clicked "continue" and was taken to a second Paid options page which informed me that the free option, which I was currently signed up for, did have certain limitations on it...

Several important sections of our pitch would be blanked out and therefore not available for potential investors to see, our acompanying pictures/photos would not be included with the pitch, the pitch would only be sent to a fraction of the available potential investors and our pitch would be sent out as an "Anonymous Pitch" - meaning investors would have to open it and read it to see what it was about, rather than being told in advance for example that it was a property development. 

I understand that everyone is tyring to make money here and that you don't get anything for nothing, so I won't run the company down for their "bait and switch" methods, and I kept a "copy & paste" copy of all the text I filled in - so I won't have to type everything out "longhand" again the next time we go through this process.

I say our "first little excursion has now come to an end" because one of the other limitations to the Novice Package is that the Pitch is archived after 30 days and if you want to republish it, you have to pay to do so.

I doubt that this exercise will result in us hearing from a potential investor, the limitations the company place on the free option are just too crippling. Of course its designed like that - again, I understand.

It's a shame because I'd happily have paid the company a finders fee if we'd been successful.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I believe we have a good idea and we've bought ourselves a great property and I'm nothing if not optimistic!


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## BrumJim (19 Dec 2019)

Any clue if the Vuelta will be passing your front door next year?


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## Bonus (25 Dec 2019)

BrumJim said:


> Any clue if the Vuelta will be passing your front door next year?



Stage 8 of la Vuelta a España 2020 will pass through Ainsa - our hometown - on Saturday August 22nd!
Bring it on!


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## Bonus (5 Jan 2020)

We're on the last day of a 10 day trip to the UK. Going to miss my son and our grand daughter when we leave tonight. It has been lovely.

Andrea came down with flu between Boxing day and us leaving Spain on the 28th, and I got it the day we arrived here. Thankfully my sons house is warmer than our flat back in Boltana and we managed to keep warm, take meds and get rid of it before it could turn into anything worse. Reading on-line it seems the usual waves of winter Flu are sweeping across Northern Europe. Let's hope that's it now. Our first proper illness in nearly two years.

Today we will do some last minute shopping before packing our bags and heading to Gatwick for a 2 hr flight home.

Tomorrow is a public holiday in Spain - "Kings Day". The day the three kings arrived with gifts to visit the baby . . . .

We will have the day to ourselves, washing clothes and cleaning the flat no doubt, before getting back into normal life - whatever that may be - on Tuesday.

We're hoping for good things this year - nothng extravagent, we dont need to win the Lotto, we just want to set up our business, become self sufficient financially and do the stuff we love - hosting and guiding visitors.

Fingers crossed!

Happy New Year to everyone.......


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## Bonus (6 Jan 2020)

We popped in and spoke to one of the banks before we left Spain on our 10 day trip to the UK.

They confirmed what I'd pretty much already guessed - if we can get our business built using private investment, run it succesfully for between 18 months and 2 years and produce a set of accounts showing that everything is going ok - then in principal they should not have a problem re-financing us if we wanted (or needed) to pay back our investors. 

Banks - happy to lend you money when you no longer need it . . . . . ;-)


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## Bonus (25 Jan 2020)

There are literally hundreds of Fiestas here in Spain every year. A “Fiesta” is the celebration of the day of a particular Saint and whatever that Saint was the Patron of. Some fiestas are specific to a particular region of Spain whilst others are recognised countrywide. Some of them are also Public Holidays (Bank Holidays), many of them are not.

Last night in Boltaña was the Fiesta de San Pablo (The Feast of St Paul) who was the Patron Saint of Missionaries. This particular Fiesta is big deal locally, and the town council had erected a dozen or so bonfires of various sizes, scattered throughout the town. At 7pm they were lit and the people of the town all met up at the various locations with their cooler boxes of food and drink. Once the fires had burnt down to a reasonable level they cooked their meat on them. We are renting a flat in Boltaña - about 5km from the village of Guaso where our Project is - at the moment and one of the biggest bonfires was on a small green just 100m from home. We took a couple of bottles of wine, some French loaves and a nice piece of Longaniza (the Spanish equivalent of Boerewors) and had a fantastic evening. A huge communal BBQ at each bonfire with 50 odd people cooking their food, drinking wine and talking nonsense!

We took some friends, a local British couple from a neighbouring village, with us and spent the evening catching up with them and with all our local Spanish friends. There’s a great feeling of comradery at these events, talking to people I ride with, people I work for or who sometimes work for me, chatting to the small group of Spaniards who attend the weekly “Learn English” Class – the equivalent of the weekly “Learn Spanish” class we go to.

Everyone wanted to know how our trip to the UK went, and how was our granddaughter. A big bonfire, a drink, a Boerewors roll and a load of friends. . . . . As Mrs Bonus said afterwards, it’s just what you need sometimes to keep you going when you don’t feel like you’re making enough progress with your “dream”.

Happy days . . . .


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## Bonus (26 Jan 2020)

Before Christmas I asked the Department of Commerce, who carried out our original Viability Study, to give us an updated version using some new figures that I had for them. Our circumstances have changed a little since the original study was carried out and I wanted to confirm that everything was still in order.

I'm happy to say that all is good and our business plan still holds water. The revised Viability Study shows that our business will be able to wash its own face.


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## Bonus (1 Feb 2020)

One of the people we're talking to re Private Investment asked us if we could provide some sort of proof of the value of the property we own, since that is going to be the security against anything we borrow.

I asked our Architect, who also owns the local estate agent that we bought the Barn through, and he's come back to us with an official valuation document.

I'm happy to say that the current value of the property equals What we paid for it + the cost of the Architects Project + the cost of the Council Planning Permission + a bit of normal growth in the time since we bought it.

This was good to hear.

Since any and all the money we borrow will go directly into the repair and refurbishment of the Barn, the value of the Barn will increase directly in line with whatever we spend on it until, at the end of the project, the finished property will be worth more than all of the costs involved in buying and renovating it. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"..... 

