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.
A 419 km round trip from Albocàsser - roughly 7 h 33 in the saddle. On the way it passes La fenellosa, Abrigo del Barranco Hondo and back through La fenellosa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
A cova gran is a big cave, and in the limestone of the Alt Maestrat that is an easy thing to find. This whole upland is karst, pale rock that rain has been dissolving for millions of years, leaving ravines, sinkholes, springs that vanish underground and a good number of overhangs deep enough to sleep under. The Cova Gran del Puntal sits about six kilometres from Albocàsser in the ravine that the rides call the Barranco Hondo, the deep one, and it belongs to the family of Levantine rock-art shelters that UNESCO has listed across eastern Spain. Paintings of this kind sit in shallow recesses rather than in the dark depths of a cave, so do not expect Altamira. Expect a modest rock wall, a lot of faded red, and a very good view down the gully.
Read the complete Cova Gran del Puntal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova Gran del Puntal is where the day begins. Next is La fenellosa.
People in Aragón like to call the Matarraña their Tuscany, and for once the comparison is not entirely marketing. It is a comarca of honey-coloured stone villages on hilltops, olive groves on terraces, almond trees and vineyards, with the limestone wall of the Ports de Beseit rising behind. La Fenellosa lies in this country, between Valderrobres, Fuentespalda and Mas de Barberans across the Catalan line, in the rough hills where the farmland gives way to the mountains.
Read the complete La fenellosa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La fenellosa comes up about 113 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Barranco Hondo.
Castellote is one of those villages in the Teruel Maestrazgo that seems to have been built by people who wanted to be left alone. Its houses pile up beneath a great rock wall topped by the ruins of a castle associated with the Knights Templar, and the Guadalope river winds below on its way into the Santolea reservoir. The Abrigo del Barranco Hondo, a painted rock shelter in a deep ravine outside the village, is part of the extensive collection of Levantine rock art scattered through these mountains, with small figures in red ochre that have survived on the stone for millennia.
Read the complete Abrigo del Barranco Hondo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 204 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Barranco Hondo. Next is back through La fenellosa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La fenellosa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La fenellosa, late in the day. Next is Cova Gran del Puntal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova Gran del Puntal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cova Gran del Puntal. That is the ride.
Cova Gran del Puntal → La fenellosa is 113 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La fenellosa → Abrigo del Barranco Hondo is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Barranco Hondo → back through La fenellosa is 102 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La fenellosa → Cova Gran del Puntal is 113 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.