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.
409 km from Chert/Xert to Chert/Xert, about 8 h 24 of riding. The stops in between: Abric del.mas Blanc, Cova de Gargán, La Joquera and Peñón de Santo Espíritu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 Abric del.mas Blanc, 45 km on.
Benassal is a stone village on a high plateau in the Alt Maestrat, in the interior of Castellón, at around eight hundred metres above sea level, and it is known throughout the region for its spring water, the Font d'en Segures, which is bottled and sold across Spain. The Abric del Mas Blanc, the shelter of the white farmhouse, is one of the many rock-art sites in the area, part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean prehistoric art. The nearby Valltorta gorge, about twenty kilometres to the east, has some of the most famous Levantine paintings, including dramatic hunting scenes, and the Valltorta museum in Tírig is the best place to learn about them.
Read the complete Abric del.mas Blanc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del.mas Blanc comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova de Gargán. Next is La Joquera.
Just behind Castelló de la Plana, where the coastal plain meets the first hills, the ravine of La Joquera cuts into the limestone near the village of Borriol. Its shelters hold prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean basin, and the area has been studied for its archaeology for decades. It is unusual to find such ancient art so close to a large modern city, and the contrast between the busy plain below, with its orange groves, factories and motorways, and the quiet hills above is striking.
Read the complete La Joquera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Joquera, about halfway. Next is Peñón de Santo Espíritu.
Behind the orange groves of the Camp de Morvedre, a few kilometres inland from Sagunto, the land rises into the Sierra Calderona, a low range of pine woods, scrub and red sandstone that separates the coastal plain from the dry interior. The Peñón de Santo Espíritu is a rocky outcrop in these hills above the village of Gilet, and it carries prehistoric rock art in the Levantine tradition, the style of painted hunters, animals and human figures found in shelters along the Mediterranean side of Spain and listed by UNESCO as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The paintings are fragile and often protected, so do not expect to wander up and touch anything.
Read the complete Peñón de Santo Espíritu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peñón de Santo Espíritu sits at 179 km, about halfway. Next is back through La Joquera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Joquera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Joquera comes up about 266 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 321 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cova de Gargán. Next is back through Abric del.mas Blanc, 44 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del.mas Blanc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abric del.mas Blanc, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 409 km.
Abric del mas dels Ous → Abric del.mas Blanc is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del.mas Blanc → Cova de Gargán is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → La Joquera is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Joquera → Peñón de Santo Espíritu is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peñón de Santo Espíritu → back through La Joquera is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Joquera → back through Cova de Gargán is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova de Gargán → back through Abric del.mas Blanc is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric del.mas Blanc → Abric del mas dels Ous is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.