While this is meant to be a bit of an adventure, I have decided to sort out accommodation and routes in advance…6 P’s? I did consider winging it, but travelling solo I did not fancy the idea of ending up somewhere in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and no-one to do it with.
I am travelling to Spain on the Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry. The original plan was Plymouth to Santander, but one of my brothers invited us to join him and some friends to celebrate his birthday the same weekend. So a quick booking alteration later and I am now leaving the same day, but from a different port and most likely with a monstrous hangover!
The ferry is due to arrive in Bilbao first thing in the morning and should allow for a full day’s riding, if it is late it could be a late arrival in Burguete.
The second day will see me trundle across into France for a few hours before coming back across into Spain to reach my destination Vielha. One of the highlights of the day will be Col du Tourmalet, one of the feature climbs on the Tour de France.
I am going to spend a couple of days in Vielha, hopefully the reasons will become obvious when I post about my stay. While I am there I have planned a couple of morning routes and will just take things as they come in the afternoon.
Day 5 will see me heading further East to Ripoll, skirting round Andorra on my way. I have been told traffic in Andorra can be pretty heavy and slow so I have decided to give it a miss.
Similar to my stay in Vielha I have a few nights in Ripoll, though for different reasons. Also a couple of morning rides already sorted.
Day 8 is when I start heading back towards Santander for the ferry, this will be the longest day, but will be on the N260 most of the way, which is the route that most bikers refer to when riding in the Spanish Pyrenees. It is likely to be a very long day (just look at the size of the map in this image…I may have FUBAR’d), but it should be good.
The last day is the one that I may well abandon the planned route and do something different, the ferry leaves mid-evening so I will have a fair amount of time to play with, it is already a long route, but it will tempting to head towards the Picos before coming home.
