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.
394 km from Sopeira to Sopeira, about 7 h 30 of riding. The stops in between: Eglésia de Santa Maria, Cueva de Revilla, Cueva Peña Miel I and back through Cueva de Revilla. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 27 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Balma de les Ovelles, the Sheep's Shelter, lies in the high country where Catalonia meets Aragon, between the valleys of the Noguera Ribagorçana and the Noguera Pallaresa. This is the southern edge of the Pyrenees, a land of limestone ridges, deep gorges, reservoirs and scattered villages, many of them half empty. Rock shelters like this one, used by shepherds and their flocks for thousands of years, are found throughout the region, and some hold traces of prehistoric painting or occupation. The name tells you what it was most recently used for, and the landscape around still carries the sound of sheep bells.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Balma de les Ovelles is where the day begins. Next is Eglésia de Santa Maria.
Nine Romanesque churches stand in the Vall de Boí, high in the Catalan Pyrenees, and together they make one of the most coherent medieval landscapes in Europe. They were built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in a style that came from Lombardy with masons who knew how to raise stone towers without much money. UNESCO inscribed the group in 2000, calling them outstanding examples of a distinctive Lombard-Catalan style in a remote mountain setting.
Read the complete Eglésia de Santa Maria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglésia de Santa Maria comes up about 27 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de Revilla.
Revilla is one of the most spectacularly placed hamlets in the Spanish Pyrenees, perched on a ledge above the Garganta de Escuaín, a deep gorge cut into the limestone of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park. It looks down into the canyon from a terrace of meadows, with the high peaks behind. The Cueva de Revilla is a cave in the cliffs near the hamlet, and the area between Bielsa, Plan and Boltaña is some of the wildest country in Aragón.
Read the complete Cueva de Revilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de Revilla. Next is Cueva Peña Miel I.
The Sierra de Guara, in the province of Huesca, is a limestone range riddled with canyons, and the river Vero cuts one of the most beautiful of them, a deep, narrow gorge of grey and ochre cliffs where vultures nest and the water runs clear over pale stones. Along its walls, prehistoric people left paintings in dozens of rock shelters, and the Cueva Peña Miel I is one of them, part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. The Río Vero Cultural Park protects the area, with an interpretation centre in Colungo and guided visits to some of the shelters.
Read the complete Cueva Peña Miel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva Peña Miel I, about halfway. Next is back through Cueva de Revilla.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de Revilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de Revilla sits at 188 km, about halfway. Next is back through Eglésia de Santa Maria.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglésia de Santa Maria write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Eglésia de Santa Maria comes up about 364 km into the recorded legs. Next is Balma de les Ovelles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Balma de les Ovelles closes the day.
Balma de les Ovelles → Eglésia de Santa Maria is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglésia de Santa Maria → Cueva de Revilla is 112 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cueva de Revilla → Cueva Peña Miel I is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva Peña Miel I → back through Cueva de Revilla is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de Revilla → back through Eglésia de Santa Maria is 115 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Eglésia de Santa Maria → Balma de les Ovelles is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.