Ride through the Pays Basque, Aragon, Navarra, Sierra de Guara, Benasque and the Catalan Pyrenees

50% on roads, 50% off road. Ride along remote pistes, across the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees and over high mountain passes on the French Spanish Border

Camp out in the mountains for five nights each week... enjoy the food and traditional hospitality of the Pyrenees for six nights.

A supported ride with 4x4 backup on the off road stages so that all your camping gear can be carried for you. You can choose to ride on your own or with a guide rider

Our fourteen day Pyrenees Adventure Ride is a guided and / or supported ride through the stunning mountains of the French - Spanish border. The route is a mixture of off road - (mountain tracks, open pasture land, single track through forests) - and stunning high roads through the Cols of the French Pyrenees (like the Col du Tourmalet and the Col d'Aspin).

You bring your own motorbike with you (we arrange your ferry crossing from Dover and an overnight motorail from Paris). You can choose to ride and navigate the route on your own or ride with our lead rider. Either way our Landrover acts as a sweeper and carries your spares and camping gear for the more remote off-road sections. Your ride a total of nearly 1000 miles in two weeks at a steady but sustained pace.

There's still time though to explore abandoned villages, canyons in the Sierra de Guara, old castles and monasteries and the thermal baths in Bagneres de Luchon. The accommodation is a mixture of family run hotels and gites but six nights of the trip are spent out in the mountains rough camping.

You don't need to a 'Paris-Dakar' hero to ride with us but you need to fairly fit and keen to spend long days in the saddle. There is plenty of opportunity to hone your off roading and navigation skills.

DAY ONE : Dover to Paris and Motorail to Tarbes
The adventure starts with a self guided ride across northern France to Paris and a rendezvous with the overnight motorail to Tarbes in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. You arrive at 7.30 am the next morning and your bike will be ready to collect by 10.00.

DAY TWO : Tarbes to Luz St Sauveur
We meet you at Tarbes and ride through the back roads of this area of the Pyrenees up to our base town of Luz St Sauvuer and your base at the Hotel Montaigu. You'll be staying at the hotel for two nights. We spend the evening, over a BBQ of local food, discussing the plan for the rest of the week.

DAY THREE : Luz St Sauveur Circuit
We set of early for a long day of trail riding in the Pays Toy. We ride down the the Pibeste mountain range and through the Pibeste forests on a mixture of logging tracks and gravel pistes. Then we cross to the Col de Caradouque and ride a long series of tracks to the Col de Souloir where we stop for lunch. A short road section brings us to the base of the Cabaliros mountain - we gain altitude on pistes before heading across the broad saddle of the mountain on open pasture. We get back to Luz in the early evening in time to pack for the next day.

DAY FOUR: Luz St Sauveur to St Jean Pied de Port
We spend the first part of the day packing our support vehicle with camping gear, supplies and fuel. The Landrover will meet us at our first campsite tomorrow night. Meanwhile we ride to St Jean Pied de Port - the capital of the French Pays Basque region. This is a road section through the rolling foothills of the French Pyrenees. We arrive in plenty of time to allow for a relaxing evening exploring the old town and castle. If we're lucky there will be a Pelota match being played !

DAY FIVE : St Jean to Camp 1 (Ochagavia)
We set off to cross to Spain on a little back road / concrete track before entering a series of forest tracks and pistes through Spanish Basque farmlands. This is a long, mixed day of varied and, in places challenging riding. We're likely to see some vultures and eagles as we ride but few people and no other bikes at all. We rendezvous with our Landrover and our camping gear at a small mountain refuge set among pine woods and spend our first night out camping here.

DAY SIX : Longas to Camp 2 (Sierra Domingo)
Once we've packed all the gear up we pick up the trail and continue to head East and then South towards the spectacular Sierra Domingo mountains. A series of rough tracks lead us up to the summit of the highest mountain in the range - fantastic views (albeit a bit of a vertiginous ride). Then we continue Eastwards along high mountain tracks to a camp site and small mountain refuge on a shoulder. We meet the Landrover here and set up our second camp.

DAY SEVEN : Sierra Domingo to Camp 3 (Nocito)
After a good breakfast cooked on an open fire we pack up and set off on another long (mainly off road) stage to the Sierra de Guara - a little known region of the Spanish Pyrenees famed for its canyons and abandoned villages. The days ends with a visit to a remote Dolmen and an equally quiet rough campsite.

DAY EIGHT : Nocito to Escalona
From Nocito we set off to the little road side village of Escalona. Before we hit tarmac there is a more difficult rough track route for those who fancy a go. From Boltana we head north along the main roads to a small family run gite. There is an evening side trip and walk up to the Anisclo Canyon for those who still have the energy.

DAY NINE : Eascalona to Benasque (Camp 4)
We head north and then East along mountain tracks around the Posets and the Aneto (the two highest mountains in the Pyrenees) before heading up high mountain valleys to camp near the old Hospitalet de Benasque. We meet the Landrover here. If the weather is good there's a great stream with opportunity for a swim.

