Cueva de mas del Abogat and Valcomuna

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Cueva de mas del Abogat

   Calaceite is the kind of village that makes you slow down without being asked: honey-coloured stone, arcaded squares, a big baroque church and grand old houses with carved doorways, all perched on a ridge in the Matarraña, the corner of Teruel where Aragón meets Catalonia and Valencia. A few kilometres from it lies the Cueva de Mas del Abogat, one of the painted rock shelters that belong to the UNESCO listing of prehistoric art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula. As with its sisters across eastern Spain, the paintings are small and often hard to read; the setting is what you take away.

   Read the complete Cueva de mas del Abogat write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cueva de mas del Abogat is where the day begins. Next is Els Secans.

2. 2. Els Secans

   The lower Matarraña, in the far east of Aragón, is a drier, emptier country than the green upper valley. Here, the river flows through low hills of sandstone and limestone, with olive groves, almond trees and cereal fields, and the villages stand on hilltops, built of golden stone. Mazaleón is one of them, a small village above the river, with Maella and Calaceite nearby. Els Secans, a name meaning the dry lands, is a shelter with prehistoric paintings in the hills just outside the village.

   Read the complete Els Secans write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Els Secans comes up about 21 km into the recorded legs. Next is Valcomuna.

3. 3. Valcomuna

   Lower Aragon is a country of dry hills, olive groves and red earth, and in its ravines people painted on the rock thousands of years ago. Valcomuna is one of those rock art sites, between Alcañiz and Caspe near the village of Maella, part of the great family of painted shelters running down Spain's Mediterranean side that UNESCO listed as the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The figures in this tradition are small and lively, archers, deer, goats and people in motion, painted in red and black under overhangs where the weather could not wash them away.

   Read the complete Valcomuna write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Valcomuna. Next is back through Els Secans.

4. 4. back through Els Secans

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Els Secans write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Els Secans, late in the day. Next is Cueva de mas del Abogat.

5. 5. Cueva de mas del Abogat

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Cueva de mas del Abogat write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Cueva de mas del Abogat. That is the ride.