So whatever loan we manage to find will always be secure. 

As a bonus, because there is so little property for sale in this area (and none at all in Guaso village) once the property is finished, if for any reason it didn't make money as a "B&B" we could sell it for enough to get everything we put into it back again, clear any loans or debts and still make a bit extra for ourselves.

Win Win!


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## Bonus (16 Feb 2020)

Whilst storm Dennis and storm Ciara before it, batter northern europe, here on the southern side of the Pyrenees we have been enjoying unusually warm weather for the last few weeks.

The days have been sunny, temps have be as high as 21 and 22 degrees and the trails are dry, dusty and fast - when I'm not riding I'm working outside in shorts and a t-shirt..... not bad for February!

It's still cold at night, in fact it probably feels colder after a warm day than it would feel after a chilly day. This week last year we had snow on the ground and there's still plenty of time for that to happen this year - but for the moment we'll enjoy riding, working and hiking in the sunshine.

Yesterday on my way back to Boltana from Ainsa I had a view of the sun setting behind the church up in the village of Guaso, where our "project" is. I took a quick picture thinking it probably wouldn't come out any good but was pleasantly surprised.....


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## Bonus (25 May 2020)

After 6 odd weeks of lockdown it was certainly nice to be able to get out again and last evening we did a 6km walk/hike from Boltaña up to the village of Sieste and back.

It was a beautiful evening after a hot day. We had our masks with us just incase, but we didn't need them.

The view of Boltaña was taken from half way up to Sieste. You can see the remains of the historic castle up on the top, the Old Town below it and the New Town down at the bottom. The river Ara passes between where we were standing and the town - just below the shot.

Sieste is a beautiful little village with view points in all directions, a fresh water fountain, a terrace bar . . . .


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## Bonus (16 Jun 2020)

After what feels like forever – our State of Emergency is almost over and our borders will be opening next weekend. . . . .


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## Bonus (1 Jul 2020)

For some time now I've been meaning to post an update regarding "Working in Spain", and specifically about _US_ working in Spain . . . . I'll spread it over a few days . . . .

When we came here the intention was not to have to work. Or rather "not to have to find jobs". We knew that the Spanish unemployment rate was fairly high - nearly 15% last year. We knew we were moving to an un-industrialised area - Tourism and Agriculture are the two biggest industries here in the mountains, and we knew that there would be a language barrier. The intention was, as most of you will know by now, to renovate the our building and then run it as a B&B which would keep us both busy and provide us with a suitable income.

People here work different hours compared to what we're used to and there are some old "traditions" that are a way of life here which are different - but you soon get used to them.....

Most businesses open / workers start at either 8am or 9am - depending on the nature of the work - and then close at 2pm for a 2hr lunch break. They open again at 4pm and close at either 7pm or 8pm - again depending on the nature of the business. The lunch break is long enough for you to have a decent sized lunch - the main meal of the day here - and a 20 minute Siesta :-)

Mid morning - around 11ish - they have what they call "Almuerzo" (pronounced Almertho) which is a 15 minute break for a coffee and a sandwich or a couple of slices of ham and some olives.

Buliders here, who tend to be Romanian labourers working for Spanish building companies, start the day with a shot or two of Firewater. These guys are as hard as nails, used to working in all weathers and conditions, and can drink like you wouldn't believe! I don't generally have to work with them, which is good because I'm a bit of a light-weight by comparison...….


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## Bonus (1 Aug 2020)

Every village in Spain has a Fiesta once a year and this weekend is traditionally the weekend that the village of Guaso, where our Project is, holds its 4 day long Fiesta.

The church on the hilltop in Guaso is called the "Iglesia de San Salvador" (the Church of Saint Salvador) - so San Salvador, which is celebrated on August 6th (when the church celebrates the transfiguration of Jesus) is the Patron Saint of Guaso.

This year there will be a mass on Sunday but, thanks to Covid-19, no street parties, no "Ronda" (where musicians lead the crowd through the sreets of the village), no big open-air sit down evening meal and no dancin' the night away . . . .

Last year, as you can see, we had a ball!


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## Bonus (4 Aug 2020)

"Working in Spain" - Part 2.

For our first 18 months here, knowing that work was hard to come by at the best of times and being under the impression that the banks would have the financing sorted out for our Project fairly quickly, we didn't worry about looking for proper jobs at all........ ah those were the days! 

Our plan was always, and still is, to do as much of the renovation work on the Project as possible ourselves - so once the Project build started that was going to be both of our full time jobs - 7 days a week. Once the Project was finshed and the business was up and running, then again, that would be our full time work - and being a B&B/Guesthouse it would also 7 days a week for much of the year. Neither of those scenarios were an issue for us - one thing we're not scared of is hard work!

During our first months here, while waiting for the council to approve our planning permision and the banks to approve our loan, we actually did lots of "work" but we didn't have jobs....

I was busy helping my new friends at "Zona Zero" clear and maintain mountain bike trails - work I loved doing - outside in the Pyrenees mountains with great weather and great people. I learned a lot about all local villages and footpaths during that time - Angel often took me to see stuff that you'd never know was there unless someone told you - and I made some good friends too.

We also both did a lot of work helping the previous owners of our Project (and our future neighbours) Ramon & Rosa with jobs around the farm. We helped them with the animals, the grape harvest, planting next years wheat - you name it we did it. Again, good hard work outside in the sunshine with our amazing sights and views - a massive change from what we were used to.....


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## Bonus (22 Aug 2020)

"Working in Spain" - Part 3.

Whilst out clearing trails one Autumn afternoon with my friend Angel Cheliz - the owner of the local "Intersport" bike & sports shop, we got to talking about work and, in the face of everything seemingly taking forever to proceed over here, my need to find a job.

