CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
538 km from Alquézar to Alquézar, about 7 h 49 of riding. The stops in between: Pyrénées - Mont Perdu, Cueva de los moros. and back through Pyrénées - Mont Perdu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 72 km this is Pyrenees N260 Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The cliffs above the Vero are the property of vultures. On most days you will see griffon vultures, great brown birds with a wingspan close to three metres, spiralling on warm air above the rim, and with luck an Egyptian vulture, smaller and white with a yellow face. The Sierra de Guara is also one of the places where the rare bearded vulture, the lammergeier, has been seen. The shelter called Chimiachas E lies almost four kilometres from Alquézar, in the middle of that airspace, and the painted rock shelters of this valley are all within sight of those cliffs.
Read the complete Chimiachas E write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chimiachas E is where the day begins. Next is Pyrénées - Mont Perdu.
Monte Perdido, the lost mountain, at 3,355 metres, is the highest limestone massif in Europe and the centrepiece of a cross-border World Heritage site shared by Spain and France. On the Spanish side, it gives its name to the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, with deep canyons radiating out from the summit; on the French side, it looks down on the great cirques of Gavarnie and Troumouse.
Read the complete Pyrénées - Mont Perdu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pyrénées - Mont Perdu comes up 80 km in. Next is Cueva de los moros., 79 km on.
There is a Cueva de los Moros in half the valleys of Spain. Every unexplained cave, ruin or rock shelter used to be credited to the Moors, and this one, in the hills of the western Aragonese Pyrenees between the valleys of Hecho and Ansó, is a rock shelter with ancient traces. You should approach it as an excuse to spend time in two of the most beautiful and least spoiled valleys of the Pyrenees, rather than as a monument.
Read the complete Cueva de los moros. write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
159 km in you reach Cueva de los moros.. Next is back through Pyrénées - Mont Perdu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pyrénées - Mont Perdu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pyrénées - Mont Perdu, late in the day. Next is Chimiachas E.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chimiachas E write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Chimiachas E. That is the ride.
Chimiachas E → Pyrénées - Mont Perdu is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pyrénées - Mont Perdu → Cueva de los moros. is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cueva de los moros. → back through Pyrénées - Mont Perdu is 87 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Pyrénées - Mont Perdu → Chimiachas E is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.