Fair Weather Bikers

Woke again at around 7am, got a shower at around 8ish and had breakfast consisting of coffee, fresh bread and the jam we'd bought in Gavarnie. During this breakfast I managed to spill a load of the very runny jam down my leg!

The day was stunning, brilliant blue skies with the odd white whispy cloud. We steadily packed and set off at around 11am.

The roads to Ainsa were again fantastic consisting of roads snaking up and down mountains and another road through an even more impressive rock gorge with a brilliant blue/green river running through it. From Ainsa the road became very tight and twisty but still quite entertaining, the scenery by now looking like something out of a western.

This was the only day I had not found pre-arranged a camp-site and I was hoping to find one a little way from Ainsa. I didn't want to stop in Ainsa as the previous year we had endured the longest and loudest thunderstorm I've ever known.

Unfortunately we didn't find a camp-site for another 30 miles. From the road the camp-site looked OK so we checked in at reception. It cost us 37 euros each which was by a long way our most expensive accommodation, more than the hotel in Andorra. Looking back I think we were over-charged as I think the 37 euros is for a place, so that should have been between us rather than each.

Regardless we checked in. They then opened the security gates and let us in. Nothing I can say can do justice to quite how, well unpleasant for want of a better word, the place was. The camping places were small rectangles bunched closely together. They were made from hard gravel on top of solid earth. There was no way to pitch a tent. On these places were semi-permanent caravans, probably used by local residents as a place to spend the weekend. Most of the caravans had home made extensions built onto them made from all sorts, from corrugated iron and chicken wire to fully built wooden cabins. It reminded us both of an American trailer pack and we nick-named it 'Hicksville'!

We had been given 3 places to choose from, all of which were the same gravel on solid ground, so we returned to reception to say we couldn't put our tents up so we'd be on our way. Suddenly the previously fluent receptionist couldn't speak any English. She tossed us an English/Spanish dictionary and then started doing something else. I started looking up words for ground too hard, then she pointed at the playing field area on the map and said we could pitch our tents there if we wanted.

We investigate the playing fields and found they were actually OK, they were down a hill and hidden from Hicksville central and the ground was pretty good for tents, so we pitched up. By this time were were both very hot and putting the tent up was a real effort – well it was for me, Daz didn't seem to have much problems at all much to my annoyance!

We had our lunch (pasta in a cup!) and an ice-cream then relaxed for a bit. Daz had a kip and I read. Daz woke later in the afternoon and we had our evening meal of curry and rice as the sun set. I had a shower and changed into my last clean t-shirt, realising that next time I really must pack more t-shirts!

We went to the bar for a few beers and watch the World Cup Final. Neither Daz or me are really into football, but as Spain was in the final with Holland we couldn't really avoid it. In the end Spain won what appeared to be a very dirty match to me.

As the match drew to a close we saw lightening outside. Then the fireworks started to celebrate Spain's victory and it was hard to tell the difference between the storm and the fireworks. The thunderstorm was in the direction of Ainsa, so I was very pleased I had decided not to stop in Ainsa!

I put my earplugs in before I went to sleep so the thunderstorm would not wake me and had a very good nights sleep.