Transporting our bikes by air to our start point was (much to our surprise) quite painless and with the support of our friend Kenny so was the late night journey into Barcelona.

We spent the following morning putting the bikes back together and packing our stuff into the frame bags. We got the 14.16 train north and started our long ride west towards the mountains at 5pm.

We cycled about 10 miles before stopping at a campsite with an on site restaurant and spent a very short evening eating our own body weight in steak for less than £10 before attempting to sleep in our two man tent.

The refreshing shower at the start of day two was almost as good as a nights sleep (…I had forgotten just how much Gez can snore when we are camping).

Day two and 30 off road miles to Olot, the poppy lined tracks and paths were a constant reminder of our motivation for this trip.

It is a shame we are in such a rush as we have passed some beautiful castles in the foot hills. Catalonia is a beautiful place.

Menu del dias if definitely a winner at €10 for three courses including water and wine or a beer (thank you for the top tip Luli!).

Day three brought lots of hard work pushing our bikes up boulders and slabs of rock followed by some tricky bits of downhill. As the forecast is terrible for Thursday (day 4) we found a hotel that would lock the bikes away for us just before the rain started 

…so another 25 miles under our belts and we are a little fitter every day 

Ripoll was our first hotel of the mission and well timed as the forecast was right. 

Our progress to date puts us a whole day ahead of schedule …we both know we will need the spare day as the trail gets tougher so this is a real phycological win.

It’s snowing in the mountains and we are already in bear country….