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.
181 km from Chert/Xert to Chert/Xert, about 3 h 48 of riding. It goes by way of Cova dels Cavalls, La Covassa, Coveta de montegordo and back through La Covassa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Xert is the kind of village you pass through on the way to somewhere else and then wonder why you did not stop. It lies in the Baix Maestrat in northern Castellón, below a ridge of bare limestone, with the old village climbing the slope and a newer part down by the road. The shelter called the Abric del Mas dels Ous, the shelter of the farmhouse of the eggs, is out in the dry hills nearby, between Xert, Canet lo Roig and Rosell.
Read the complete Abric del mas dels Ous write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del mas dels Ous is where the day begins. Next is Cova dels Cavalls.
A line of archers closing in on a herd of deer, one animal already wounded and fleeing: the hunting scene in the Cova dels Cavalls is one of the most reproduced images of Spanish prehistoric art, and it sits in the Barranc de la Valltorta, a dry limestone gorge in the Castellón hinterland between Albocàsser and Tírig. The Valltorta shelters, together with nearby Gasulla, form one of the key groups of Levantine rock art, and the Museu de la Valltorta near Tírig runs guided visits to the main shelter and explains the paintings with replicas and finds. Check visiting times at the museum before you set off, because the shelter is only seen with a guide.
Read the complete Cova dels Cavalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova dels Cavalls comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach La Covassa. Next is Coveta de montegordo.
Up in the dry limestone uplands of inland Castellón, the Valltorta and Gasulla ravines hold one of the densest concentrations of Levantine rock art in Spain, and the Coveta de Montegordo is one of its many small shelters. Painted under rock overhangs some seven or eight thousand years ago, perhaps more, the figures here are tiny, often no taller than a finger, yet astonishingly alive: archers running with bows drawn, goats and deer leaping, hunters following wounded animals. The whole region is part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin listing inscribed by UNESCO in 1998, and the famous Cova dels Cavalls in the Valltorta shows a deer hunt with a line of archers waiting in ambush.
Read the complete Coveta de montegordo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coveta de montegordo, about halfway. 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 sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cova dels Cavalls.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova dels Cavalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova dels Cavalls comes up about 159 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric del mas dels Ous.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del mas dels Ous write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del mas dels Ous closes the day.
Abric del mas dels Ous → Cova dels Cavalls is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Cavalls → La Covassa is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Covassa → Coveta de montegordo is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Coveta de montegordo → back through La Covassa is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Covassa → back through Cova dels Cavalls is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Cavalls → Abric del mas dels Ous is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.