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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
208 km from Alquézar to Alquézar, about 3 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of Cueva Peña Miel I, Chaves I and back through Cueva Peña Miel I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Alquézar takes its name from the Arabic for the fortress, al-qasr, and the name fits: a hill of honey-coloured rock above the Vero, crowned by a castle and a church, with a tangle of arcaded lanes tumbling down below. The Cueva de Regacens lies about eight hundred metres from the village, a shelter in the limestone that carries painting in the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. It is one of the closest sites to a village of any on these rides, which makes it an easy and pleasant walk, though the paintings are small and faded.
Read the complete Cueva de Regacens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de Regacens is where the day begins. Next is Cueva Peña Miel I.
The Sierra de Guara, in the province of Huesca, is a limestone range riddled with canyons, and the river Vero cuts one of the most beautiful of them, a deep, narrow gorge of grey and ochre cliffs where vultures nest and the water runs clear over pale stones. Along its walls, prehistoric people left paintings in dozens of rock shelters, and the Cueva Peña Miel I is one of them, part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. The Río Vero Cultural Park protects the area, with an interpretation centre in Colungo and guided visits to some of the shelters.
Read the complete Cueva Peña Miel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva Peña Miel I comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chaves I.
The Cueva de Chaves, in the foothills of the Sierra de Guara in Huesca, was one of the most important Neolithic sites in the Iberian Peninsula, with deposits showing some of the earliest farming and herding in north-eastern Spain. In 2007, in an act that caused outrage, the landowner bulldozed the cave's floor deposits, destroying much of the archaeological record, and the case went to court. Rock art shelters in the area, including Chaves I and others in the Vero river valley, survive and are part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin listing, with paintings ranging from Palaeolithic to schematic art.
Read the complete Chaves I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Chaves I. Next is back through Cueva Peña Miel I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva Peña Miel I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva Peña Miel I, late in the day. Next is Cueva de Regacens.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de Regacens write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cueva de Regacens. That is the ride.
Cueva de Regacens → Cueva Peña Miel I is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva Peña Miel I → Chaves I is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chaves I → back through Cueva Peña Miel I is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva Peña Miel I → Cueva de Regacens is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.