We’ve found a little paradise around the corner from where we live. A paradise full of trails and twisty mountains roads and where we can sample different local wines every night.
As camping was out of the question because of the heat wave, I was looking for a cheap place to stay central in the Prades mountains and I found this albergue, Lo Refugi. Normally they host hikers so they didn’t provide parking, but I was intrigued by their gastro-restaurant with vegetarian food and local wine so we decided to book anyway. It worked out splendidly, we rode our bikes all day and sampled different types of wine and ate great food at night.
The location was not far off section 10 of the TET, the Trans European Trail, and on our second (!) visit we decided to try it out. As we’re newbies on mountain trails, this involved a lot of walking to scout if we reckoned we could manage the ascents and decents, always bearing in mind that we could have to turn back if something proved too difficult for our limited skills. And, as it was during a heat wave, it was incredibly hot so we needed to bring lots of water – both for drinking and to cool ourselves down – soaking the Urbane Pro made the most out of the full ventilation and saved my sanity.
This video is a compilation of videos of us riding over two days and I like to think that, apart from some lovely scenery, it also shows that our skills slightly improved over time.
In September, when the risk of wildfire is over, we’ll return for more riding and wine sampling.