Latest news from the world of Batec

Hi everyone!

I haven't written for a while because it's been a busy year. So here is a summary from the end of February to the end of the summer holidays of adventures of the Batec and some hacks I've made.

At the end of February we did our last snowshoe trip in the mountains near Madrid. To help me go in the snow with the Batec we put some rope around the wheels like snow chains.

Rope for traction

With snowshoes of the front

 The snow ropes were good in the soft snow, but still slipped on the hard snow.

This year I'm still playing basketball in Las Rozas and we saw that the wheelchairs we used are really stable, so I decided I could change the angle of the wheels on the chair I use on the Batec. The result was excellent, I was ready for summer.

Summer 2018
We travelled over the north of Spain and Portugal, and we used the Batec in different types of terrain.

Picos de Europa

Narrow paths

Steep tarmac

This is my second year in Picos de Europa. As you can see I'm with my father's family. 23 of us got together in the campsite. What a noise! Even my grandparents went down in there caravan. The photos above are the walk we did around Tielve. (The same walk we did four years ago). It was generally very accessible. There were two more complicated parts: a steep slope at the beginning and a section at the end were we had go through the field but if you are with other people you get a little push and it's fine.

Galicia

Sunset at the lighthouse in the beach

Thick forest part without sand far from the beach

Think forest part with sand getting near the beach

We were in Galicia for two days. There were a lot of beaches with cold water. The village in Galicia was very interesting and with a lot of parties. In these photos we are going for a walk around the Isla de Arousa. I really recommend the Isla de Arousa for people who have a Batec because is very flat. But the bad thing is that there is a lot of sand when you go near the beach and the wheels goes very slow.

Portugal

A very foggy day at the beach

A very clear day after the fog in the beach

This was the last part of the trip. In Portugal the sea was cold the same as in Galicia. We ate a lot of delicious fish and meat. There are wooden walkways around the dunes. The wooden walkways are excellent but the problem was the steps and the deep sand. Sometimes you suddenly find three steps on a walkway which would be perfectly accesible.
We also visited Porto, and the Batec went on the funicular. We also went on a cablecar, which would fit a Batec as well.

Tech Talk

The new angle of the wheels gives me much more balance, but the tyres wear down very quickly. We need to continue investigating to get the right angle.

On steep slopes the front wheel spins, so it's necessary to have friends around to give a little push or put weight on the front.

None of the Batec trips were marked as 'accesible'. In fact when we asked people if these routes were accesible, the answer was often 'no', but we went anyway. So what we found was that there are so many routes that are totally accesible, sometimes with a little help, and if there was a tiny bit more planning in the construction of things like the walkways on the beach, you could even Batec alone!

More soon!