CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
A 363 km round trip from Amposta - roughly 8 h 38 in the saddle. The stops in between: Prop de la Cova Pintada, Roca dels moros, Val del Charco del Agua Amarga and back through Roca dels moros. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric de masets is where the day begins. Next is Prop de la Cova Pintada.
The Ports massif rises abruptly at the meeting point of Catalonia, Aragón and Valencia, a tangle of limestone peaks, deep gorges and pine forest that feels surprisingly wild given how close it is to the Ebro delta and the coast. Prop de la Cova Pintada, meaning near the painted cave, sits on its southern side, between Mas de Barberans, Valderrobres and the old city of Tortosa.
Read the complete Prop de la Cova Pintada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prop de la Cova Pintada comes up 28 km in. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
56 km in you reach Roca dels moros. Next is Val del Charco del Agua Amarga.
Around ten kilometres from Alcañiz, in a dry ravine among olive groves and limestone ledges, a rock shelter holds one of the most celebrated scenes of Levantine rock art in Spain. The paintings at Val del Charco del Agua Amarga show archers in motion, hunting and perhaps fighting, their thin bodies drawn with a few confident strokes in red. Many experts consider it one of the finest examples in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art, and seeing it, even protected behind a fence, gives a real jolt of connection to people who lived here several thousand years ago.
Read the complete Val del Charco del Agua Amarga write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Val del Charco del Agua Amarga, about halfway. Next is back through Roca dels moros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roca dels moros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Roca dels moros sits at 112 km, about halfway. Next is back through Prop de la Cova Pintada.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prop de la Cova Pintada write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Prop de la Cova Pintada comes up 140 km in. Next is Abric de masets.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de masets write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric de masets closes the day.
Abric de masets → Prop de la Cova Pintada is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Prop de la Cova Pintada → Roca dels moros is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roca dels moros → Val del Charco del Agua Amarga is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Val del Charco del Agua Amarga → back through Roca dels moros is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roca dels moros → back through Prop de la Cova Pintada is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Prop de la Cova Pintada → Abric de masets is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.