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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
498 km from Albocàsser to Albocàsser, about 10 h 31 of riding. The stops in between: Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla, Cova de Gargán, La Joquera and Peñón de Santo Espíritu. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Up in the dry limestone uplands of inland Castellón, the Valltorta and Gasulla ravines hold one of the densest concentrations of Levantine rock art in Spain, and the Coveta de Montegordo is one of its many small shelters. Painted under rock overhangs some seven or eight thousand years ago, perhaps more, the figures here are tiny, often no taller than a finger, yet astonishingly alive: archers running with bows drawn, goats and deer leaping, hunters following wounded animals. The whole region is part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin listing inscribed by UNESCO in 1998, and the famous Cova dels Cavalls in the Valltorta shows a deer hunt with a line of archers waiting in ambush.
Read the complete Coveta de montegordo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Coveta de montegordo is where the day begins. Next is Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla.
This is high Maestrat country, where Castellón's mountains roll into Teruel's, and the small rock shelter called the Covatina del Tossalet del Mas de la Rambla belongs to a family of sites that UNESCO lists together as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Under overhangs like this one, hunters and early farmers painted small, lively figures in red and black: archers in mid-stride, deer and ibex, scenes of hunting and gathering. The style, called Levantine art, is unusual for its movement and its storytelling, and many of the shelters are tiny, fragile and kept behind fences. Access is often by guided visit only, so check with the local tourist office before you count on seeing the paintings.
Read the complete Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova de Gargán.
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.
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova de Gargán. Next is La Joquera.
Just behind Castelló de la Plana, where the coastal plain meets the first hills, the ravine of La Joquera cuts into the limestone near the village of Borriol. Its shelters hold prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean basin, and the area has been studied for its archaeology for decades. It is unusual to find such ancient art so close to a large modern city, and the contrast between the busy plain below, with its orange groves, factories and motorways, and the quiet hills above is striking.
Read the complete La Joquera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Joquera, about halfway. Next is Peñón de Santo Espíritu.
Behind the orange groves of the Camp de Morvedre, a few kilometres inland from Sagunto, the land rises into the Sierra Calderona, a low range of pine woods, scrub and red sandstone that separates the coastal plain from the dry interior. The Peñón de Santo Espíritu is a rocky outcrop in these hills above the village of Gilet, and it carries prehistoric rock art in the Levantine tradition, the style of painted hunters, animals and human figures found in shelters along the Mediterranean side of Spain and listed by UNESCO as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The paintings are fragile and often protected, so do not expect to wander up and touch anything.
Read the complete Peñón de Santo Espíritu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peñón de Santo Espíritu sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through La Joquera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Joquera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Joquera comes up about 310 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through 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.
about 365 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cova de Gargán. Next is back through Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla, late in the day. Next is Coveta de montegordo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Coveta de montegordo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 498 km.
Coveta de montegordo → Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla → Cova de Gargán is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → La Joquera is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Joquera → Peñón de Santo Espíritu is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peñón de Santo Espíritu → back through La Joquera is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Joquera → back through Cova de Gargán is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova de Gargán → back through Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Covatina del Tossalet del mas de !a Rambla → Coveta de montegordo is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.