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Navarra/Aragon Spain trip 2016

AndyCook

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We left Scotland last Friday and are now in Northern Spain today. Had stops in Le Mans and Pau in France.
we left Pau this morning and picked up road book route over Pyrenees at St Jean Pied de Port.
the trials were easy and mountains in Pyrenees not that high here, only 1000m.
very warm at 31-33degrees in shade.
spotted a sign at a farm selling sheeps cheese, so we went to taste and buy some.

hilux pulling well and no issues.

Bardenas desert tomorrow.

Campsite in Pau
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Bike ride along Chemin Henri IV at Pau with view over to Pyrenees

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Dinner with friends at Pau

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Farmhouse selling cheese
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Pyrenees
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Looks like a great trip so far Andy. :thumbup:

Looking forward to the next update. :icon-biggrin:
 
Pick up a map at the main entrance to Bardenas on the NA8712 and head for El Rallon on the mountain bikes. Last section a little steep, but great 360 views. May get lucky with Euro-fighters doing laser bombing runs.
 
Pick up a map at the main entrance to Bardenas on the NA8712 and head for El Rallon on the mountain bikes. Last section a little steep, but great 360 views. May get lucky with Euro-fighters doing laser bombing runs.

Thanks for tips, but we approached from north and finished up at visitor centre. We had hoped to get bike route guides from them and do some trails, but it was just far too hot for biking - 37 DegC, so aircon in the Hilux was more favourable !
 
Today we left Lumbier which has an excellent campsite, good pitches and very good services block. Many campsites in area seem to have poor reviews.

started the day with a hike for an hour or so, climbing about 300m up a hill to a church on a rough track. We started out at 8am when it was much cooler, since it is still a bit hot in evening for walking or cycling.

we headed south to the Bardenas Reales and enjoyed the scenery of the desert, it was pretty hot though so mountain bikes stayed in the double cab.
easy gravel trails in the desert, but we had some slightly more interesting washed out trails before it.

got some supplies at supermarket outside Tudela and ice creams.
then headed south up into hills and looked for a wildcamp spot by some windturbines, but it was pretty windy and no spots in shade.

But have found a campsite called Eco Bjora and it seems good, the swimming pool very welcome and shaded spots under trees. Up on the hill with good views.

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Wow looks amazing. Hopefully I will be going there later in the summer
 
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Nice to see Georgie hamming it up!

Nice region. Their wines are spectacular.
 
nice job Andy , remember rosado is a man's drink in Spain
I bought a bottle of rose by mistake yesterday ....
But got plenty of reds too :) , will take the rose home for someone who likes it
 
Subscribing to this wonderful expedition! Loving all the scenery.
 
Continued our journey south today and finished up near Calatayud.
decided to wildcamp tonight, stopped on a mountain ridge in shade of pine trees, 35 in the shade.

lots of variable terrain today, corn fields, olive groves, mountain colls upto 1200M. Still not put the Hilux in 4x4 yet :(
its coping with high temps and climbs a lot better than my Colorado used to.

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Finished the roadbook today at the city of Teruel. Now going to return to Pyrenees to drive some higher mountain trails I missed out in 2011 trip in landcruiser.

camped up in lovely hill fortress town of Albraccin today and explored it on bike.

had 2 days of empty trails today, so little traffic on them, you can drive for 2 hours and see no one.
some great gorges and geology. Campsites can be an issue, and no wild camping was allowed in the national park we traversed yesterday so we had to hack 50km on roads at end of day to nearest campsite.
skipped about 15km of the roadbook but found my own tracks and had some nice steep rocky driving needing low range to summit of an 1850m mountain.

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Great report. Thanks for posting Andy. There is lots to explore in Spain. I just need to find the time.
 
Quick blast NE today on autoroutes to the Pedraforca park area in the Pyrenees near Andorra. Stayed here in 2011. Good to be back in proper big mountains and cooler temperatures. Just hope we don't get an epic thunderstorm like last time

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Long day on the trails today, they proved to be rougher than I expected. Didn't go down well with birthday girls, but I had an ice cold bottle of Aragon Cava in the fridge and beers, so she is happier now.
did some of the RB3 vibraction roadbook and then revisited the amazing high mountain traverse at 2200m from RB1 we did in 2011, between Sort and Espot, did it in reverse to last time. Had an hours hike in the mountains too and found a great campsite in national park at Espot.

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Stunning scenery again. Always appreciate your trip reports Andy, thanks for taking the time to post them and please, keep them coming :thumbup:
 
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