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 Carreña it runs 211 km to Carreña; allow about 4 h 03 of riding. It goes by way of Llonín, Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana, Chufín and back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 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 about 24 km this is Picos de Europa Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Between the coastal town of Llanes and the high limestone walls of the Picos de Europa, a small cave near Carreña de Cabrales holds images that have been in the dark for something like fifteen thousand years. Covaciella was only found in the 1990s, and its paintings of bison, horses and deer, in black and red, are among the finest examples of Palaeolithic art in Asturias. It was added to the UNESCO listing of the Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain in 2008. The cave is closed to the public to protect the paintings, but the nearby interpretation centre explains what is inside and why it matters.
Read the complete Covaciella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Covaciella is where the day begins. Next is Llonín.
The cave of Llonín is not one you can walk into. It sits in the valley of the river Cares in Peñamellera Alta, in the far east of Asturias, and it is one of the decorated Palaeolithic caves of northern Spain listed by UNESCO alongside Altamira. Its walls hold engravings and paintings of deer, goats and other animals, and the cave has been studied by archaeologists for decades, but access is restricted to protect the art. What you get instead is the landscape that sheltered those artists, and that is very much worth the trip.
Read the complete Llonín write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Llonín comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Liébana is a green bowl surrounded by mountains, a valley system in south-west Cantabria with the town of Potes at its centre and the limestone towers of the Picos de Europa rising to the north and west. On a hillside above Potes, among oak and chestnut woods, stands the monastery of Santo Toribio, one of the holy places of Christian Spain. It keeps the Lignum Crucis, said to be the largest surviving fragment of the True Cross, and for that reason it holds a jubilee year whenever the feast of Saint Toribio, the sixteenth of April, falls on a Sunday.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 61 km into the recorded legs you reach Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana. Next is Chufín.
The Nansa is one of the shortest and wildest rivers in Cantabria, running from the high mountains on the edge of the Picos de Europa to the Bay of Biscay, and halfway along its course, near the hamlet of Riclones, a cave opens in the limestone above the water. This is the Cueva de Chufín, where Palaeolithic people engraved and painted animals, signs and symbols on the walls thousands of years ago. It is one of the caves of the Cantabrian coast included in the World Heritage site of Altamira and Palaeolithic cave art of northern Spain.
Read the complete Chufín write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chufín, about halfway. Next is back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana sits at 110 km, about halfway. Next is back through Llonín.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Llonín write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Llonín comes up about 186 km into the recorded legs. Next is Covaciella.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Covaciella write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Covaciella closes the day.
Covaciella → Llonín is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Llonín → Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → Chufín is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chufín → back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monastère de Santo Toribio de Liébana → back through Llonín is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Llonín → Covaciella is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.