Angel told me that with my experience I should contact the local campsites with a view to getting something the following spring for the summer season. The following February I prepared a CV, focusing on the parts of my work experience that were relevant, and within a week I started work at "Camping Ainsa" - one of the four local campsites.

https://campingainsa.com/

For me it's the perfect job. I generally spend a minimum of 80% of each day working outside in the sunshine doing jobs I really enjoy under the watchful eyes of the Pyrenees mountains. After so long "working inside" over the years - Eskom Power Stations, R&D Labs, Customers Factories, Offices . . . . it's a happy change. I have amazing views, fresh air and to a large extent I'm left to myself.

At the beginning of the year it's a very physical job - lots pf grounds maintenance - fallen trees, a billion leaves to clear up, half-meter high grass to cut and sorting out whatever else Winter has thrown our way - but it's a great way to stay in shape. Like doing Gym all day - but you get paid :-)

During the season it can get a bit hectic - there are 26 Cabins/Chalets of various sizes - all with showers, toilets, water heaters and even furniture - just waiting to break or go wrong. Plus all the communial services, the swimming pools and the general grounds where tents & caravans park up. But it keeps me busy and I get to meet lots of interesting people from all over Europe - including tons of cyclists who I can advise and sometimes even guide "out of hours".

Work here where we live is hard to come by. I'm fortunate in that I'm able to do a physically demanding job whilst also having the technical background to manage pretty much anything complicated that comes up.

I always thought that the job would tide me over until we can get our project built and our business running - but in fact we're now thinking that it would be worth me keeping the job even when we're open. "Wendy" will manage our place, with my help when I'm not at work - which will generate enough income to pay for itself - and my income will support us and pay our own "non B&B related" bills.

That's the plan anyway . . . . . .


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## Bonus (28 Aug 2020)

A week or two ago we were talking to a South African investor who was seriously considering investing enough money into our Project for us to have been able to complete just over half the build. By being careful in what work we chose to carry out and by doing as much of the manual labour as possible ourselves (and with my friend Ben's help), we calculated that we could have completed 2 (hopefully 3!) guest bedrooms with bathrooms, Lounge/Kitchen/Diner, Patios & Gardens plus a very basic room for ourselves.

The "room for ourselves" would have mean that we could move out of our rented apartment - an instant cash saving - and the 2 or 3 guest rooms would have allowed the Project to start earning it's keep. As I've mentioned above - I'm currently managing to find employment for around 9 months of the year with the Campsite etc and I plan to keep doing that, even when we're up and running ourselves, so that the Project can concentrate on paying back it's investors and doesn't have to support us.

The money would have been available within a month or two, which would have been the perfect time of the year for us - just as the "Season" starts to wind down and we'd be free to give the Project our full attention. . . . . everything was looking good, the numbers made sense and, amazingly, the builder we are going to use to do the "big stuff" had his van parked outside our flat on the day that the investor was due to give us his final decision......

It didn't come off in the end, but I'm happy to say that it was not because of anything to do with us or the potential risk associated with the Project etc and on the plus side - we've had the opportunity to double-check our numbers and the chance of it happening cheered us up nicely for a while during what has been a pretty grim year for everyone! 

We'll take it all as a good sign and keep looking.......

:-)


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## straas (28 Aug 2020)

I've just read this whole thread (may impact on my report submission) 

Really hope it all works out for you - it looks like a great place and can't imagine it not working once set up.


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## Bonus (29 Aug 2020)

straas said:


> I've just read this whole thread (may impact on my report submission)
> 
> Really hope it all works out for you - it looks like a great place and can't imagine it not working once set up.



Thanks for the support..... and sorry for distracting you! ;-)

We're absolutely positive that it will work and we're determined not to let the dream go. Having just read the whole thread you'll appreciate how the "Plan" has evolved / is evolving as we go along. We are so much more prepared to do this now than we were when we arrived in Spain - not that we were unprepared then, just that were more prepared now!

We just need to find that financial investor "needle in the haystack . . . ."


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## Ming the Merciless (29 Aug 2020)

Did your B&B open in the five years since you started the thread or are you still working on getting to the dream?


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## dodgy (29 Aug 2020)

Blimey, I had scan-read this thread a few times completely under the illusion the business was up and running. I really need to read more carefully!


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## Ming the Merciless (29 Aug 2020)

Well that was my impression but last posts not so sure now.


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## Bonus (29 Aug 2020)

YukonBoy said:


> Did your B&B open in the five years since you started the thread or are you still working on getting to the dream?



(Very) Short version:

Originally the Banks said they would help us financially, so we bought a property here to renovate.
Banks changed their minds.
We have managed to just about find enough work to keep our heads above water while we look for a private investor.
We've had some interest but it's not easy.
We've done some work on the property ourselves, but it's not an easy renovation - it needs a proper amount of money and a Builder (with a crane!) to get the job done.

Meanwhile I'm busy working at a local campsite & doing my own MTB Guiding, while we "enjoy where we are" until we can get on with the next stage of the Dream"......


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## Bonus (29 Aug 2020)

dodgy said:


> Blimey, I had scan-read this thread a few times completely under the illusion the business was up and running. I really need to read more carefully!




Hopefully my summary clears it up.... :-)

As a "Plus" it's great to know that someone is actually reading this!


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## Bonus (1 Sep 2020)

Some pictures from "The Office" . . . . 

During the Lockdown the boss got me a "Permission to Work" letter based on the fact that he needed me to work so that the campsite would be ready to roll once Lockdown was over. 

It was strange to see the sight empty in June - the family have been running the place for 30 years and have never once seen it like this during the season before......


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## Bonus (1 Sep 2020)

These are my babies . . . . every day starts with a couple of hours getting them ready :-)


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## Bonus (1 Sep 2020)

I can look up at Ainsa Old Town any time I want to and remind myself of just how lucky we are living here!


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## Bonus (3 Oct 2020)

Yesterday was my first day off of work in 114 days :-)

After our enforced Lockdown - mid March until the end of April - I finally returned to work at Camping Ainsa on 30th April (with a letter of permission) working a 6 day week until mid June. From mid June I worked a 7 day week until last Thursday.

