Mequinenza has a double life. There is the town you can ride into today, a quiet place on a hillside above a vast stretch of water, and there is the town that lies underneath that water, the old Mequinenza, which was flooded when the reservoir was filled in the 1960s and whose people were moved up the hill. The writer Jesús Moncada grew up in the old town and made it the subject of his novels in Catalan, so if you want one book to read before coming here, that is the one to look for. The Bco. de Campells is a dry ravine two and a half kilometres out, with a small rock shelter holding prehistoric paintings.
The setting is the meeting of two big rivers. The Segre flows into the Ebro here, and the dams downstream turned the whole confluence into a long green lake that Aragonese people sometimes call their inland sea. Anglers come from all over Europe for the giant catfish that thrive in it. The landscape is dry and stony, with pale hills, pines, thyme and rosemary, and the surrounding terrain is often glaring in summer and surprisingly cold in January, when the cierzo wind can cut across the water.
For riders the roads are open and fast. They run along the lake, drop to the water, climb to a plateau, and cross it in long, easy bends, with plenty of room to see what is coming and not much traffic. Take care in the gravelly corners where tracks join the road, and remember that there can be strong crosswinds on the bridges and dams. Spring and autumn are the best times, when the light is clear and the temperatures kind.
Fuel can be found in Mequinenza itself, but Fraga, sixteen kilometres away on the road towards Lleida, has more choice and larger shops. Seròs lies across the river on the Catalan side with a lock and a modest riverside promenade. If you are hungry, local restaurants specialise in freshwater fish and in Aragonese lamb, and the castle hill above the town gives a good outlook over the reservoir. Take water for the walk to the shelter, and do not climb on the rock.