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.
216 km from Vistabella del Maestrazgo to Vistabella del Maestrazgo, about 5 h 08 of riding. The stops in between: Racó de Nando, Centelles- Abric I, Abric del mas dels Ous and back through Centelles- Abric I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Cova de Gargán is where the day begins. Next is Racó de Nando.
Racó means corner in Valencian, and this really is a corner: a fold in the limestone hills between Benassal, Culla and Vilafranca, in the interior of Castellón where the coast's crowds feel a continent away. The rock shelter here is one of the many small sites of Levantine prehistoric painting that together make up a UNESCO World Heritage listing, and like most of them it is modest, fenced and best seen with a local guide. What lingers is less the painting than the idea of hunters choosing this exact overhang, with water close by and a view down the valley, and leaving their mark on it.
Read the complete Racó de Nando write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Racó de Nando comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Centelles- Abric I.
Albocàsser and Catí are two quiet stone towns in the inland hills of Castellón, and between them, in a rocky ravine, the Centelles shelters hold some of the prehistoric paintings that make this corner of Spain a capital of Levantine rock art. The style is distinctive: small human figures, often archers, painted in red with long legs and dynamic poses, hunting deer, ibex and boar, sometimes in groups, sometimes in battle. The sites are part of the UNESCO listing of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Nearby, the Valltorta gorge, near Tírig, holds some of the most famous examples, and its museum explains the art and the people who made it.
Read the complete Centelles- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Centelles- Abric I. Next is Abric del mas dels Ous.
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, about halfway. Next is back through Centelles- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Centelles- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Centelles- Abric I sits at 105 km, about halfway. Next is back through Racó de Nando.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Racó de Nando write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Racó de Nando comes up about 163 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Cova de Gargán closes the day.
Cova de Gargán → Racó de Nando is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Racó de Nando → Centelles- Abric I is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Centelles- Abric I → Abric del mas dels Ous is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del mas dels Ous → back through Centelles- Abric I is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Centelles- Abric I → back through Racó de Nando is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Racó de Nando → Cova de Gargán is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.