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RIDE, FEAST, SLEEP, REPEAT: FIVE DAYS OF ASTONISHING TRAILS AND FIRST-CLASS HOSPITALITY AS YOU CROSS NORTHERN SPAIN
NEXT AVAILABLE DATES: JUNE 2025
THE LOCATION
The best trail-riding in Europe, with the staggering plains and hills as your playground. All this in gorgeous weather!
THE TRAILS
A purpose built 500 mile route that was created by me especially for powerful ADV bikes.
THE ACCOMMODATION
Incredible secret places that no ‘normal’ biker ever gets to. Carefully curated and a great sanctuary after a long day’s ride.
“A trip with Austin is never just a trip but an adventure, and the Mega Mondo week was a mega-adventure, fabulous routes, hotels and food, tremendous fun from start to finish.”
ADAM HEATHCOTE
THE MEGA MONDO EXPLAINED
INFORMATION
THE VERY IMPORTANT BIT
I am big on the teamwork low-budget DIY kick. That’s what I am going to immerse you in. If this sounds awful, it probably will be.
If you are a show-off, a prima donna, vaguely selfish and really into doing things ‘your’ way then do NOT come on this trip. If you are the kind of person who thinks insulting people is funny (and then follows up the insult with “I was only joking”) can you please not come on this trip.
The compressed nature of the living means we need team players who want to get stuck in.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
I created the route that you will ride. If you sign up to a Mega Mondo you are agreeing to NOT make any attempt using maps, phones, GPS or electronic Satnav units to record the route in any way whatsoever. If, whilst on the trip, it comes to light that you have been recording a ‘breadcrumb trail’ then you will be asked to leave the trip. If you have a tracker on your bike then remove or de-activate it whilst on Mega Mondo.
GENERAL FORMAT
Five days guided trail-riding in northern Spain staying in a building each night. A 500 mile ‘point-to-point’ route NOT a loop.
100% teamwork.
You MUST be a competent trail-rider to be able to access the route we have designed. If you are even vaguely nervous on a trail bike then this is not for you. Instead, attend the fantastic Mondo Skill Builder!
It will be intense and tiring with little privacy or molly-coddling. However, it will be an unforgettably positive experience with the risk of death and serious injury. There is no mechanical recovery, first-aid, emergency or back-up service.
There is ZERO guarantee of a single room. You cannot access this trip if you require a single room each night.
Expect to have to share a room whilst in the accomodation. End hotel and start hotel are NOT THE SAME PLACE. They are 250 miles apart by road.
ITINERARY
Monday Afternoon 2pm
Team assembles outside the Parador Hotel, Lerma, Burgos, Spain,
Meet and greet, ride 50 miles, eat and sleep in an epic olde worlde hotel
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Trail-ride about 100 miles across northern Spain, mixture of farmhouses/hotels/hostels every night.
Friday
Trail ride to Camping Isabena in the Aragon Pyrenees, arriving c.1800hrs, exhausted. Then shower, cocktails, dinner – a superb final supper.
Saturday morning, ride off into the sunset (as far as that is possible before lunch).
CHOICE OF BIKE / BIKE RENTAL
CHOICE OF BIKE
Everyone is asking me about what bike to bring etc. The answer is simple; It’s not about the bike, it’s about YOUR level of skill.
We will be riding hundreds of miles of farmers’ trails in the mountains carrying some luggage. The route is NOT easy forest roads and graded dirt highways. It is neither enduro nor trials but will challenge different riders in different ways. If you have zero off-road skill you need to stop reading this and start trail-riding. Either do a Mondo Skill Builder or attend the Apprentice V.I.N.C.E.
If you are a dirt-legend then you will be fine on a huge ‘adventure bike’.
If you are a ‘street-rider’ with no off-road experience who wants something to do on their ‘adventure bike’ you need to build up your skill before attending MM. It is your call not mine. Personally, I hope to be on a Honda CRF250L which I will also ride to and from Spain. Put simply, your choice of bike mustn’t impinge on the rest of the team members’ enjoyment. Whatever you bring, just make sure you can handle it easily on rough trails, hill-climbs and loose rubbly descents (and pick it up on your own). A GSA1200 or KTM990 can handle this project but usually, the rider simply doesn’t enjoy it. The weak link is the rider, not the machine…
BIKE RENTAL
This company in Barcelona will set you up with anything from a Honda CRF300L to an Africa Twin. I do NOT have a relationship with them, I simply know that they exist.
www.pautravelmoto.com
BREAKDOWN & SUPPORT
There isn’t much. If it goes wrong for you, the rest of the team will get you to tarmac and then to a town. These are the guys that will literally get you ‘off the mountain’. Once we get you to a town, we may leave you, unless you have life-threatening injuries. If you are injured badly you need to summon your next of kin to be your companion. They need to be ready for this.
