CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
A 515 km round trip from Albocàsser - roughly 10 h 46 in the saddle. On the way it passes La Covassa, Castell de Villafamés, Cova de Gargán and Abrigo del Arenal de la fonseca ó Abrigo d. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Maestrat is a quiet corner of Castellón, a country of dry-stone walls, almond groves and villages built on knolls, and the ravines that cut through it hide shelters painted with scenes from the Mesolithic and Neolithic. The Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera belongs to the Levantine rock art of the Mediterranean Basin, a tradition inscribed by UNESCO in 1998, and it lies in the hills above Albocàsser, near the little towns of Catí and Les Coves de Vinromà. The best-known cluster, the Valltorta gorge, lies not far away, with a museum at Tírig that explains the art and gives access to some sites.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera is where the day begins. Next is La Covassa.
Culla sits on a narrow rocky crest in the Alt Maestrat, the inland highlands of Castellón, its houses wrapped around the remains of a castle that once controlled a large swathe of these mountains. The Knights Templar held it in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the village still has the feel of a lookout, with views in every direction over terraced slopes, stone walls and empty ridges. La Covassa, just below the village, is one of the many rock shelters in this part of Valencia that hold prehistoric paintings, part of the Mediterranean rock art group that UNESCO protects across eastern Spain.
Read the complete La Covassa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Covassa comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. Next is Castell de Villafamés.
Villafamés announces itself from a long way off: a village of white and ochre houses stacked up a hill of reddish rock, with the remains of a castle crowning the top. It stands a little inland from the coast of Castellón, roughly between Borriol, Cabanes and the beach town of Benicàssim, close enough to the sea that you can smell salt on a westerly breeze turning, yet already in that rumpled hill country that leads up into the Maestrat.
Read the complete Castell de Villafamés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Castell de Villafamés. Next is Cova de Gargán.
High in the interior of Castellón, where the coastal orange groves are long forgotten and the land climbs toward the Penyagolosa massif, the shelter known as Cova de Gargán sits in a country of limestone ledges, holm oak and dry-stone terraces. Vistabella del Maestrazgo is the nearest village, a handful of kilometres away on its high plateau, with Villahermosa del Río down in its valley to the other side and Lucena del Cid a little further south. It is quiet up here in a way that the coast never is.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova de Gargán, about halfway. Next is Abrigo del Arenal de la fonseca ó Abrigo d.
The Guadalope river cuts a deep canyon through the limestone of the Maestrazgo in eastern Teruel, and the Abrigo del Arenal de la Fonseca lies in this wild country near the hamlet of Ladruñán, between the villages of Castellote and Cantavieja. It is one of the important rock-art shelters of Aragon, part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean prehistoric art, with Levantine paintings of animals and human figures in red pigment on the rock. The setting is spectacular: a narrow gorge with towering cliffs, the river flowing below, and pine and holm oak clinging to the slopes. Access involves a walk, and the paintings are protected by a fence.
Read the complete Abrigo del Arenal de la fonseca ó Abrigo d write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Arenal de la fonseca ó Abrigo d sits at 171 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cova de Gargán.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova de Gargán comes up about 391 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Castell de Villafamés.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Castell de Villafamés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 434 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Castell de Villafamés. Next is back through La Covassa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Covassa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Covassa, late in the day. Next is Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 515 km.
Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera → La Covassa is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Covassa → Castell de Villafamés is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Castell de Villafamés → Cova de Gargán is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → Abrigo del Arenal de la fonseca ó Abrigo d is 134 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Abrigo del Arenal de la fonseca ó Abrigo d → back through Cova de Gargán is 134 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cova de Gargán → back through Castell de Villafamés is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Castell de Villafamés → back through La Covassa is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Covassa → Abric del Barranc d'en Cabrera is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.