The site actually opened on the 1st July and closed on Wednesday 30th September. Before 1st July was "prep work" and after we've had a few days off now, I'll go back and we'll do all the shutting down and disconnecting work that needs doing before winter.

7 days a week isn't as bad as it sounds. Pretty much everyone here connected to tourism works a 7 day week during the summer season, as do the farmers of course. My hours varied depending on what was going on - so the first 6 weeks were 10am-2pm & 4-7pm - a nice 2hr break for lunch and a siesta. Then when we opened I did 2 months on contract - 7:30am to 2:30pm allowing for afternoons/evenings swimming at the river or cycling :-). Through September I did 8am to 2pm on contract and then went back for 2hrs in the evenings to tidy up and shut down the swimmng pools. During July and August this evening work was carried out by a Spanish lad but he wasn't kept on for September because the boss wanted me to "have some extra cash in my pocket"....

Overall it's nice to be busy and see money coming in, and knowing that this sort of work is available and I have "first shout" at it is very reassuring because when we eventually get our own place built, any supplemental income I can earn takes some of the strain off of the B&B when it first starts running.

Yesterday was a rest day. Today we're off on a hike together up above Ainsa . . . .

:-)


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## Bonus (14 Oct 2020)

At the end of last year the work we'd been gradually doing to transform our sloping back garden into a terraced back garden was looking good.

The retaining walls were coming on nicely - it's slow work but we're getting there - the weeds and brambles were all cut back and everything was under control. Nothing grew much over Winter and then just as Spring and the sun & rain came along, everything started growing just as we went into Lockdown!

For the next 6 weeks everything grew like crazy but we were not allowed out. Then the day we were allowed out it was to go to work, not to go up to our Project.

Once work started it didn't stop, until last week. Now I'm back up at our Project in Guaso starting to clear up the weeds and the brambles again so that I can start building the next walls.....

In any case, it's nice to see ourselves making progress.....


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## straas (14 Oct 2020)

Looking good!


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## Bonus (15 Oct 2020)

Cheers straas.

The plan with the wall was to follow its original line (the wall is not as straight as it looks in some of the photo's) and use any existing parts of the wall that were strong enough - so as to retain its "character" (so to speak).

The plan for the garden overall is that despite being brand new, it will blend into the surrounding scenery. 

When the buildings are renovated and modernised (which is the bit we need to find an investor for) we'll follow the same principal. After a couple of years of "weather wear" the whole Project should look - from the outside anyway - as if it's been there forever....

From the inside of course it will look and feel like a top-notch place to stay with wonderful helpful owners - one of whom is obsessed with riding & guiding and the other who just wants to feed you all the time.......

People will enjoy it so much they will have to come back for more!


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## Bonus (21 Oct 2020)

In between knocking the garden back into shape over the last few days, we managed to squeeze in a little hike up on the top of Zona Zero Route 10 - ZZ-010 "La Coasta Doble". 

It was a lovely day and the views are great. It's a nice place to go for a "quick hike" because it's only a 10 min drive from Guaso and you can drive a lot of the way up!


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## BrumJim (21 Oct 2020)

Bonus said:


> Stage 8 of la Vuelta a España 2020 will pass through Ainsa - our hometown - on Saturday August 22nd!
> Bring it on!


Stage 5 now? This Saturday?


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## Bonus (21 Oct 2020)

Yep. The race was pushed back and will now pass through Ainsa this Saturday. Ainsa is about 100km into the stage

We'll be watching at the side of the road :-)


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## Bonus (22 Oct 2020)

I've just posted a bit about Saturdays Stage in my "The Pyrenees...." thread.

:-)


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## mjr (22 Oct 2020)

Bonus said:


> I've just posted a bit about Saturdays Stage in my "The Pyrenees...." thread.
> 
> :-)


At https://www.cyclechat.net/posts/6170501/ for others like me who hadn't seen that thread yet.


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## Bonus (24 Oct 2020)

mjr said:


> At https://www.cyclechat.net/posts/6170501/ for others like me who hadn't seen that thread yet.



Cheers! 

Hope you enjoy the thread/pics :-)


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## Colin Grigson (25 Oct 2020)

Just read the whole thread from the start - fascinating stuff . Good luck with your funding - if anyone deserves some success it’s you and your wife


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## Bonus (25 Oct 2020)

Colin Grigson said:


> Just read the whole thread from the start - fascinating stuff . Good luck with your funding - if anyone deserves some success it’s you and your wife



Thanks Colin - Glad you enjoyed it. It's certainly been an adventure! 

We believe we'll get there in the end - there's an investor or two out there somewhere that will see this as the perfect little Project for them to get involved with for a few years... and they'll get their money back with interest and enjoy some free accommodation in the meantime! We just have to be patient, do what work we can ourselves and, most importantly, enjoy life along the way.

Yesterday and again today we're watching La Vuelta which is on our doorstep right now. One of my main reasons for wanting to be in the Pyrenees was the proxitity of stages of Le Tour and La Vuelta every year :-)


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## Bonus (31 Oct 2020)

In the last fortnight I've spent 50% of my waking time working, 30% of the time riding and 20% of the time either being at, or watching on TV, La Vuelta 2020!

On Sunday I bumped into people on the road at La Vuelta who would be interested in staying with us and road riding the same roads that La Vuelta followed. Having coffee on the terrace at Hotel Sanchez on Wednesday morning I was approached by a lady from Holland who organises adventure holidays to this area and wants me too be her contact point for organising Kayaking, Canyoning and of course Mountain Bike Riding. Apparently Holland "has no mountains" so they would be interested in cross-country riding - which makes things easier for me. And then yesterday a local lady, who I worked with back in the summer, called me about English lessons for her son and reminded me that when we are up and running I said we would be running "Speak English Only" holiday clubs for local youngsters whose parents are at work......

On top of that, Ainsa Council, which covers (amongst other things) the town of Ainsa, the Zona Zero MTB Trails and the village of Guaso, where our Project is, curently has a dozen improvement projects on the go.

