Airheads in the Pyrenees, oh and a X-Challange

[Lilith]

The Plan

3 bikes, 3 bikers and 3 road books, cross the Pyrenees off-road and complete in 2 weeks.

Biker 1, Red R100GS – BamBam (riding for more years than he cares to remember)



Biker 2, Multi Colour R100GS – Lilith (riding for ……………… doh, ran out of fingers)



Biker 3, X-Challange – Graham (riding for numpties, about 1 year. 4 days off road experience, Longest journey on a bike, Cambridge to Portsmouth - to catch the ferry!!!!!).




Saturday 5th
The start of the journey went well as BamBam managed to get his new gearbox into the bike the night before we left. So the shake down run was on the way to the ferry…………………preparation is the key to a successful trip. We got 3 miles down the road and had to stop as BamBams front end needed pinching up. At this point graham required petrol so he went off and was meeting up with us at again at Portsmouth. The journey was fine, no traffic and when we got there Graham had beaten us to the port (we did stop for lunch) but not before he dropped it in the queue for the tickets – numb legs when he arrived, apparently (but the evidence may prove different as we run through the report).

 

[Lilith]

At this point, all is going well until over the tan-hoys we hear the Pride of Bilbao was delayed………………….by 4 hours…………no dinner tonight……….BamBam sulks. We boarded at about 1 o’clock in the morning. Sleeptime.

Monday 7th
The ferry journey went well, in other words we kept our dinners down. After two nights of being on the boat we arrived at the port and as we were last on we were last off. Eventually we were off and on the road to Martes and the first road book. On the way we found some lovely roads snaking through mountains around Legutiano (N-240) and then running along a reservoir but what happened…….BamBams bike decided to loose a front brake calliper bolt (shake Down!!)





Next stop…… a garage. One was found in Vitoria-Gasteiz and two bolts later (one in and one spare) we are off again to camp site Camping Pirineos (N-240) near the start. For a good night sleep before the off.

Tuesday 8th - The start
We go from Martes (A-1602) → Longas → Biel and then to a Mountain Rescue hut on the way to → Agüero







Liliths first off, well sort of……………..180° pirouette just because I can, and there was a better vista the other way!!!!!!!!!!!




The scenery

 

[Lilith]

The locals



The result of grahams legs not working again




BamBam looking relaxed



An upright X-Challenge



The track winded its way through the mountains and then we got to the mountain rescue hut, with the views and the fact we were hungry we decided to camp for the night.

 

[Lilith]

What to have for dinner?



The sunset from the hut



Sleeping under the stars



The vista’



As with lots of these mountain rescue huts it is always worth while adding to the small store of food, matches, water etc that is left by people who use them as you never know when you might need it yourself. So we left a US MRE (breakfast lunch and dinner, coffee, sugar, jam, lemon cordial)

Wednesday 9th
The sights we saw;

The hermitage at San Migeul e Liso

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Good report.................keep it coming

 

[Lilith]

The road in



The valley below the hermitage



Wheelie king - BamBam



Lilith, seeing if she can spin the bike 180 again…………it did not work as well this time. Dam slimy concrete ford. I would like to say in my defence we crossed a rock river bed 1km before!


The result

 

[Lilith]

Agüero ahead, the thought of a cool beer and a shower draws us on…………




Oh yes I fell off again in the village of Aguero (luckily no pictures were taken) Not my day, the Alley was narrow and very steep!! But later BamBam could bearly make it up on foot to dinner!!




We camped at Camping Municipal Pená Sola at Agüero which had stunning views all of its own.




Lagging behind, BamBam. Finally something he is not good at …………… walking up hill.



Over dinner…………….



We discussed our holiday plan and due to time kicking on and wanting to start RB1 ( http://pagesperso-orange.fr/vibraction/espagne/rb_1.htm ). The decision was taken to go straight to Fos in France and the start of the road book

 

[Lilith]

Thursday 10th
The trip to Fos included the groups first time in a ski resort, no snow but a ski resort none the less. We managed to find a little hotel on the high street (now by passed so very quite) in Fos and when we asked about rooms the owners spoke very good English….. which did surprise use for a moment and then figured out they were English too
(http://www.lagentilhommierefos.com/index.html) The secure parking was the side courtyard and just as we parked up two more bikes rolled in, one BMW RT and one Pan european Honda. The pair were from Belgium and a good laugh, lets just say a few beers later ……….. we decided to have a rest day as we ARE on holiday and minor hangovers were being scheduled for the morning.


Friday 11th
We got up had breakfast, said goodbye to the Belgium’s and then went for a walk around the village. Which included some intriguing sights………

Our drinking buddies leave



chicken on a cross?






BamBam walking again

 

[Lilith]

Saturday 12th
And we are off, the start of RB1. Today we go from Fos → Pontaut → Les → Bossost → Arres → Vilamos

…………………..oooops Grahams legs went again but only after coming off in some ruts 200m before.