You will need some euro-wide breakdown cover in place because I will NOT provide any. Once you are back on tarmac you have to take care of yourself, like an adventure motorcyclist would. This may mean hitch-hiking, flagging down a passing car or walking. Seriously, this trip does NOT have a built-in rescue and recovery element.
If you want a trip with full rescue vehicles, really easy dirt roads, first-aid staff, vehicle recovery etc, this isn’t it. Don’t sign up. Also, you could be killed or badly injured. There is zero health cover. Your injuries may be treated in a Spanish hospital ONLY if you carry the EHIC card ON YOUR PERSON, but even this is NOT guaranteed, they often charge people who are holding a valid EHIC card in front of them!
Non-EU nationals, expect a heavy bill from a Spanish hospital and have appropriately heavy-duty holiday insurance that covers dirt-biking in wilderness areas.
Get recovery insurance and medivac from https://partner.globalrescue.com/austinvince/index.htm
DATES
Mega Mondo
2–8 June 2025 – 5 PLACES LEFT
COST
£785
To register interest (you CANNOT sign up online) send me an email via the contact page or to aevmondo@yahoo.com. Expect a telephone chat with me to ensure this is the right holiday for you. Or call me on 07719 369282.
PAYMENT
To guarantee a place simply pay in full once you have spoken to me on the phone. Do NOT pay without agreeing to the terms. The deposit payment is £300. That gets you a reserved place and is non-refundable, regardless of why you do not attend the week.
Pay, by making a BACS transfer to the account details below:
Name: Big Scale Adventures
Sort Code 30-91-91
Account No. 36472060
Include a Reference of your surname.
Don’t pay anything until you have read and signed my ‘statement of expectations’ and the ‘Trail-riding and safety policy’. Email me and I will send them to you. This document is NOT on this website. This is the ethos for the week. It’s very prescriptive and some people find it weird and implausible. However, it’s how I roll so there’s no point in signing up and then leaving the trip at the end of the first day spluttering “You never said it would be like THIS!”
There is no mechanical recovery, first-aid, emergency or back-up service provided within the team. We are on our own…
REFUNDS
This refunds policy is robust.
You are gambling with substantial sums if for whatever reason, however understandable, you have to cancel. You MUST have holiday insurance that will refund the money you pay to me if you cannot attend. I will not refund your fees (full details below).
In summary, the £300 deposit is NOT refundable under any circumstances. It is how I simply find out who is and is NOT serious about attending. The balance of £485 has to be paid by midnight on the last day in April 2025. If you don’t want to gamble with your entry fee, get insurance, or step away from this project.
If you cancel before midnight on 30 April 2025 and have only paid the £300 deposit then you will get no refund.
If you cancel before midnight on 30 April 2025 and have paid the full £785 then you will get a £300 refund.
If you cancel AFTER midnight on 30 April 2025 then you will get no refund.
WARNING
Trail-riding and motorcycling are NOT safe. You do not have to face these risks. Be safe by NOT motorcycling. Be safe by NOT trail-riding in remote wilderness locations. Be even SAFER by not riding on rural Spanish roads where a member of the public is approaching you in a car or van, intoxicated, distracted, high and not concentrating. This scenario, an RTA, is the most likely way you will be killed whilst on this week. Be safe by NOT attending Mega Mondo.
If you lose control on a cliff-edge mountain trail, and go over the edge, you may be killed.
Ensure you have life insurance that covers you for this. I have no ‘tour operator’ insurance nor group insurance that covers YOUR safety.
Your safety is NOT guaranteed but, given that we ARE trail-riding we will always mitigate all risks. If you are killed it will almost certainly be in an RTA with a car etc. on a liaison section. We cannot control the driving of other road users.
You are riding unmaintained trails in the mountains, far from help. If you want a guarantee of safety you must NOT come on this trip.
The off-road routes are designed to be accessible to GS1200s, KTM 990s etc but not if they are ridden by a normal person, they are quite technical. The routes we use are NOT ‘forest roads’ or maintained ‘all-weather roads’. They are MORE difficult to ride than that. The routes are often hugely damaged/eroded by heavy rain and many riders find coping, whilst carrying luggage, very difficult. If this is you, get some training in.
The routes simply cannot be tackled by off-road novices. If you need a bit of adventure on your adventure bike, and can handle it like a God, but can only get a week off work, then THIS is it.
If you have NEVER been trail-riding you should probably be doing The Mondo Skill Builder instead.
Naturally, if you want to bring a smaller bike, be our guest, you will have a better week than the person riding a 250kg machine. We rarely exceed 30mph and the speed limit on the trails is 12mph.
There is no mechanical recovery, first-aid, emergency or back-up service provided. Also, this is dangerous.
Take out holiday insurance that covers a refund scenario, helicopter evacuation AND medical treatment.
Do NOT rely on your GHIC card.
Get recovery insurance and medivac from https://partner.globalrescue.com/austinvince/index.htm
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TO BOOK, OR TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS CALL 07719 369282
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