good areas!
The idea had been in my head for a long time and now it’s time to present my new website. It was born in a modest way, but with all my enthusiasm. www.bonaigua-trial.com
This website does not pretend to be a reference in the world of Trial or in its collective, I would just like to open a window on the internet so that the great trial family has one more portal in which to enjoy our hobby.
You will be able to follow comments, photos, videos and all the news related to my trial environment, as I will continue to update it with more content. I hope you like it.
This new portal, my portal, comes in handy to make this ninth blog entry and you will see why.
I can’t help but comment “first” on my trial journey through the Aran Valley, since, after all, it was also (without having foreseen it) the beginning of the incursions on the Internet, through the “bonaigua”.
Since the early 80’s we moved to the Valley to go skiing in Baqueira.
It wasn’t until the end of that same decade that we decided to buy an apartment in Viella. That’s when I met several trial riders, some from Barcelona (Joan Domènech, Ángel Díez, Manolo Iborra…)other residents in the area (Àngel Gil, Paco Pérez, Pepe, Antonio, Miguel…).
There we met to be able to do, more than areas, especially excursions. The terrain allowed it and, in addition, there were not the current problems with access to the Natural Environment. Think that almost all of us were riding our motorcycles without documentation.
Excursions of a few hours, in the morning, in the afternoon, full days… but when everything really reached the ecstasy of the trial excursions, it was when with Joan Domènech (the guide), Joan Rodríguez (the joker), Jaume Estruch (the adventurer, epd), Nando Barbé (the technician) and I (the meticulous), we dedicated a whole weekend in July (sometimes even sleeping at more than 2,000 meters) to trial in the area.
Just as we finished the working day on Friday, after a long journey (4 hours), leaving behind the famous and battered Viella tunnel and taking advantage of the sunlight that still hovered over the valley, it was a matter of putting on our boots, Put on your helmet (not even that in the early days), start the bike and get ready to do some “zones” on the rivers and slopes near home.
Saturday was a different story. Here the excursion was already planned in advance.
A backpack, a can of gasoline, four fruits (I remember as a great delicacy the gasoline-flavored peaches, hahaha…), some drink (although it was not necessary because we stopped at any stream of the always cold and crystal clear waters), some warm clothes in case of flies and from 10 in the morning, until 7 in the afternoon (9 hours on the motorcycle) enjoying and contemplating the best places I have seen in the city. my life, in my country, aboard a trial bike.
I will never forget all the excursions we did: the Port de Caldes, the Port of Ratera, the Rosari, the Tort de Rius, the Tuc de la Pincela, the Llança, the Maubèrme, the Besiberris, Colamoforno, the Forcall… the lakes of La Restanca, Mar, Redó, Saboredo, the Circ de Colomers, Liat… of course, the great Montarto (2,833 m.) above all, on the side of Oelhacrestada, etc… A thousand anecdotes, but what I will never be able to forget is the Port de la Bonaigua, for what it represented at the time and for what it represents now.
Sleeping (or whatever) inside a tent, in the cold, very cold, raining, with thunder and lightning, in the highest and innermost part of the Port de la Bonaigua, are sensations that I cannot transmit in writing and that’s why, always, since the beginning of the Internet, I set myself as nickname, “bonaigua” in this way, I will always carry these memories with me every time I “click” the keyboard.
I will also never forget the World Championship TRIALS that were held there. Trials included in the main festivals of each town: Baqueira, Salardú, Arties, Les, the 2 Days of Viella, Especially the first edition, when we got a snowfall that made it about to be suspended, but that, with few resources, went ahead and remained, for me, one of the best trials I have ever participated in.
I would also like someone (of the so-called ecologists) to point me to a location (of the World Championship races, for example) that still has signs that one day, there were zones and inter-zones, in which hundreds of motorcycles and riders passed.
Here’s a video (see below) of one of the excursions, specifically to the lakes of Liat in the year 2,000, at a time when there were no digital machines, no GoPro, no new technologies, no euro, haha… but that by then a new “cancer” was beginning to emerge and that it was not exactly the motorcycles, much less the trial.
It was what was to be an unprecedented persecution, a Law, 9/1995 of 27 July, with motorized access to the natural environment (which I will make another post) but which in the end, it would be the one that would put an end to all these types of trial excursions and also to my illusion of having a second home in the Valley, to which, the journey became longer and heavier for me.
I do want to mention that, before putting an end to this situation, I contacted the Syndic of Aran and the Minister “on duty” of the Environment, to try to formalize a single excursion; identified, controlled, with all the necessary permits and documents to be able to do it and no more than seven pilots, but through answers, always negative, they ended my patience, so, with tears in my eyes, In 2002 I put an end to my trial stage in the Aran Valley.
Nor do I want to forget the annulment, by the Rural Agents, of several areas of a trial, which was organized in September 2007 , because they said that we could incur in a very serious offense of ecological crime, with the “annihilation” of I don’t know what protected species.
I felt sad, but above all disappointed, since, in one fell swoop, they ruined what had to be the trial’s reunion with the Aran Valley.
That same weekend I did a “sneaky” excursion, with a very different meaning from the one in 2000 (the one I have posted in the video). It was an excursion with the bike documented , yes, but hidden by some exceptional places (that I already knew), with the fear of being “hunted”.
Then I did put an end (and understood) that I would never practice trials EVER AGAIN in the Aran Valley, although I don’t like to use the phrase “never again” too much.
By the way… they never allowed us to enter the Garonne River to make zones, and instead, The spring floods of 2013 swept everything away, leaving the valley in such a deplorable state of health that not even a million trials, as they passed through the river, would have done as much damage as the water caused.
I am not happy, on the contrary, I feel an enormous sadness for the Aranese. On the other hand, if all these years they had let us pass with the motorcycles through the riverbeds (totally prohibited by law), surely they would have been cleaner and would not have brought down so much debris that caused blockages in the different bridges that cross them. Let’s see if they take note at once.
David has provided the means to channel any comments, but if you want to make it more personalized, you will always find me at bonaigua@motocat.cat
Lots of zeros!
Victor Martin
“Bonaiguá”
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