7 days of great riding in the Pyrenees..Part 1

Sunday 9th September 18.. Just got back from the Pyrenees

I had planned to post some updates during the trip but with 5 of us this time, long riding days and a rush at the end of the day to shower and get to the bar for cold beer, meant no time to myself on this trip! So here is the trip summary Part 1 🙂

29th August 18..Leaving UK

The 5 of us met at Loomies biker café, 30 mins from Portsmouth. A nice big fry up to start the day 🙂

Then onto the ferry for the overnight crossing to Bilbao.

The group is made up of Stuart (ex BA pilot), Gary ( a clever bloke in software for the TV industry), Mike ( a college lecturer in IT), Bernard (Mike’s brother and semi retired high tech sales) and me (retired and living the dream).

The bikes; Ducati Multistrada 950; Triumph 1050 Sport; BMW K1200GT; BMW K1300S; and my trusty BMW R1200GS TE

 

Day 1: 30th August 18 Bilbao to St. Jean Pied de Port, France..237Kms

After a smooth crossing we arrived in Bilbao behind schedule and took ages to get off the boat and through immigration check (helmets off). Finally we were on our way via a short motorway section and soon onto the twisty roads, and I mean twisty! We climbed up into the mountains, this is big country with spectacular scenery and lovely smooth roads with very little traffic 🙂 We stopped to admire the view and Stuart announced he had brought his drone with him. The clever little gadget was soon buzzing around the sky above us.

We stopped for coffee and met a couple of German bikers, one of whom had a Triumph 1050 Sport like Stuart’s. We chatted away and laughed when the German said that he bought British and noticed that 3 out of the 5 of us had bought German BMW 🙂

It was gone 7pm when we arrived at the hotel; straight to the terrace for cold beer before shower and then dinner.

Day 2: 31st August 18 St Jean Pied de Port to Bossost Spain..345Kms

St Jean P deP is the start point of the famous Camino de Santiago which is popular with pilgrims walking the route, which is 875kms in total and apparently typically takes 35 days. I got up early and walked into the old medieval town at 7am; to my surprise many of the pilgrims were up already and striding up the hill to the city gate which marked the start of the route.

We were on the road by 9am the plan being to take a twisty route alternating between French and the Spanish sides of the Pyrenees via many of the mountain passes. We were soon into stunning scenery with smooth twisty roads. Pass after pass came and went; Col de Gourgette, Col de Tourmalet and Col d’ubisque..many of these are obviously used in the Tour de France and the roads are covered in painted messages to the riders. These are seriously steep climbs which go on for ever; we zoom past the quite large numbers of cyclists puffing their way up to the top.

At the top of some passes we were in the clouds and it was chilly. Need to watch out for the wandering cattle on the roads!!

After lunch more great roads and spectacular scenery high up in the mountains, we are now back in Spain.

Watch this video and see for yourself; we rode up through the valley and will continue up to the top…check out the cyclist 🙂        https://youtu.be/RbN5aBk97CA

We arrived at the hotel and had our cold beer then out on the town for dinner. Its a small town and the place is dead!! the restaurant recommended to us was closed, as was everything else apart from one tapas restaurant. As it turned out we had a great meal there washed down with a few red wines…no trouble sleeping tonight 🙂

Day 3: 1st September 18, Bossost to Ripoll, Spain..341Kms

I woke up with severe backache; the mattress was awful! Away by 9am again and off onto more steep twisty passes..certainly wakes you up quick these roads! After one steep decent with lots of tight hairpins we stopped for a breather and Mike announced that his K1200GT ABS warning lights had come on..NOT a good time for potential brake failure!! We had a coffee while Bernard (whose bike it used to be) took it for a quick spin to check the brakes. He came back and said all was well, the lights had gone out, so panic over.. not sure Mike was totally convinced though! 🙂

We were heading for Andorra which is high up and comprises a mix of ski resorts and cheap tax free shopping; the main route through is very boring. Bernard had researched a parallel twisty route which avoided the main town centre, so we took that. As we started to climb up to Andorra we hit a long line of stationary cars and no traffic coming in the other direction; we rode past them and realised this jam went on for miles. Finally we got to the head of the queue and found that the road was closed in both directions by a serious accident on a bend over a bridge. Thankfully we had arrived some time after the accident had happened and within a short while they opened the road to let alternate way traffic start and we were off 🙂

More great scenery https://youtu.be/E7NJFWO3QqM

The road was so smooth and even banked on the corners, just fantastic riding. The ski resort towns are deserted at this time of year. As we descended it was hot, nearly 30C. we were nearing our last lap; the fantastic N 260 and a great run down into Ripoll. To our dismay we found the start of the route in this part of Spain was closed and no obvious diversion signposted. After a few miles we got out the maps and noticed a small road which seemed to run up to the 260. lets try it. We got to the top and found the road was closed there too, so back down and we followed the main road which looked like it would join the N260 further ahead; indeed it did. 🙂

Due to the road closure further back there was no traffic at all; this part of the N260 is seriously good.. 50kms of smooth and fast road descending in to Ripoll…we had fun! This is what we came for 🙂

Arrived at the hotel and the nice lady receptionist showed us to the garage where we parked alongside 3 German bikes; she then produced 5 FREE beers for us! As we sat in the garage drinking our beer one of the Germans came in and we had a chat about his 28 year old BMW..fantastic

Ripoll is very much in the Catalan region of Spain and as you may know they are keen to break away from the rest of Spain and there has been a lot of political unrest recently; the “uprising” was put down quiet brutally by the Spanish national government. The town was covered in posters and flags supporting the Catalan breakaway.

Day 4: 2nd September 18, Ripoll to Roses, Spain..266Kms

This morning we are heading for the Mediterranean coast;  immediately we’re into the twisty stuff from the off. One stretch was very narrow with lots of tight bends and the road surface was not the best. I was leading and taking it reasonably steady in line with the conditions; I looked behind and could see a white van had caught Stuart up who was 2 bikes back and it was looking very threatening. ..time to speed up! So I picked up the pace accelerating hard between the corners and soon the 3 of us had lost the mad local 🙂

We had a coffee and petrol stop planned but when we arrived the petrol station had no pumps and was disused and the café next door was closed, so no coffee either! A quick check showed that there were no more petrol stations on our route for more than 50kms and being Sunday they may also be closed. So we decided to turn around and check out the nearest which was 10kms in the wrong direction. Turned out to be open…but no coffee 🙁

By now we had passed back into France way up into the mountains and the road surface had deteriorated, we found a coffee stop but by 12noon we were knackered due to the tight, windy and naggery nature of the morning route..it was decided to cut part of the afternoon route and take a shorter route to the coast. The short route turned out to be full of traffic and double white lines, but we were soon at the very picturesque and twisty Mediterranean coast road. Our lunch stop was a café right on the beach, a nice salad and girls in bikinis to watch…marvellous 🙂

We had more twisty coast road after lunch with the sea looking blue and inviting on our left side. Soon we were in Roses and at the hotel for 5pm. A few beers and then out on the town for a paella dinner and lots of red wine in the narrow streets of the old town. This was followed by ice cream and a walk along the prom in the dark.

So we are now on the extreme Eastern (right) side of the map above and in Part 2 we will be heading back Westwards to Bilbao. We’ve had great roads so far and have many more to come 🙂

Thought for the day…. “Embrace the idea of unintended consequence”

” Its an Adventure; not a Holiday! 🙂