Where the Segre and the Cinca rivers meet the Ebro, the land opens out into a dry, tawny basin that feels far from the sea. Mequinenza sits at the heart of it, a small town of about 2,500 people that has a story unlike any other on the Ebro. The old town was flooded in the 1960s when the Ribarroja dam created the Mar de Aragón, a huge reservoir, and the inhabitants were moved to a new town built higher up. The writer Jesús Moncada, born here, wrote about the vanished town in his novel Camino de sirga, and the loss still colours the way people talk about the place.
The countryside around is steppe-like, with pale clay hills, juniper and thyme, a few almond and olive groves, and long views over the water. This region of the lower Cinca and the Ebro, on the border between Aragon and Catalonia, holds shelters with rock paintings, small and often hard to find, part of the Levantine art that UNESCO listed in 1998. Treat the area as a place for walkers who have good local guidance, and ask in Mequinenza or Fraga about access, since many sites are protected and not marked on maps.
The riding is easy and wide open. Roads are generally good, with long straight stretches and bends where they cross ridges or follow the river valleys. The wind can be strong, and in summer the heat is extreme, so ride early and carry water. Autumn, when the light is soft and the temperature is mild, is a pleasure. The reservoir is a popular spot for anglers, and the enormous catfish that live in the Ebro attract fishermen from around Europe.
Fraga, a town of about 14,000 people 18 km away, has fuel stations, supermarkets and restaurants, and is the better place to stock up, as services in Mequinenza are limited. The area is known for its fruit, and for the local peaches and olive oil, and a plate of grilled lamb or a rice dish with rabbit is a typical lunch. Mequinenza also has a coal-mining history, with a museum devoted to it, and the black seam of the old mine tells another part of the story.