Table of contents
- Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
- The two and a half thousand meters jostle into the picture
- Col du Tourmalet before your eyes
- Nowhere is it straight ahead
- The first stage from Torla to Nerín has to be canceled
- Last stopover at Villa du Parc
- Further information
- MOTORCYCLE action team
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33 pictures
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Air sovereignty: Giant vultures still fly here.
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Ideal line on the Col d’Envalira.
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Sandman’s dream: camping under the stars in Ria.
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Travel time: 10 days, distance covered: 2270 kilometers.
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The Pyrenees have only one disadvantage compared to the Alps: they are further away. But they score with originality, wildness and low traffic.
Jo Deleker
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Fantastic red and yellow rock towers: vertical, huge, bizarre.
Claude Schons
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Sensational views of wild, rugged gorges.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
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Escaped the laundry room: on a concrete runway behind Salinas.
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The main ridge of the Pyrenees is literally top-notch.
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400 kilometers of beguiling distant views await on the Pic du Midi.
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Magnificent variety of the Pyrenees: Erosion pyramid in the semi-desert Bardenas Reales.
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A clear view of space: star-kissing on the Pic du Midi.
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Stone Age: Bridge over the Rio Ara.
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High up on the Col d’Envalira.
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Efficient: morning toilet at Montgarri.
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For the sweet tooth: dessert in Peyriac-de-Mer.
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The main wash already took place on the way there.
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Hard on the edge of the abyss: along the dizzying lane
the Gorges de Galamus.
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There’s nothing here that doesn’t exist: the finest gravel on the winding ascent to Castejón de Sos.
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Legal sandpit games on various stretches of beach in the Mediterranean.
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Half a handball and ski goggles for the pillion dog.
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From Ille-sur-Tête to Montalba: organs on stone that only nature can play on.
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He has to surf through this hollow lane: the curved road to Portbou cut into the rocks.
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Cafe sign at Peyriac-de-Mer.
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Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees – From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.
to travel
Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees
Motorcycle trip in the Pyrenees
From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
400 kilometers of granite, two seas, a desert, empty streets. What Andreas Prinz, Stephan Fritsch and Dirk Schafer have planned for their trip to the Pyrenees is enough for three vacations. They just wanted to make a film.
Dirk Schafer
12/12/2014
Do you remember the dream from last night? I can do it. Shortly after waking up, I see the grotesque scenes that have escaped from the dark at night into the twilight of daylight. When riding a motorcycle, dogs wear helmets made from half handballs, a still-’68 man throws a lighthouse with his motorcycle disco, and motorbikes fall on top of each other like dominoes. A wacky dream? No, everything is real this time!
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From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
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Warm wind blows through our jackets. The travel enduros iron the last few kilometers to the starting point of our journey over dignified, aged asphalt. The white lighthouse over the rugged cliffs of the Cap de Creus can be seen from afar. No question about it: an appropriate start for the journey from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Just the lighthouse, the cliffs, the surging sea and the three of us. But: where does this booming bass come from??
The two and a half thousand meters jostle into the picture
The parking lot at the lighthouse is filled like a sardine can. Because of only us! The chilled rhythm of reggae swims across the entire area. And that comes from a bike of all things, a screwed Suzuki GS 850 with a sidecar from Bob Marley’s time. Bob Marley from Cap de Creus has mounted two fat speakers on this construct and is now moving the air around the lighthouse. “Yeah men!” Nick greets us over the music and bounces his knees constantly. After a short cafe with leche, Nick drops in “Get up, stand up!”. If that’s not a sign of departure!
What had I talked to my mouth fluffy: There is always traffic jam! There’s nothing to see there except shopping malls! But all in vain. Andi and Stephan, who have never been to Andorra, absolutely want to go to the heart of high mountain consumption. The route there comforts me. Rapid curves until shortly after Latour-de-Carol, and then it gets tighter for a moment until the Col de Puymorens is reached. Behind it, the two and a half thousand meter peaks jostle into the picture, above all the Pic d’Ascobes. And now the traffic should increase noticeably. But the Port d’Envalira, at 2407 meters the highest paved Pyrenees pass, has been swept empty. When we finally arrived in Andorra la Vella, there is activity between supermarkets and factory outlets, but we are as far away from the feared traffic infarction as we are from our own. From now on it can only get better: off-road out of Andorra!