The future looks promising..........


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## Bonus (8 Nov 2020)

There was heavy rain up in the mountains for 24 hours.....

It's difficult to imagine this is one of our swimming spots in the Summer time!

Thankfully the sun came back today and normal service was resumed :-)

Summer 2020:







November 2020:


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## Bonus (13 Nov 2020)

On Tuesday we did a little walk with our good friends up to the "Samitier Castle" - a castle ruin perched on the edge of a rather long drop! 






Nearly there . . . . . 












The views from the top are stunning and it's not a difficult place to get to. I'd recommend it to visitors. 

You can just see the tower of the church in the middle of the dam. The village of Mediano was lost when they flooded the valley. In dry season you can walk out to that church, in wet season only the top 2 meters of the tower are showing! 







The river that joins the Mediano and El Grado Dams....












Some new XC trail to add to my existing routes . . . .












A room with a view! 






I'm lucky to have someone with me who enjoys doing these things and we're both lucky to have friends nearby to share the experiences with :-)


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2020)

Sometimes unexpected things can become a major pain in the neck . . . . !

When I left SA to come to Spain, I came here via the UK. Flew to London, stayed in the UK for a couple of weeks and then drove down through France to northern Spain.

We didn't have a car lined up when I got to the UK but my son had been thinking about changing his car at the time, so I bought his car from him and he got himself a replacement. 

My over-keen grandaughter and my under-keen son helped me clean it before I left . . . .


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2020)

I was able to fill his/my car with stuff I had stored in the UK and drive it down here without any issues.


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2020)

Inevitably "the paperwork" became a problem.



You can't insure a car registered in the UK with a Spanish insurance company.
You can't "keep" a car outside of the UK and still have it insured back in the UK.
You can't register a car from the UK in Spain unless it has a valid roadworthy certificate.
You can't get a valid roadworthy certificate for a right hand drive car without making some changes to the car. Headlights are one of the things that need changing for example. It generally costs about £1000 to "convert and certificate" a UK car.......

The condition of the car was ok, but we were reluctant to spend the grand converting it for European use simply because driving a car with the steerling wheel on the right here is hard work. Especially on the twisty roads. So we opted to get ourselves a cheap Spanish car and use the UK car, without papers, to continue driving around on Ramons farm. It was perfect for that - it handled the dirt tracks fine, you could fill it with tools and stuff. Perfect.


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## Bonus (17 Nov 2020)

Then came a bombshell. You are not alowed to drive a vehicle here without valid documentation. Not even on your own private ground! Farmers back in SA who have "an old untaxed bakkie that never leaves the farm" would be prosecuted. Now suddenly we couldn't use the car for anything.

We decided to leave the car out of the way of everyone in the corner of the field/yard where Ramon keeps his trailers and tractor attachments. He was happy with that and the car sat there for a few months with me using it just to keep tools inside. Then came another bombshell. You are not allowed to have an old car sitting on your private land doing nothing without valid documentation!

I thought people were joking when they first told me this, but it's true. And if you look around here you will see that no one anywhere, not in the villages and not in the towns, has an old car rotting away in their garden or on their land.

I thought I would tow the car to a scrap yard - but you're not alowed to tow an undocumented car .....

Eventually Ramon started getting a bit concerned about the car sitting on his land because the police had crusied by and seen it. I thought I would just quickly tow it up one night onto our own property until we worked out what to do with it.....but that would have involved towing an undocumented car for about 50m on a public road. I was happy to take the chance - I said no one would see us, but it turns out the police don't need to see you do it. If they know the car was "here" and suddenly it's "there" they will ask you how it got from A to B. Apparently "Magic" isn't a valid answer.

The car on Ramons land became a major thorn in our side. The nearest scrap yard was an hour away. We phoned them last December to pick the car up but three months later they still hadn't come and then Covid19 arrived instead. I chased them up in Summer and again two weeks ago. Finally they arrived on Friday to take the car away. They didn't charge us anything for picking it up and they didn't pay us anything for its scrap value.

It was a bit sad seeing a perfectly good car that had served us so well be taken away but I guess at least now it's gone now and we can sleep easy!


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## Bonus (23 Nov 2020)

One of the reasons for choosing to live on this side of the Pyrenees was the fact that the weather is so different here on the southern side.

Northern Europe gets so much of its weather from the west - damp air coming in from over the atlantic - whereas we don't.

I've said on here before, once we're up and running we will definately have a "weather-cam" on our web site so that people sitting somewhere cold and grey can see what they're missing! 

The weather this weekend . . . . .


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## Bonus (1 Dec 2020)

On Sunday afternoon we took a stroll up to the old castle ruins above the town of Boltaña - which is where our flat is. 

Boltaña, like so many of these old European towns, comprises of the "old town" up on a hill with the new town spread out below it. The castle is higher still, up above the old town. 

The footpath up to the castle from the old town is easy enough and not too steep, but if you start off down in the new town, walk up to the old town and then continue on up to the castle you will have climbed a fair way. :-)


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## Bonus (1 Dec 2020)

Views north and west . . . . 

You can just make out the castle at the top of the shadow of the hill we were on.


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## Bonus (1 Dec 2020)

Surveying my Kingdom . . . .


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## Bonus (1 Dec 2020)

Standing up here enjoying the sun and the views, something special happened.

At the far end of the road in this picture (too far away to see clearly I'm afraid) are a couple of small buildings on the left where the local Hunters meet. Hunting was on this weekend and by the time we climbed up here on Sunday afternoon the hunters had finished their hunting and were "back at base". Across the road from where they meet is a fenced off patch of ground where they throw away all the stuff they don't want. We didn't actually know any of this until we were standing admiring the views and Mrs Bonus saw a vulture glide by overhead. We watched where it went and then worked out what was happening from that because I had remembered seeing the signposted buildings when I'd ridden past there previously.

