Tremp to Coll de Nargó

May 18, 2024

Today offered a beautiful road, perfect weather, thousands(?) of motorcycles!

But first, dinner last night. I had booked half board at the hotel, as I often do when it’s offered, because it eliminates the restaurant search and the food is usually good (or at least decent) and good value. This is Spain, though, and no food until 8:30 pm. We went for a short walkabout to get some road snacks because we’d eaten what we had and to distract ourselves while we waited. As we thought, there’s not much for tourists in Tremp—though it seems to be a good base for exploring the area.

This building is a symbol of the town, but we’re not certain what it’s function is/was. It looks like a church, but no entrance on the sides we walked past. We didn’t walk all the way around as it abuts a neighbouring building on the right of the photo.

Finally, 8:30! We were the first seated, of course. We had just given our order to the server when another couple was seated at the next table and who should it be but the couple from Québec! We moved ourselves to their larger table and enjoyed getting to know Marie-Michèle and Jean-François, who aren’t as young as I originally thought. They were staying at a different hotel nearby but just happened to choose La Cononja’s restaurant for dinner.

We saw them again on the road but passed them after another chat as they are carrying heavier loads and heading for a different destination. We will likely see them again in Girona.

We turned here, having come from the right. We waited a couple of minutes to get a photo of M-M and J-F but didn’t see them. They might have already turned off the main road.

The real climb started soon after Isona. There had been some ups before that, but once we entered the real hills, it was consistently uphill. And this is when we started really noticing the motorcycles.

Between this point and Coll de Faidella, travelling in our direction, eastward, we were passed by a handful of motorbikes and one, maybe two cars. Oncoming traffic included 3 bicycles, 3 cars, and at least a thousand motorcycles. Some of the latter were being ridden aggressively, crossing onto our side when we were on the inside of the curve, leaning right over. Most rode responsibly, but there were a few early on that came frighteningly close. The stream of motorcycles came in bunches, with relatively peaceful gaps between, but never ended.

Flower of the day, seen in the upper parted of the first climb.

It was a spectacular descent from Coll de Faidella. We stopped to admire the views; this is looking back uphill. Only one motorcycle in the frame.

And right beside us on the pullout, next to a driveway heading steeply down into the trees, was this. Mailbox?

The grade down to, through, and up again beyond the few buildings of Bóixols was gentle. Bóixols itself seemed to be a trailhead area; there were many more parked cars than the few buildings would justify and no businesses at all. There was a flowing fountain with no sign indicating whether the water was potable or not, but it wasn’t a hot day and we still had enough.

This was where the road steepened, only 2 km to go.

Another sign at 1km to go. Eight percent average grade for this km, but it starts off flat. There’s a sting coming!

The last switchback was very steep, but I managed to ride it.

I wonder where the desire to put stickers on summit signs comes from. It’s not something that would have occurred to me. What did these signs look like before stickers became a thing?

There’s a modern mirador at Coll de Bóixols

Al thought this might be a phone prop for selfies, but used it more creatively.

There were several motorcyclists also stopped at the top and I asked a group of Germans if they knew where all the motorbikes were heading. It turned out they were travelling the same direction as us and wondering the same thing. They had noted, however, the armbands almost all of the westbound motorcyclists were wearing, and learned from someone else that it was some sort of 24-hour endurance event. We looked more closely and saw that the armbands indicated either 1000 km or 700 km. Later, in Coll de Nargo, we would see 500 and 300 km armbands. Unfortunate that our otherwise beautiful ride today coincided with this event.

The descent was spectacular and long. Normally we would have stopped at the side of the road to take a good look at the canyon on our right, but with so much traffic, we had to wait until there was a pullout.

Interesting rock face near the bottom of the canyon we’d been following.

When we arrived at Hotel Betriu, located at the intersection of L-511 (the normally quiet road over Coll de Bóixols) and C-14 (one of the highways into Andorra) the place was jammed with motorcyclists wearing armbands. The family operating the hotel and their employees were swamped! But we checked in, put our bikes in the garage, and enjoyed a well-earned beer. It was too busy to try to get food, and it hadn’t looked like there were any options for a snack as we descended through town, so we decided to just wait for 8:30. A nap and an online crossword helped.

The food was basic but good. We both had veal as our second courses; Al’s was baked with mushroom sauce, mine was grilled Argentinian-style. Excellent, but not photogenic!

My first course: grilled vegetables and goat cheese

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Today's ride: 58 km (36 miles)
Total: 681 km (423 miles)

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