Why this ride
A 488 km round trip from Amposta - roughly 10 h 22 in the saddle. The stops in between: Abric de la Tenalla, Roca dels moros, Valcomuna and Val de Caballé I. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Abric de masets and Val de Caballé I
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 488 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 10 h 22
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abric de masets
The Montsià range rises like a wall behind the Ebro delta in southern Catalonia, a ridge of grey limestone with steep slopes and rocky crags, and in a shelter on its flanks, near Santa Bàrbara and Masdenverge, the Abric de Masets holds traces of prehistoric paintings. It is part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings here are faded and fragmentary, but the site is a reminder that people have lived and hunted in this landscape for thousands of years.
Read the complete Abric de masets write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de masets is where the day begins. Next is Abric de la Tenalla.
2. Abric de la Tenalla
The Tinença de Benifassà is one of the wildest corners of the Valencian region, a cluster of tiny villages in the mountains where Valencia, Catalonia and Aragon meet, and the Abric de la Tenalla lies on its southeastern edge, near Rosell. It is one of the many rock shelters in this area with prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean Basin, and the nearby Serra de Godall and the Ulldecona shelters to the east are among the most important sites in Catalonia. The landscape is dramatic: limestone cliffs, deep gorges, pine and holm oak forests, and abandoned terraces where shepherds once grazed their flocks.
Read the complete Abric de la Tenalla write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de la Tenalla comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roca dels moros.
3. Roca dels moros
In 1903, a young man from Calaceite named Juan Cabré, who would go on to become one of Spain's pioneering archaeologists, found painted figures of deer and other animals in a rock shelter in the Calapatá ravine, between Calaceite and Cretas. The Roca dels Moros became one of the first sites of Levantine rock art identified in Spain, and it helped open up a whole new field of study. Today it is part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin, and a visit here is a small pilgrimage to the beginnings of that story.
Read the complete Roca dels moros write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 132 km into the recorded legs you reach Roca dels moros. Next is Valcomuna.
4. Valcomuna
Lower Aragon is a country of dry hills, olive groves and red earth, and in its ravines people painted on the rock thousands of years ago. Valcomuna is one of those rock art sites, between Alcañiz and Caspe near the village of Maella, part of the great family of painted shelters running down Spain's Mediterranean side that UNESCO listed as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The figures in this tradition are small and lively, archers, deer, goats and people in motion, painted in red and black under overhangs where the weather could not wash them away.
Read the complete Valcomuna write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Valcomuna, about halfway. Next is Val de Caballé I.
5. Val de Caballé I
Here the Ebro stops being a river and becomes a lake. Behind the great dams at Mequinenza and Riba-roja, the water backs up for kilometres into the dry hills of eastern Aragon, and locals call the reservoir the Mar de Aragón, the sea of Aragon. Val de Caballé is a gully in the hills south of the water, between Mequinenza, Nonaspe and Fabara, part of a scatter of prehistoric rock shelters in this corner where Aragon, Catalonia and the Matarranya meet.
Read the complete Val de Caballé I write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Val de Caballé I sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Valcomuna.
6. back through Valcomuna
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Valcomuna write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Valcomuna comes up about 296 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Roca dels moros.
7. back through Roca dels moros
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roca dels moros write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 357 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Roca dels moros. Next is back through Abric de la Tenalla.
8. back through Abric de la Tenalla
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de la Tenalla write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Abric de la Tenalla, late in the day. Next is Abric de masets.
9. Abric de masets
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de masets write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 488 km.
Leg by leg
Abric de masets to Abric de la Tenalla
Abric de masets → Abric de la Tenalla is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de la Tenalla to Roca dels moros
Abric de la Tenalla → Roca dels moros is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roca dels moros to Valcomuna
Roca dels moros → Valcomuna is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Valcomuna to Val de Caballé I
Valcomuna → Val de Caballé I is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Val de Caballé I to back through Valcomuna
Val de Caballé I → back through Valcomuna is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Valcomuna to back through Roca dels moros
back through Valcomuna → back through Roca dels moros is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roca dels moros to back through Abric de la Tenalla
back through Roca dels moros → back through Abric de la Tenalla is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric de la Tenalla to Abric de masets
back through Abric de la Tenalla → Abric de masets is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.