Cueva Peña Miel I and Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
487 km
Riding-time estimate
8 h 15
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
487 km from Bárcabo to Bárcabo, about 8 h 15 of riding. The stops in between: El Remosillo, Les Coves, Cova del Tabac and Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros. 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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cueva Peña Miel I is where the day begins. Next is El Remosillo.
2. El Remosillo
If you ride north from Barbastro toward Graus, the Ésera river eventually forces its way through a ridge of limestone, and the result is the Congosto de Olvena, a short, deep gorge with the road squeezed between rock and water. Up on the cliffs around here are rock shelters with prehistoric paintings, and El Remosillo is one of the best known in this corner of Aragón, between Estadilla, Graus and Fonz.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Remosillo comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Les Coves.
3. Les Coves
The western edge of Catalonia, around Lleida, is fruit country. Irrigation canals bring water from the Pyrenean rivers to a broad, flat plain of orchards growing apples, pears and peaches, laid out in neat lines that stretch to the horizon. Les Coves lies in this area, close to the Aragonese border, between Alfarràs, Albelda and Algerri, where the valley of the Noguera Ribagorçana spills out of the hills and onto the plain.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Les Coves. Next is Cova del Tabac.
4. Cova del Tabac
Above the village of Camarasa, where the Segre comes out of the pre-Pyrenean hills onto the plain of Lleida, a cave in the limestone holds some of the most interesting rock paintings in Catalonia. The Cova del Tabac, the tobacco cave, is a wide shelter with schematic paintings, simplified human figures, animals and symbols in red, and it is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art on the Iberian Peninsula. A short walk leads up from the road to the shelter, which also offers a fine view over the valley, and on a clear day the Pyrenees rise white on the northern horizon.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cova del Tabac, about halfway. Next is Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros.
5. Roc del Rumbau o Roca dels moros
Where the Segre comes down from the Pyrenees towards the plains of Lleida, it squeezes through a gap at Oliana, held back by a dam and a reservoir that fills the valley above. On the slopes nearby, Roc del Rumbau, also called the Roca dels Moros, the Moors' rock, is a shelter with prehistoric paintings, one of the Catalan sites of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The name is a common one in Catalonia and Spain: local people often attributed anything ancient and mysterious to the Moors.