Once we were aware of what was going on we kept a look out and very quickly spotted dozens of vultures gliding down from all directions towards where the carcasses were. In the end there must have been 40 of them. A couple of minutes after seeing our first vulture pass overhead I heard a noise like a plane passing by at high altitude. It was the noise of the wind passing through the feathers of a huge vulture as it glided overhead. I don't know if it's by smell, sight or just knowing where meat gets dumped on a Sunday during winter - but these guys came in from miles around. It took them five minutes to clean up the dump site and then they all flew off in different directions. Some came our way and settled in the sun on a ledge below us. 






I was just talking to someone last week about how, aside from the attraction of the MTB trails here, we also have the two attractions of amazing local Geology and Birds of Prey . . . and then this happened. I'm glad out timing was right. 10 minutes later and we'd have missed it all!


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## Bonus (9 Dec 2020)

We took a drive up to France yesterday on the road north out of Ainsa. The border is 45km away and it's an easy enough drive. We had snow/sleet/rain down here on Monday, but it only settled for a day before the sun melted it. Up in the mountains on the road to France the snow fell some while ago. It's deeper and it's here to stay. Every so often we go and have a look. 

Through the 3.5km long "Bielsa Tunnel" to the northern side on the Pyrenees and the snow is suddenly meters deep at the side of the road. Nice to look at and get out and stand in for 5 minutes, but I woudn't want to live like that! 

Down where we are we only see snow up on the peaks at the moment . . . . here the Pena Montenesa has snow down to about 1000m.






Our photo's don't capture the sheer beauty of the snow covered trees on the mountains, but here's the best we could do . . . . 
















This guy will be going nowhere fast!


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## Bonus (17 Dec 2020)

Yesterday I had time to pop up to one of my fav viewing points.

Ainsa Old Town, with the New Town below it and the Mountains behind it in the distance. There was some morning mist over the rivers and the dam...


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## Bonus (19 Dec 2020)

Back in the Autumn I had the use of the company pickup for a week while our car was in the garage for some repairs and I took the opportunity to hunt for stones/rocks suitable for wall building.

Almost everything built here - houses/barns/boundary walls are built from rocks just laying around in the crountryside.... you just have to make sure they have at least one good "face" on them. Thanks to the local geology, the way rocks are formed here makes that pretty easy.

Picking up rocks . . . . . it's not work - it's cross-training!












They said I was doing a good job!


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## Bonus (24 Dec 2020)

The spanish people love Christmas and we have lots of Christmas Trees here in Spain, but out on my ride yesterday I came across this "Christmas Ladder" in the nearby village of Margudged, decorated with baubles, flowers and cuddly toys..... :-)

Andrea & I wish everyone on CycleChat a Merry Christmas.
Best wishes to everyone.

Tony.


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## Bonus (29 Dec 2020)

Temps dropped here over the last week - and then last night around midnight it started snowing! 

I took these outside our rented flat at 1am last night. It was amazingly quiet and still, with just a light falling of snow coming down . . . . . the tyre tracks were from a patrolling police car.


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## Bonus (30 Dec 2020)

Off to get a couple of warm French loaves from the bakers for breakfast....

With Spanish Butter & Jam and a cup of English breakfast Tea . . . .perfect!


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## Bonus (30 Dec 2020)

Snow & Sunshine - outside the village of Latorrecilla, just down the road from our "Project"


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## Bonus (2 Jan 2021)

It's slowly melting away now, but the day it snowed we took a drive and some photos.

It's beautiful, but you have to be careful where you try and drive. We have a 4WD SUV for this very reason - rural and snowy winters - but even so we didn't go "off Piste!"!

This is Latorrecilla . . . .






Guaso, where our project is, with the Pena Montenesa in the distance.












Ainsa Old Town





Stick to the middle of the road . . . .


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## Bonus (4 Jan 2021)

We took a drive up out of the back of Boltana on the gravel road to Morillo de San Pietro (Sampietro) yesterday but we had to stop a couple of km short of the village when the snow got too deep.

It's a route I often cycle - so I knew what was coming up - and although we have a 4WD SUV, we weren't taking any chances!

It was a nice drive regardless.....






"Mrs Bonus" checking for cell phone signal and muttering something about "mountain rescue . . ." :-)


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## Bonus (10 Jan 2021)

So we had some snow, which we enjoyed. Most of that melted and life returned to normal - then along came Storm Filomena!

Spain was hit pretty bad, some places (mostly down in the south) with rain resulting in localised flooding and some places (Madrid for example) with a lot of snow, which closed major airports & freeways etc. 

We got off lightly, maybe 15cm of snow over 36 hrs - which is what we generally get when it snows here the once or twice over a normal winter. The council snow ploughs have been out in force and the pavements have been salted.....

We did one of our local footpath walks yesterday and it really was beautiful. Not too cold as long as you were wrapped up (no wind helps) and everyone we bumped into was very sociable & in good spirits.

Happy days . . . .


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## Bonus (25 Jan 2021)

After the latest snowfall last week some of our local "property developers" (kids) went into business.

A lovely little property to live in during the winter and turns itself into a swimming pool come summer!


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## Bonus (18 Feb 2021)

Living in the foothills of the Pyrenees means that the weather here can be very localised.

We can have nice weather here in Boltaña, which is protected bacause it nestles behind hills, while Ainsa, which is 6km east of us, can have wetter colder weather - because it sits at the bottom of the Bielsa valley that brings the colder weather straight down from the Alto Pyrenees. The campsite where I often work sits in the Bielsa valley and the temperatures there in wnter are some of the coldest locally.

The village of Guaso, where our Project is, sits about 4km south of both Boltaña & Ainsa and is on the sunny south-facing side of another protective hill. This gives us warmth from the south and protection from the north - giving Guaso its own little micro-climate. 

Of course sometimes the weather is the same everywhere. At the height of Summer we can top out at more than 40 degrees on occasion (thankfully not often) and in Winter in can be minus 5 in the middle of the night. The coldest its ever been at the campsite, some years ago now, was apparently -24 degrees....