Enduro
BMW R 1200 GS and R 1200 RT, Triumph Explorer and Trophy, Honda Crosstourer and VFR 1200 F in the test
Concept comparison of travel enduros and tourers
read more
Col du Tourmalet before your eyes
The ski area of Pal, orphaned under the summery blue of the sky, has just released us onto a posh tar ribbon above the tree line when suddenly a group of griffon vultures appears to our left in perfect parallel flight. The bravest of them just brushes my helmet. Craziness! With a wingspan of almost 2.70 m, even my 1190 suddenly looks small. The other members of the Geier family have sat down by a stream bed for lunch. On the menu today is a cow that has crashed on a steep slope. The table manners take getting used to. The birds stick their heads and necks into the cow’s body up to their shoulders, only to pull them back out of the opening with a real “plop”.
I long ago forgot about the fallen cow when we saw the Col du Tourmalet. Andis 800er ruffles powerfully from the last hairpin bends below the pass summit. We only stop briefly at the cyclist memorial and then let it crack, because we have a goal off the continuous route in front of our eyes. Little did we know that a cow-like fate awaits us there. And Stephan will be to blame for everything. “Wow!” I even heard Andi’s surprised cry of joy while driving. We have just turned into the valley of Gavarnie, and for a brief moment we can catch a glimpse of the huge basin. But first we have to find the way to the lookout point. It is high noon, noon, when we roll into Gavarnie’s village square, which is lined with cafes and restaurants. The road splits here. Right or left?
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The main wash already took place on the way to Montgarri.
We stand in the middle of the intersection, discussing things with the engine switched off. The decision: to the right! Stephan starts the Tenere, comes half a meter, then the single cylinder suddenly dies. So suddenly that Stephan can no longer hold the load and falls on my 1190s. Overwhelmed by the ballast of two motorcycles, I too have to let go. Andi gets the whole blessing, and now three enduros, one on top of the other, adorn Gavarnie’s only intersection. Applause rang out from the cafe terraces. It’s good that nobody knows us here.
Two days later, heavy rain washes us to Guethary on the Atlantic. The sun-drenched moments over the mighty chasms and waterfalls of Gavarnie are history. Now the weather is made for the long-term test of rain suits. Always new gray curtains patter down on us. We riot in Cafe Madrid until a ray of sunshine over the Atlantic tears the canopy of clouds and exposes a strip of polished silver far above the horizon. We have waited for this and start where it is guaranteed not to rain.
Nowhere is it straight ahead
The Bardenas Reales is one of the few semi-deserts in Europe. Nothing remains of the freshness of the Atlantic coast. Instead, the blazing midday sun stabs us in the eye. Fernando Barrena has set up his winery Azul y Garanza on the northern edge of the Bardenas’ incubator. He swears by the climate and his Desierto, the desert wine. We taste briefly and are sure that we have to stop eating immediately if we don’t want to stumble across the Bardenas slopes right away. Fernando promises to send us a few bottles home and sends us off into the semi-desert with a route tip.
The plumes of dust subside as slowly as Andi’s enthusiasm. A few months ago he was in Utah and Arizona, and the Bardenas Reales seems like their European counterpart. The shriveled skin of the earth is oxidized deep red here, and everywhere the wind and the rare rainfall create new shapes out of the fragile soil. A Bryce Canyon here, a Monument Valley there. And all of this only 100 kilometers from the main ridge of the Pyrenees. Absolutely fantastic!
The first stage from Torla to Nerín has to be canceled
We licked dust on the slopes of the Bardenas Reales, and our way back to the Mediterranean is said to be gravel more often. The first stage from Torla to Nerín has to be canceled. In the summer months, the route is only free for hikers. Doesn’t matter, because the Cañyón de Añisclo makes up for it with a brilliant scenery. And there’s more to the off-roader: From Salinas to Castejón de Sos, the first stones whirl through the air. Then, on the route to Montgarri, we polish up the enduro look with dozens of water crossings. Clammy socks included. While they dry, the night sky puts us in a downright starry rush.
“35 kilometers of winding route”. The sign, intended as a warning, is an invitation to us. We are celebrating the route from Sort to Adrall appropriately, and new signs should actually be put up constantly inviting you to the next few kilometers with curves. No matter where you turn here, it is nowhere to go straight ahead. Can you go one better?
