Another Pyrenees question

[scutty]

All

Just looking for a little advice from the collective. 4 of us are heading out to northern Spain in early June. Normally we would plan a route, stopping somewhere different each night on our way to a return ferry/tunnel but this year the plan is to find a hotel somewhere and base there for the week riding out each day.
The other change this year is that 2 of us have caught the off-road bug and we will do a few days and half days off road while the other 2 stick to road riding.
So, to the questions:

[ul]
[li]We are looking to base ourselves somewhere north-west of Pamplona - is this a good area to base for both road and dirt riding?[/li]
[li]Can we find off-road routes around there similar to VINCE type routes we did last year?[/li]
[li]Are there any 'awesome' roads that should definitely be on our list?[/li]
[li]I have seen mention of legal changes to off-road riding in Spain, will this affect us? (100% no fires at all!)[/li]
[/ul]

Thanks

[Dutchgit]

Have a look at Simon's website. Plenty of info on there and he's a knowledgable and friendly chap.

http://thespanishbiker.wordpress.com/

[scutty]

Thanks, I was hoping Simon might be one of the people to reply

[Simon_100]

Thanks, I was hoping Simon might be one of the people to reply

Let me have a pee first :whistle:

[Simon_100]

Thanks, I was hoping Simon might be one of the people to reply

Let me have a pee first :whistle:

Ooh that's better.

My favourite base in Navarre, i.e. Pamplona, is Ochagavia. There's a great camp site there but few 'hotels' your best bet is to rent an apartment for a week, the town hall should help you find one but be sure to check that you have the whole place to yourselves.

If you want hotels as such go a bit further east to Izaba - plenty of choice, just check booking.com.

The road riding there probably the best in the Pyrenees but trails in the high mountains are difficult as most are prohibited - but if you head south you're quite near the Bardena Blanca and just a bit to the east there are plenty of trails around the Mallos de Riglos, just over the border into Aragon, where your only legal issue is not to be in a group of more than five.

But there are a few trails that lead over into France - NB not the one through the Irati forest, which is gated and has a manned visitor centre right next door! - go for the trails further west. I don't know but I think the French side is OK and the Irati section of the Tour de France route is a 'must do' road ride.

All of this is on my blog of you look, but as of this year I'm setting up in business to guide groups like you, including 'bespoke' HISS rallies further east that start at around £1,100 per group of ten riders, then more per head so it works out a bit cheaper. So there's a thought . . .

I haven't heard of any 'new' rules about trail riding - can you tell me what you've been reading, and where I can follow these up for myself?

Cheers

Simon

[scutty]

Thanks Simon, loads of good information!

Sorry, I thought you had mentioned some proposed changes due to wild fires etc?

[Simon_100]

Thanks Simon, loads of good information!

Sorry, I thought you had mentioned some proposed changes due to wild fires etc?

Glad to help out Scutty.

The fire prohibitions laws have always been there - 'Camp' fires are totally out of order and rightly so. Just lately a famous case has just come to court in which two twerps let their BBQ get out of control setting fire to about 2.500 hectares of virgin forest in what is soon to become a National Park area.

In which five fire fighters - drafted to the region from my village. La Pobla de Segur, a long way away - were killed (you won't want to imagine how - nor the injuries to the one survivor of the team)



The last frame of the video list the names of the dead firefighters . . . in a village of only a 3,300 people the loss of five young people leaves a big gap . . .

Sorry tiobe so 'heavy'

In fact the fire situation is worse now as the latest from our insane government is to rescind a law so that once some forest land has been burned it can be reclassified as building land - ypu can guess the rest

As far as I know the only region that has a problem with bikes riding trails in the summer is Castiila-la Mancha - and guess where the politician who has changed the above law comes from . . .

Meanwhile, Navarre is densely forested -and very wet! - and it's the local town halls in the tourist rich mountain areas that tend to ban trails rather than the regional government - hence trail riding tends to be OK out on the plains.

Simon

[scutty]

Simon

Do you think we should aim for a little further east of Pamplona? We had found a good hotel in Irurtzun

[Paul-S]

Scutty

We used Ainsa as a good base for travel to many areas

Short write up and ride report here plus pics on pages 1 and 2 of this thread
http://www.xrv.org.uk/forums/ride-repor ... 012-a.html

Here is the link for this April /May 2013

http://www.adventurebikerider.com/forum ... chool.html

[Simon_100]

Simon

Do you think we should aim for a little further east of Pamplona? We had found a good hotel in Irurtzun

i don't want to knock your choice but that place in on a crazy junction with three motorways that will be heavy traffic 24/7/365 as it is the main trunk route from Central and Southern Spain to Europe.

I imagine that the village will have a weight limit but don't bank on it, but in any event you can bet that the trucks will use the original national highway to avoid to tolls into Pamplona. So to get to any interesting rads you'll have a r time.

Although I don't know that area in details I can't see that there are any trails there - lots of little villages, in that part if Spain just two or three huge houses, that will be heavily into dairy farming, so the countryside is very 'closed'.

Pau is right about Ainsa being a better base, lots if hotels - look at the ones on the 'new town' for bargains. But the trail riding is a bit limited as all of the area to the west is nature reserve: Sierra de Guarra and Ordesa National Park

Back to my original suggestion - another 'must do' road ride is Navascueas to Burgui, but now I'm giving away one of my little secrets - there's much more that I'm keeping up my sleeve for my guided road rides (thumbs)

Regs

Simon