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.
From Vistabella del Maestrazgo it runs 220 km to Vistabella del Maestrazgo; allow about 4 h 49 of riding. It goes by way of La Covassa, molí Darrer- Abric I, mas d'en Badenes and molí Darrer- Abric II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 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.
La Covassa comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is molí Darrer- Abric I.
The Alt Maestrat is the high, rugged interior of Castellón province, a country of limestone plateaus, deep ravines and stone villages perched on ridges, and it is crossed by a web of dry-stone walls that farmers have been building and rebuilding for centuries. Near the villages of Benassal, Catí and Villafranca del Cid, under a rock overhang beside an old mill site, the shelter called Molí Darrer holds prehistoric paintings, part of the scattered Levantine rock art that UNESCO inscribed as one site across eastern Spain.
Read the complete molí Darrer- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 65 km into the recorded legs you reach molí Darrer- Abric I. Next is mas d'en Badenes.
This is a thinly populated landscape of limestone plateaus, stone-walled terraces, holm oaks and old farmhouses, a world away from the beach resorts an hour to the east.
Read the complete mas d'en Badenes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
mas d'en Badenes, about halfway. Next is molí Darrer- Abric II.
A molí is a mill, and the one that lends its name to this shelter was presumably a water mill on one of the small streams that trickle through the hills around Benassal, in the high interior of Castellón province. Molí Darrer, the Last Mill, was probably the last one before the water ran out or the valley ended, and the shelter here, Abric II, lies about nine kilometres from the town. It carries paintings of the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain, and is linked to a neighbouring shelter at Mas d'en Badenes and to the Centelles site, which are on the same ride.
Read the complete molí Darrer- Abric II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
molí Darrer- Abric II sits at 74 km, about halfway. Next is back through mas d'en Badenes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete mas d'en Badenes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through mas d'en Badenes comes up about 139 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through molí Darrer- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete molí Darrer- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 155 km into the recorded legs you reach back through molí Darrer- Abric I. 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, late in the day. 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.
The route ends here after 220 km.
Cova de Gargán → La Covassa is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Covassa → molí Darrer- Abric I is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
molí Darrer- Abric I → mas d'en Badenes is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
mas d'en Badenes → molí Darrer- Abric II is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
molí Darrer- Abric II → back through mas d'en Badenes is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through mas d'en Badenes → back through molí Darrer- Abric I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through molí Darrer- Abric I → back through La Covassa is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Covassa → Cova de Gargán is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.