Bonus & Wendy's Big Adventure . . . .

[Gen]

As I'm sure most of you know . . . .

 

"Plan A" was to come over here to Spain and convert the barn we bought into a B&B.

 

We would cater for everyone but we would specifically offer extra services to make visiting cyclists lives easier. The extra services would include MTB Guiding, Lifts to distant routes, Packed Lunches and/or Picnics at beautiful meeting points out in the countryside, Laundry Facilities for cleaning kit, Workshop and Bike Spares available etc etc

 

Thanks to problems securing finance for the renovation project, we've now had to move to "Plan B".

 

Plan B consists of trying to implement some of the "extra services" without actually having the accommodation for people to stay in. It's much much harder than offering services to people that are "staying under your own roof" because you have to find the people, but we're giving it our best shot, as we try to do with everything, and hoping that this will grow while we try to find an answer to the problems holding up Plan A.

 

I'm qualified to guide people now and I have made good friends with a guy from Holland, Jeroen, who is also a Guide and doing the same sort of thing as me. We're "the same, but different" which is nice. We complement each other. We're both advertising our own businesses far and wide to try and capture a bit of the market and we ride together/help each other out whenever we can or is necessary. It's certainly good to have someone you can bounce ideas off and call on in an emergency.

 

An added bonus - his wife Marce, from Costa Rica has become good friends with Wendy. They are both very social and very extrovert so they get on like a house on fire. They are making their own plans regarding the Picnics and Packed Lunches side of things.

 

Marce speaks fluent Spanish - so she's the group interpreter for everything we need in Spanish and I'm the group interpreter for everything they need in English.

 

It's working out well so far and we're looking forward to the future . . . . . . :-)

 

 

Bonus.

Sounds like a good partnership.. good luck guys.

[Bonus]

Thanks Gen :-)

[SL7]

As I'm sure most of you know . . . .

 

"Plan A" was to come over here to Spain and convert the barn we bought into a B&B.

 

We would cater for everyone but we would specifically offer extra services to make visiting cyclists lives easier. The extra services would include MTB Guiding, Lifts to distant routes, Packed Lunches and/or Picnics at beautiful meeting points out in the countryside, Laundry Facilities for cleaning kit, Workshop and Bike Spares available etc etc

 

Thanks to problems securing finance for the renovation project, we've now had to move to "Plan B".

 

Plan B consists of trying to implement some of the "extra services" without actually having the accommodation for people to stay in. It's much much harder than offering services to people that are "staying under your own roof" because you have to find the people, but we're giving it our best shot, as we try to do with everything, and hoping that this will grow while we try to find an answer to the problems holding up Plan A.

 

I'm qualified to guide people now and I have made good friends with a guy from Holland, Jeroen, who is also a Guide and doing the same sort of thing as me. We're "the same, but different" which is nice. We complement each other. We're both advertising our own businesses far and wide to try and capture a bit of the market and we ride together/help each other out whenever we can or is necessary. It's certainly good to have someone you can bounce ideas off and call on in an emergency.

 

An added bonus - his wife Marce, from Costa Rica has become good friends with Wendy. They are both very social and very extrovert so they get on like a house on fire. They are making their own plans regarding the Picnics and Packed Lunches side of things.

 

Marce speaks fluent Spanish - so she's the group interpreter for everything we need in Spanish and I'm the group interpreter for everything they need in English.

 

It's working out well so far and we're looking forward to the future . . . . . . :-)

 

 

Bonus.

Good luck guys. Never easy to start a business. Are you advertising on the bikehub equivalent website in the UK?

[Bonus]

Good luck guys. Never easy to start a business. Are you advertising on the bikehub equivalent website in the UK?

At the moment we're mostly advertising "locally" to people that are already visiting here - via FB, leaflets on cars etc etc. It's going to take a while but so far everyone we've worked with has been very happy with us and gives us great feedback.

 

As I said above, it would be (and one day will be!) infinitely easier once we have our own "captive market" sleeping under our roof, but for now this is how we must roll.

 

We do have an eye on and are members of various UK cycling websites but I'm afraid there isn't an equivalent of The BikeHub. In fact not even close :-(

[Bonus]

Last week Wendy provided Picnics for our friends Jeroen & Marce who were running some of their "Office in Nature" courses locally. The courses were on Mon, Tues & Weds and were held at 3 beautiful outdoor locations near Ainsa.

 

The group sizes varied from 6 to 9 people and Wendy provided different food each day because some of the people were attending more than one course.