DAY TEN : Benasque to Pont de Suert (Camp 5)
From Benasque we head East again picking up a series of pistes heading East towards Pont de Suert. We stop here for a quick beer and a bit of shopping before heading up into the hills for another rendezvous with our Landrover and a campsite in the middle of an abandoned village.

DAY ELEVEN: Pont de Suert to Sort (Camp 6)
We're nearly in Andorra now and we have another day of trail riding ahead as we head for the campsite at Sort. This gives us a chance for a shower and to re-pack all the gear before we head back towards Luz St Sauveur on a ride over four of the most famous roads in the Pyrenees.

DAY TWELVE : The Four Cols to Luz St Sauveur
This is a classic day across four of the most famous roads in the Pyrenees - Col de Portillon, the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin and the Col des Tourmalet. There is one off road section to get to our lunch rendezvous but the main challenge of the day is not getting too dizzy through the 200 plus bends and turns on these roads! We return to the Hotel Montaigu for a last evening in the Pyrenees

DAY THIRTEEN : Ride to Tarbes and Motorail to Paris
You have time on this last day to shop or visit some of the local villages around Luz before we head back down to Tarbes and your motorail through the night up to Paris.

DAY FOURTEEN : Paris to Dover and home
You arrive in Paris early in the morning giving you plenty of time to ride back up across northern France to catch a ferry across the channel back to Dover. Exhilarated and a little bit exhausted.

How the Ride is Organised - guided or supported ?
This ride is planned as a flexible itinerary. Each day one of our staff leads the ride and on most days our Landrover acts as a sweeper and carries all of your camping gear and anything else you don't want to carry on your bike. The Landrover also carries spare fuel. This means that you can ride your bike without having to carry too much luggage or equipment over the off-road stages.

You can choose to ride the route on your own or follow our lead rider. If you follow our lead rider you don't need any navigation equipment (we ride at an even pace well within legal limits and we approach the off road sections with care). You can also choose to ride the routes on your own and be responsible for your navigation and pace. To do this you'll bike needs to be equipped with a Road book Reader, GPS and a Trip Meter. Email Simon for advice on purchasing these items if you don't have them.

Want to learn how to use all this navigation gear ? No problem, we offer hands on "learn-as-you-go" tuition as part of the ride.

So it's up to you. You can ride the route on your own in the knowledge that we're nearby with our back up truck if you need it. You can follow a lead bike if you don't want the hassle of navigating yourself. You could use the whoe two weeks as a learning exercise and develop your navigation and riding skills. If you choose the latter we'll ask you to lead a couple of days as part of the process.

Gear for your Your Bike
This list as intended as a prompt - not an exhaustive list. You need to bear in mind that you'll know more about your individual bike than we will so make sure you have the right spares with you. We recommend that you carry:

- a puncture repair kit
- two tyre levers
- spare spark plug
- replacement electrical fuses
- spare throttle cables
- spare brake and clutch cable
- replacement clutch lever
- replacement front brake lever
- replacement rear brake foot lever
- light bulb set
- small, appropriate tool kit (we carry a full tool kit in our Landrover)

Bear in mind that we'll be riding about a 1000 miles in total so if you have the kind of bike that needs an oil change or air filter change during that period you'll need to bring those parts with you as well. These can be carried in our support truck.

If you are going to navigate the route on your own / and or use the two weeks as a learning opportunity you'll need:

- A5 road book reader
- an IMO trip computer
- a GPS and handlebar mount for it

The best place to buy these is from Touratech (see www.touratech.co.uk) - please order early if you are buying these especially for the trip as Touratech have quite long delivery times.

You also need appropriate tyres for this ride. We recommend that you use a mixed terrain rally tyre like Pirelli MT21s or Metzler Saharas. Motorcoross or Enduro tyres will wear too quickly and any road tyre will just not hold up on the off-road sections. Email Simon for advice if you're unsure.

Gear for You
We don’t propose a full riding kit list as this is down to individual preference. You should wear a protective vest, knee pads and hard boots. Bear in mind though that the weather can be very hot in the day and cold at night. We might be unlucky and get rain (or even on rare occasions slight snowfall!). So you need enough riding clothing to cope with these changes. Spare clothes can be carried in the Landrover. We also recommend that you ride wearing a camelback with a 2 or 3 litre water capacity.

For the camping sections of the trip you'll need:

- a 3 or 4 seasons sleeping bag
- a sleeping mat
- a tent (we will try to arrange for people to share where appropriate)
- a mug, plate, bowl and cutlery
- a 1 litre plus water bottle

There are a few things that we think are really well worth taking that you may not normally have thought about including:

- binoculars, you will see a lot of big birds
- warm clothes…even in the summer months it can be quite cold up in the mountains and sometimes wet.
- your mobile phone so you can call us when you or we are lost!