These are photos I took throughout last year that show a little bit of our local geography :-)

Boltaña nestling in the hills ....







Ainsa, with the Bielsa valley on the right leading north towards France:







From the viewpoint behind Ainsa Old Town you can see how the heavy weather comes down the Bielsa valley:







Guaso, tucked behind a protective hill but still able to see Monte Perdido and the Pyrenees.
We love this village!


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## Bonus (28 Feb 2021)

There are loads of little walks around here. One of our favs takes us along the Rio Ara to this little bridge next to a picnic spot just outside Boltaña. Today I read that the local council are going to refurbish the bridge and improve the picnic area for the summer.

I enjoy the walks, but invariably I see bike tracks...... and I wish we were riding!


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## Bonus (23 Mar 2021)

One of our local swimming spots - La Gorga, Boltaña..... 

Can't wait for summer now!!


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## Bonus (28 Mar 2021)

We did a "Drive 'n' Hike" today up to the semi-abandonded village of Morillo de San Pietro.

The village sits at an altitude of 970m (we live at 600m) and is about 4km north of us in a straight line (9.5km by "mountain gravel road"). The climb from Boltaña up to the turn off to the village is part of route ZE-09 which I've ridden several times. It's a nice steady workout :-)

There's one couple who still live up in the village and two other "holiday" houses that are visited during the year. The remaining dozen or so properties are in varying states of repair - from "passable" to "only the external walls still standing". The local council refurbished the gravel road and installed solar electricity to all the properties a few years ago in an effort to encourage people to move back there.

The views are spectacular, but it's pretty rural. The 9km drive takes a good 25 mins to complete and the village becomes isolated when it snows heavily - so not entirely practicle for most people . . . .


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## Bonus (14 Apr 2021)

I've been meaning to write a little update on how things have generally been going here lately and finally I have 5 minutes . . . .

This time last year we were halfway through a strict six week lockdown. We didn't know it was going to be six weeks when it started - like so many people, we were told "15 days"! After those first 6 weeks, the owner of one of the local campsites that I often work at got me a letter saying that I was "essential to the pre-season preparation work necessary to open the campsite" and I was able to go to work. That was possible partly thanks to the fact that I had worked there "officially" under contract the two previous summers and partly due to the age of the owner - he is past retirement age and so (in theory anyway) can't do the work himself. 

Apart from the initial 6 "weeks off" (which kicked in a couple of weeks after we "started work" for the year!) I ended up with consistent work at the campsite from the beginning of May right through to the end of October and then, thanks the the owner having an accident and smashing his left shoulder, had part time work there during November and December. It takes a while to make up 6 weeks of "zero income", but by the end of the year we'd done ok. Guiding work was way down compared to normal, but campsite work was up. Compared to a lot of people we'd done very well indeed and we're grateful for that.

This year I'm happy to say that we've had the best "first quarter" since I started working here. Bearing in mind that our intention was never to have to find jobs here - we knew that would be virtually impossible because we moved to an area where there is very little non-tourist based work locally and we're not fully fluent in Spanish - but rather that we'd be running our own B&B and taking care of ourselves, that's quite an achievement and one that I'm proud of. I've had Winter maintenance work at the campsite (thanks to the owner having to go in for another operation just after Christmas) and several local British ex-pat's had me working for them in their houses during Jan & Feb. I seem to have built up a good reputation for turning up on time, working hard and doing a good job :-)

In my next post I'll talk about what it's like working in Spain, compared to other places I've worked . . . 

Onwards and upwards!


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## Bonus (24 Apr 2021)

Snakes Alive!

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


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## Bonus (4 May 2021)

At the end of this week "Inter-Provincial Travel" opens up again 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 talking to local owners and for a lot 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 quite busy over our Winter season have seen less customers due to the restrictions but it has been partly balanced out by people from our own province who would normally go to another province for a week or long weekend winter break and couldn't. They came 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 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!


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## Bonus (6 Jun 2021)

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 🙂


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## Bonus (10 Aug 2021)

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 around 5pm. Evenings I'm out riding then we have supper around 10pm and in bed at 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!


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## Bonus (24 Oct 2021)

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!


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## Bonus (3 Nov 2021)

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


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## Bonus (7 Nov 2021)

My son visited us from the UK last week and he bought his Drone with him, so we did some filming.

He took a copy of the footage home with him and put together this video of our "Project" up in Guaso and some of the beautiful places we visited while he was over here 



He's left the drone here for me to play with .....

Spain - YouTube


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## Bonus (24 Nov 2021)

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


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## ColinJ (24 Nov 2021)

I've lost track of this thread... I really must put a few hours aside to go back and read through it again. Ditto with @HobbesOnTour's adventures!


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## HobbesOnTour (24 Nov 2021)

ColinJ said:


> I've lost track of this thread... I really must put a few hours aside to go back and read through it again. Ditto with @HobbesOnTour's adventures!


Thanks for introducing me to a very interesting thread that I knew nothing about!


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## ColinJ (24 Nov 2021)

HobbesOnTour said:


> Thanks for introducing me to a very interesting thread that I knew nothing about!


'_Seek, and ye shall find!_'


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## Bonus (25 Nov 2021)

ColinJ said:


> I've lost track of this thread... I really must put a few hours aside to go back and read through it again. Ditto with @HobbesOnTour's adventures!





HobbesOnTour said:


> Thanks for introducing me to a very interesting thread that I knew nothing about!



Thanks for the nice comments. Means a lot


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## Bonus (28 Nov 2021)

After a couple of grey days, this weekend was stunning!


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## HobbesOnTour (28 Nov 2021)

@Bonus
I've had a lazy day and finally got caught up with your epic thread. It's a fabulous read and has some great photos. Well done!

It's hard to believe that it has being going on for such a long time and yet the two of you (seem) to remain very positive. Maybe you have no other option but to hang on in there and make the most of it - which you certainly seem to be doing.