Last stopover at Villa du Parc
It is not far to the Mediterranean Sea when we stop at Villa du Parc for one last stopover. A group of bikers is currently on the way with us, taking two small dogs with them. These jump to their places in the tank bag and the open top case. But is it allowed to be on the move as a dog sos without protective clothing? Master and mistress simply put ski goggles and half handballs on the two Fiffis as helmets. Wow! Would not have occurred to me in a dream.
Speaking of dreams: For a fantastic finale, we’re going to the sea again. You can drive on some of the wide Mediterranean beaches. We will not miss that. We drift through the fine sand, fly parallel to the water’s edge, compete with windsurfers. Sometimes I think that such a journey with all its wonderful, nasty, grotesque and irretrievable scenes should be packed into a beautiful film. Stephan, who set off the motorcycle domino in Gavarnie, did it. And the film premiere is in November. Crazy, right?
Further information
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Travel time: 10 days, distance covered: 2270 kilometers.
The Pyrenees have only one disadvantage compared to the Alps: they are further away. But they score with originality, wildness and low traffic. The roads, passes and slopes are a motorcyclist’s dream.
General: As a 400 km long mountain range between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees form the common natural border between France and Spain. In contrast to the French side, the Spanish counterpart appears almost sparse, sometimes harsh and consistently offers higher values on the mercury scale.
Arrival / travel time: The starting point of this trip, the Cap de Creus, is from Frankfurt a. 1200 kilometers away.
The express surcharge for using the French motorways is due for rapid progress. The most pleasant travel times are early summer and autumn. Particularly in the lowlands on the Spanish side, great heat must be expected in the summer months. Sporadic rain is also possible.
The distance: The route measures 2270 kilometers on mostly low-traffic stretches. The paved passes reach heights of over 2,400 meters. The often winding routes require safe vehicle control in tight bends, hard-to-see curves and on steep inclines. When planning the stages, larger time buffers have to be taken into account because of the extremely curvy side routes. With the exception of the beach drive, the slopes of this trip are manageable even for experienced road drivers in dry conditions.
Activities: The Pic du Midi (www.picdumidi.com). Excellent night stargazing is possible here. Fernando Barrena’s unusual winery (www.azulygaranza.com) on the edge of the semi-desert Bardenas Reales is well worth a visit. Fernando speaks good English and French.
Cards: With the Marco Polo “Pyrenees” map on a scale of 1: 300,000, all important routes are covered. Those inquisitive can easily stock up on even more detailed maps on site.
Literature: The “Lust auf Pyrenees” travel guide specially written for motorcyclists by MOTORRAD author Dirk Schafer has been published by Highlights Verlag (11.90 euros). Michael Schuh’s Pyrenees Handbook is well researched and contains lots of useful insider tips. Published by Reise Know-How Verlag.
Film premiere and DVD: The film premiere for this trip will take place on November 23, 2014 in the Astra cinema in Essen. More about this and the DVD at www.ablebnis-pyrenaeen.de
MOTORCYCLE action team
Jo Deleker
Fantastic red and yellow rock towers: vertical, huge, bizarre.
Pyrenees border mountains
They range from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. And they separate the Spanish from the French cultural area. At the same time, however, they unite motorcyclists from all over the world who agree that these mountains are among the best that this world has to offer for motorcyclists. If you explore the Pyrenees with the action team, you will not only experience the finest cornering pleasure, but also the best of two cultures. South of the border you can eat homemade tortillas, north of the delicious Fromage du Chèvre. With it you drink Rioja, Navarra or Bordeaux. It depends on which side you are currently on. As a starter, two-wheelers can enjoy a top-quality curve tango.
Events:
Pyrenees June 25 – July 4, 2015 1590 euros
Claude Schons
Sensational views of wild, rugged gorges.
France’s wild south
The densely forested, mysterious Cevennes rise abruptly from the plain. Its rugged landscape structure makes the remote region an ideal motorcycle area, so the action team is offering two travel dates in 2015. With a mixture of barren, windswept high plateaus and sometimes deep gorges, they offer everyone who wants to escape from the tourist crowds and heat a refuge that has been sparsely populated for centuries. Here the original France can still be experienced unfiltered.
Events:
Ardèche – Cevennes June 20 – June 27, 2015 1350 euros
Ardèche – Cevennes 09/05 – 09/12/2015 1350 euros
MOTORRAD action team, 70162 Stuttgart, phone 0711 / 182-1977, fax -2017, email: info@actionteam.de, internet: www.actionteam.de
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