 

We both enjoyed doing this - although it was her baby, I was just helping - and the groups were very happy with everything we did. They were lovely people and we got some great feedback and encouragement from them.

 

Now we've made some new friends

 

 

 

My MTB Guiding and Wendy's Picnics are two services we always planned to offer alongside our core B&B business.

 

They say that to enjoy life (and work) you should try to "do what you love" - and these are things we both love!

 

 

 

[Bonus]

Pics . . .

[Mntboy]

Pics . . .

Never been much of a salad person but that looked pretty good. As did the pizza.

 

Stoked for you and Wendy!

[Bonus]

Never been much of a salad person but that looked pretty good. As did the pizza.

 

Stoked for you and Wendy!

 

 

I should explain, the groups were all mostly vegetarians - so lots of fruit & salad etc, and the "Pizzas" (you're not the first person to call them that) were actually vegetable quiches.  

 

:-)

[Mntboy]

I should explain, the groups were all mostly vegetarians - so lots of fruit & salad etc, and the "Pizzas" (you're not the first person to call them that) were actually vegetable quiches.

 

:-)

Well those veggie quiches looked good to me! Maybe they just look like pizza because of the camera angle?

[CogitoErgoSum]

Us saffas do have the tenacity and the grit to adapt to our circumstances.

 

Well done.

 

Just remember, you two still live the dream in everyone's eyes. Enjoy

[Bonus]

MTB Ainsa Guiding . . . .

 

We've had our "Bilingual Flyers" printed. They look good :-)

 

We're out at a Fiesta & Carnival in a local town today followed by a big traditional lunch, but tonight when we get home we'll pop into Ainsa and hand some out. I'm targeting cars/campervans with bike racks/bikes on them as potential customers. Plus "the Chatterbox" Wendy will talk to anyone who looks remotely like a cyclist and give them a flyer :-)

 

I think today might be the last local Fiesta, because the new school year starts in a week or two.

 

The last 6 weeks have been crazy - every single town and village in Spain holds a Fiesta once a year and most of them are in the summer. Some have Processions or Carnivals, they all have a big evening meal and then they have music & dancing in the town or village Plaza until the following morning. . . .  

 

It's a hard life . . . .

Edited September 4, 2018 by Bonus

[Bonus]

This week we're helping out at the Enduro World Series Stage 7 which Is being held here in Ainsa.

 

Meeting lots of great people and even some South Africans :-)

 

http://www.enduroworldseries.com/event/festival-zona-zero-sobrarbe/

[Bonus]

Last day of the Enduro World Series today. It's been amazing and exhausting, and I wasn't even riding!

[Bonus]

Ainsa has been voted a "Rural Tourism Capital"  :-)

 

 

Ainsa, and the areas surrounding it, have so many things to see & do that are spread over such a large area that even on a "busy" day you can hardly see anyone!

 

We really are very happy to be living in such a beautiful area.

 

 

[Bonus]

Wendy and I have taken a new and quite significant step on our "Big Adventure"!

 

After a year of living on The Farm with Ramon & Rosa, which was fun & interesting to say the least, we have now moved 5km "down the hill" from Guaso to the pretty little town of Boltaña and into an apartment of our own.

 

We're still close enough to easily carry on with whatever work we can do on our own dream property, but after a lot of consideration and with some "from an outside point-of-view" help from friends here, we came to the conclusion that we really needed to be able to offer some accommodation to people here asap.

 

My MTB guiding and Wendys "picnics" have been going well - and now we are in a place that allows us to easily offer B&B to visitors.

 

It is nice to have "our own space" again, even as fond as we are of Ramon & Rosa, and were looking forward to hosting visitors and spoiling them rotten in this, our very beautiful part of the world.

 

Of course Rosa cried because 5km away is just soooo far away. But we've seen them every day since we took the keys to our own place and actually they're ok. They know where we are and they know we'll be back, hopefully soon, and into our own place as their neighbours.

[Bonus]

We've been in our new place for a couple of weeks now and Wendy has now got it just how she likes it :-) 

 

The place was partly furnished but we've bought some of our own bits & pieces out of storage to finish it off. Living on the farm with Ramon & Rosa was fun but it really is nice to have your own space and your own "stuff" around you.

 

Last night we had some friends around for dinner - including a new Dutch friend who's just got back from walking the Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage route (800km across northern Spain!) and Wendy was able to cook and look after everyone from her own kitchen.

 

A lovely evening, food & wine and amazing stories of what it's like to walk 800km is 5 weeks . . .   

 

Now the Camino has been bumped up our "to-do" list a bit :-)