I'm curious - Why Spain?

You seem to have been incredibly fortunate with Ramon! Indeed the whole community seems to have been welcoming and inclusive (except for the planning objectors). Community seems to be something that people live and breathe (yourselves included) rather than just a word.

In some respects with what has happened with Covid it may actually be a good thing that you never got the bank loans. There may have been much heavier financial pressures.

I'd love to pay a visit sometime and explore that part of the world. I crossed over from St. Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles back in 2015 when you were just embarking on your journey. I fell a little in love with Northern Spain.
It'll give you another chance to be amused by an Irishman speaking Spanish in a hybrid Irish/Latin American accent

Wishing you both the best of luck and looking forward to following your progress.

And thanks to @ColinJ for the tip!


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## Bonus (8 Dec 2021)

Here are my three latest updates that I'm only now getting around to posting!

Dec 1st:

Sitting at Barcelona airport having some supper before looking for a comfortable spot to curl up for the night.....

I'm flying first thing tomorrow morning to Denver, Colorado - via a couple of hours at Munich airport, to meet up with Mrs Bonus who went over 3 weeks ago. Her daughter moved there a while ago from NYC with her husband. Like Mrs Bonus I'll be meeting a 6 month old Grandson for the first time, thanks to Covid! 

The news across Europe has been a bit worrying this last week with the new "South African" variant coming out, but as far as I can tell I'm still good to fly, assuming my Covid test here at the airport tomorrow morning at 5am is negative! It should be - I tested myself yesterday and I was fine..... 

I'm hoping that the "Remember to wear a face mask that covers your nose & mouth and maintain a safe distance from other travellers" recorded message that seems to be on a 3 minute "repeat cycle" will switch itself off after the last plane leaves here tonight..... 


Dec 5th:

We’re currently in Denver, Colorado visiting Mrs Bonus' daughter and a new 6 month old grandson (who we adore!) and 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 last weekend, but that is now changing and temps are dropping at night. 

Thankfully the houses are made for it!


Dec 8th:


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 🙁


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## Bonus (19 Dec 2021)

HobbesOnTour said:


> @Bonus
> I've had a lazy day and finally got caught up with your epic thread. It's a fabulous read and has some great photos. Well done!
> 
> It's hard to believe that it has being going on for such a long time and yet the two of you (seem) to remain very positive. Maybe you have no other option but to hang on in there and make the most of it - which you certainly seem to be doing.
> ...



Finally getting around to answering your post after our trip away! 

Glad you enjoyed the thread! It's always nice to get positive feedback :-)

Yeah, what was originally supposed to be a fairly "short term" plan has turned into a longer term plan - purely because of our financial situation here. Not being able to borrow the money we need for the renovations was a major blow but, as you say, bearing in mind what has been going on with Covid for the last 2 years - maybe it wasn't such a bad thing? And Covid aside, we are also in a much stronger/knowledgeable position now than we were when we first arrived. I can now do much more of the work needed myself than I initially thought I could and we can source materials more cheaply now than we could have done originally. The forced delay has also given us time to re-think and improve our business plan and better learn what sort of thing we want to offer. It's funny, but we made friends with a couple from the UK who arrived here around the same time as us and have done a similar thing to what we want to do - and watching them has definitely influenced some of the changes we're going to make to the way we run things. 

The community here is great. There are some really nice and helpful people. We seem to have fitted in nicely and made some good friends. I have a good reputation as far as working goes and that has kept me employed with various people and a local campsite for the majority of the year - which has been essential to us staying here. 

Choosing Spain wasn't difficult. My list looked like this:

1) Close enough to the UK to be able to drive to it overnight if necessary.
2) Guaranteed Summer with minimum 6 months good weather - EVERY YEAR!
3) Somewhere where the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana pass through. 

Northern Spain 45km south of the French border was the answer. The fact that Zona Zero here in Ainsa is an MTB (and road riding) paradise sealed the deal for this particular property :-)

We remain positive. We own the property and the land it sits on, we love the area and we know that once up and running, we can sustain ourselves. For all of those reasons, there's no reason to "give up".... we just need to sit tight, enjoy the journey and wait . . . 

The silly thing is, compared to "ready to live in" property prices here, in the UK or even back in South Africa, the amount we need and what we will end up with at the end of it makes it a no brainer. And the fact that it will provide us both with full time work and pay back it's own loan seals the deal! Onwards and upwards!


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## HobbesOnTour (20 Dec 2021)

Thanks for the detailed reply.

In reality you had a fairly small area to look at given the two tours and 6 months of summer

Mildly curious about this (and not expecting an answer)


Bonus said:


> It's funny, but we made friends with a couple from the UK who arrived here around the same time as us and have done a similar thing to what we want to do - and watching them has definitely influenced some of the changes we're going to make to the way we run things.


Are you learning what to do or what _not _to do?

I'd imagine the biggest challenge will be to reach the right people, at least initially.

I'll look forward to following your progress on here.

The best of luck to the two of you.


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## Bonus (12 Jan 2022)

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 Bonus 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 🙂


View: https://youtu.be/j_l2Tl1W6j0


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## Bonus (3 Feb 2022)

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, I can see 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 :-)


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## Bonus (8 Mar 2022)

Taking a break from working in the UK and back in Spain for a fortnight. 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....

:-)


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## Bonus (11 Apr 2022)

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.

:-)


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## Bonus (13 May 2022)

As far as website addresses go, possibly not the easiest I've ever come across . . . .


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2022)

Last week:

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!!


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## Bonus (18 Sep 2022)

Today:



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 Bonus 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.


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## HobbesOnTour (18 Sep 2022)

Bonus said:


> A good chance to do some nice long rides and make some progress with our Project


How is it coming along? Do you have opening dates? It seems that this has been a good summer for tourism in Spain from what I can see.

If you're looking for help there's a wandering bike tourist with years of hospitality experience currently looking for work 

Enjoy the US!


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