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 187 km round trip from la Granja d'Escarp - roughly 4 h 38 in the saddle. On the way it passes Val de Caballé I, Abrigo del Plano del Pulido, Abric del mas de Barberà and back through Abrigo del Plano del Pulido. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Mequinenza had to move. In the 1960s and 1970s, two dams built on the Ebro created a huge reservoir known as the Mar de Aragón, and the old town at the meeting of the Ebro and the Segre was abandoned and largely demolished, its people resettled in a new town above. The story is told in the town's museums and in the novels of Jesús Moncada, who grew up in the old Mequinenza. In a ravine nearby, the Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume holds prehistoric paintings, part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Val de Caballé I comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Plano del Pulido.
South of Caspe, the lower Aragón country is a dry, sculpted landscape of ochre hills, flat-topped mesas and gullies cut into soft sandstone, with almond and olive groves clinging to the valley floors. In these sandstone outcrops, prehistoric people found shelter and left paintings, and the Abrigo del Plano del Pulido is one of the rock shelters of the area included in the World Heritage site of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The painted figures, in the reddish tones of Levantine art, are small and faded, and as at most of these sites, access is controlled and visits may need to be arranged in advance.
Read the complete Abrigo del Plano del Pulido write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Plano del Pulido. Next is Abric del mas de Barberà.
Alcañiz is the capital of the Bajo Aragón, a region of olive groves, cereal fields and dry hills crossed by the Guadalope river in the south-east of Aragón. The town is crowned by a castle built for the Order of Calatrava, now a parador, and its main square, with a Gothic loggia and the town hall, is one of the finest in the region. The shelter of the Mas de Barberà lies in the hills just outside town, toward Castelserás and Calanda.
Read the complete Abric del mas de Barberà write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del mas de Barberà, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo del Plano del Pulido.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Plano del Pulido write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo del Plano del Pulido sits at 114 km, about halfway. Next is back through Val de Caballé I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Val de Caballé I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Val de Caballé I comes up about 164 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume closes the day.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → Val de Caballé I is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Val de Caballé I → Abrigo del Plano del Pulido is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Plano del Pulido → Abric del mas de Barberà is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del mas de Barberà → back through Abrigo del Plano del Pulido is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Plano del Pulido → back through Val de Caballé I is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Val de Caballé I → Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.