26/01/2023
We wanted to wish everyone our best for the year ahead. May your 2023 be happier, healthier, sportier, and easier to reach your goals. We know for everyone these last few years have been stressful, complicated, unforgiving and relentless and have left many people anxious, unconfident and unsure.
We want to continue to make Mas Pelegri a place were people can come to relax, train and be active, by cycling, hiking, swimming, enjoying yoga, horse riding, enjoying nature, beginning a new adventure and to really breathe again. We offer self guided individual, group and team stays. We also have our discounted small group training/guiding weeks which are perfect for you to train for a future triathlon, for your first 100 mile bike event, for your swim event, or simply to have a training week getting fitter and healthier. Everyone is welcome and we customise your stay to meet your fitness levels and training goals.
Yes, life can send you curve balls. But we just have to get back up again and live and fight again. Personally 2022 was a difficult year for us with Gareth having a major head injury at the very end of 2021, so we started 2022 with a Gareth who did not know who his family even were. He asked me one night last January, "you have now been sleeping in bed with me every night this week, but who are you?" Gareth with his usual dogged tenacity slowly rebooted his brain, relearned how to feed himself, balance on a bike, how to sort out the pool, how to cook etc. For him luckily he seemed to reboot quickly and usually only had to be shown once how to do something. He also had not lost his geographical skills so guiding was still easy. Communication even now is sometimes a bit strange, but living with my dyslexic brain for all of these years our conversations are always funny. Humour through adversity is so important. Thank you to our team at Mas Pelegri and also to our return guests whom Gareth guided in April, 2022, for supporting us through a difficult transition back to full business. Yes, 2022 returned to pre pandemic levels and even a little busier. So a big thank you to everyone who stayed at Mas Pelegri in 2022.
Our plan for 2023 is to continue to offer morning yoga in person at the hotel or online via Zoom, if anyone wants to join ever please let me know. It is yoga for everyone. Happy and chatty. The trapeze yoga is still available and I can give you a 5 mins safety demonstration for free in person or you can book an hour coaching session as an extra.
We plan to add a small bouldering area in the yoga studio/gym. We plan to get some new bikes (disc brakes/electric gears). We have already increased our PV solar array this last year and we may need to add another deeper well for more water. Yes, 2022 was another dry sunny year with almost no rain. The change in weather is great for people looking to enjoy their cycling and outdoor activities but the area does need some rainfall. Our late November rains failed to arrive again for another year. Luckily Catalonia is covered with green forests so this does help trap water and because we have a big change in temperature between day and nighttime we usually get a heavy dew. But the ground water level is now much lower, spring fed river's flow is reduced. But do not worry the lake of Banyoles is still full of water, so there is plenty of kayaking, swimming and rowing still on the lake, so that is not a problem. 2022 did not bring extreme heat to this area, just a much longer drier Summer with highs in the mid 30”s at 4pm, but at 6am it was only 18-20˚C so perfect for morning bike rides all Summer long.
We are going to continue offering a mix of vegan and vegetarian and meat/fish options and on Wednesday evenings we will continue to only offer a vegan evening dinner with local in season fruits and vegetables. Please always let us know in advance if you have a special dietary requirement.
To promote slow more responsible tourism we will continue to offer a discount for those that arrive by high speed train, by bike or by a PV car (Sonomotors). We have loyalty discounts (Bike2023), family 2 rooms discounts, group discounts and long stay rates, so please contact us directly with your requirements.
If anyone has any ideas on how we can become a more sustainable, more relaxing and better please let us know. We want to continue to improve and provide a home from home in nature, so that people can come and enjoy the outdoors, by foot or by bike.
Have a fantastic 2023 and we look forward to seeing you soon. Best wishes and a very happy New Year, from the team at Hotel Mas Pelegri: Fiona, Gareth, Hossnia, Nadia, Eli, Hannah, Jura and the cats.
