I had been abroad on a bike many times before but not for a long time so when a friend suggested a trip to Germany for a long weekend I thought this would be a good way of getting into Eurotravel again. However my previous trips in the 70's and 80's had been on various weird Italian road bikes. I was now the proud owner of not a weird Italian road bike but a weird Italian trail bike, a Cagiva Elefant and I felt some offroad fun was in order.
We had some fun in Germany, including a blatt round the Nurburg ring but I felt that a venture further afield might be more entertaining. Eventually we decided that the Pyrenees would be a good spot for good road riding,big bike trailling and cheap beer.
After an exploratory trip in 1996 we planned a trip to the Spanish Pyrenees for summer 1997. We chose the Spanish side for it's better weather, even fewer tourists and its cheaper beer. We took the ferry crossing from Portsmouth to Cherbourg and drove down through Western France, camping for one night on route. We had decided not to kill ourselves with too many miles and arrived fresh in Spain about 4 the following afternoon. Bikes in the party were all of the big trailly persuasion but of total variety e.g. Super Ten, GS100, Africa and a 650 Tengai. If your maths are up to it you will have spotted the title says Five go wild and that's just four bikes, well the answer to that riddle is that Dave E. was two up on his Tengai with his missus Lynne on the back. You will have also spotted no mention of the Elefant owned by yours truly, it had been replaced by an Africa Twin.
We found an excellent camp site in the little town of Sort with a bar and a snack bar as well as being within a very short walk from the town. It was right by a river which we found out later was the prime white water rafting centre of Spain. With the cheap maps from the series Alpini we found a succession of interesting trails around the area. The only real problem was the temperature which got very hot in bike gear at noon! However this gave a good excuse to retire to the bar and drink cold Estrella. We got into the habit of going out first thing in the morning and later in the afternoon to avoid the heat. The trails were fairly easy and were all do-able on a big bike but you could see that come the winter and some mud they would be totally impassable to big'uns.
One of the most interesting trails was the smugglers road to Andorra which winds 16 miles across a 2000m. pass. The locals would bump across this in any old vehicle to access the cheap booze and fags in Andorra. The Police are well aware of this and I read this year in my paper that a policeman had been shot by smugglers in a gun battle on this very track. About half way along an enterprising woman has stuck a few chairs and tables outside her farmhouse kitchen window and serves coffee to passers-by of which there are a fair number. Not many caffs on trails in the U.K. All in all an excellent way to spend some time with a big trailly, oh and did I mention the amazing tarmac passes connecting the trails, no? well there are some stunners.
It really is cheap and very easy to do. Speak no Known language? No problemo. No camping gear? There are plenty of cheap hotels and even cheaper climbers huts.
There really is no excuse, if an old git like me can hack it then you young lions will breeze it!
Good luck and remember to keep the BTBC posted on your doings so we can crib new ideas for trips and venues. John Burkinshaw