Overnight at Camping Artigane (N-230) it was alittle wet………………..lets just say the campsite bar flooded. On the TV we watch the pictures of severe flooding in Alicante and Malaga and it is on the way north………I think we shall keep an eye on the weather.




Sunday 13th
Tents packed and all be it soggy, of we go to the next vista………and some more cow’s
Todays adventure goes Vilamos →via pic de Montlude → col de varrados → Baguergue → Pla de Beret → Montgarri → Alos D’Isil → Isil → Esterri D’Aneu → Velencia D’Aneu → Son → Jou → Espot

The locals again

 

[Rushy]

Nice one Lillith

 

[Lilith]

Route check



that night we got to the campsite at Camping La Mola, Espot (http://www.campinglamola.com/ang/index.htm) and hoped for a dry night, which we sort off got but it was very damp

Monday 14th
Again we packed the tents and headed off into ski resort country, we have been to lots of ski resorts now. So from Espot → Coll d’Exoil → Montsent de Pallars → Llessui → Sorre → past Sort → Rialp

Well we got above the tree line









After a hard days riding and two nights of soggy camping we rode around a camp site at Sort and rode back out and found a hotel at Rialp……lovely. The rooms also had balconies which meant that Lilith spent a while drying out the tent and sleeping bags, well anything that was wet of needed airing.
If you stay in Rialp, the restaurant to go to is the Albus, it was superb

For example, Lobster Risotto

 

[Lilith]

Suckling pig




Tuesday 15th
Got up and had breakfast and we start on our way to Andorra, but first we needed to pick lunch up and Graham needed fuel and some air for his shock. BamBam and I goes for food and Graham heads to the petrol station. After a while Graham has not appeared as agreed and BamBam makes a comment of something has happened, at this point my phone goes off…….. it is Graham the bike is on the floor. So thunderbirds to the rescue, airshocks are not always good, in other words if you do not manage to get it to the shock it comes out, instead. This normally happens when it is on the sidestand, so bike gets lower, sidestand stays the same height, this results in the bike tipping itself over and landing on the floor/ground. Anyway all sorted so we head off towards Roni and Andorra

The clouds started to built




As we keep going Graham in the lead, he goes round a bend, Lilith followes to find he is off again and Lilith ditches her bike as there was nowhere to go.




As per bloody usual BamBam calmly pulls up and dismounts!!

At this point we, with the clouds building more and more we do the very British thing, we have tea and biscuits and discuss the last 100km and the fact we are heading into the bad weather, increasing altitude and would have to spend a night on the mountain. Well lets just say, it is annoying not to complete the RB1 but we also like the chance to finish it in one bit. So one box of Spanish Jaffa cakes (please note they are better) and a mug of tea each, we had decided to play it safe and head back to Bilbao slowly.

On the way towards Bilbao, it starts getting late and raining and we found a camp site which also had Log Cabins, which ended up as a two night stay. The strangest or weirdest thing was sitting in Spain watching a Swiss medical helicopter soap which was dubbed into Spanish followed by Magnum and Walker Texas Ranger……………. Superb.

Wednesday 16th



Thursday 17th
Today we head for Bilbao, well a small hotel near the port.
http://www.artanda.net/es/index.html
we made the journey in good time and this included going past the armed police road block outside Jaca.

Friday 18th
The rain finally hits, lets just say we were so glad we got to the hotel last night. The hotel manager says that the road we came in on has had a mud slide and that a lorry crashed due to the weather.




Saturday 19th
When we woke up it was not raining, so one dry ride to the ferry which was on time hara.

The trip did not quiet go to plan but we all returned in one bit. Graham has never ridden so much and did very well even though he fell off on average about twice a day. Liliths shoulder held up considering I had only been back on a bike for four weeks since braking myself in February. And what can I say about BamBam……….no off’s (I am so envious of long legs).

The question now is where next……

 

[cookie]

that looks like fun

 

[louisdut]

Good report.................keep it coming

+1

Great stuff

 

[Kenny]

Superb..airheads rule

Has Graham thought of amputation to resolve his problem !!

 

[Garry H]

Great stuff
Was down there myself a month ago on the old Airhead
Looks like we did some of the same tracks
Must do a report

 

[Lilith]

Superb..airheads rule

Has Graham thought of amputation to resolve his problem !!

Amputation................................................................no, but as his evil big sister I could get him committed, but that can go both ways

 

[davidgibson999]

Great report and photos.
Just back from the Pyrenees but it was all tarmac - what you did looks like great fun.

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Looks like a great trip, love the off road touring, never done any but with an 1150gs arriving friday and my girlfriend planning to pass her test and get a 650 in the spring, this sort of thing could well be in my future.

Just have to spend a year in the gym to get strong enough to pick the damn bike up all the time by the look of things.

J.

 

[Steve the Kiwi]

Looks like you had a brillant ride! great photos.

Don't suppose you've a GPS trip log to share?