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.
254 km from Bonansa to Bonansa, about 5 h 26 of riding. On the way it passes Balma de les Ovelles, Cova del Cogulló and back through Balma de les Ovelles. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,950 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 34 km this is Ruta del Cares · N-260, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
The Vall de Boí is a cul-de-sac with a gift in it. It lies at the head of the Noguera de Tor, tucked below the high granite of the Aigüestortes national park, and in the Middle Ages local people built a string of small stone churches along it, each with a tall Lombard bell tower, so that the valley's skyline reads like a row of exclamation marks. In 2000 UNESCO named them together as the Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí. The Església de la Nativitat in Durro is one of them, and its slim tower seems to catch the light better than almost any other.
Read the complete Eglésia de la Nativitat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eglésia de la Nativitat is where the day begins. Next is Balma de les Ovelles.
The Balma de les Ovelles, the Sheep's Shelter, lies in the high country where Catalonia meets Aragon, between the valleys of the Noguera Ribagorçana and the Noguera Pallaresa. This is the southern edge of the Pyrenees, a land of limestone ridges, deep gorges, reservoirs and scattered villages, many of them half empty. Rock shelters like this one, used by shepherds and their flocks for thousands of years, are found throughout the region, and some hold traces of prehistoric painting or occupation. The name tells you what it was most recently used for, and the landscape around still carries the sound of sheep bells.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Balma de les Ovelles comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova del Cogulló.
Between the plains of Lleida and the first serious mountains of the Pyrenees there is a band of country that most people cross without noticing, and it is a mistake. The Cova del Cogulló lies here, in the hills of the Noguera between Artesa de Segre and the Montsec, a long limestone wall that rises abruptly from the farmland. Rock shelters in these hills carry prehistoric paintings, part of the Mediterranean rock art tradition that runs all along eastern Spain, and the region's churches add a medieval layer, small Romanesque buildings in nearly every village.
Read the complete Cova del Cogulló write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Cova del Cogulló. Next is back through Balma de les Ovelles.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Balma de les Ovelles, late in the day. Next is Eglésia de la Nativitat.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Eglésia de la Nativitat write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Eglésia de la Nativitat. That is the ride.
Eglésia de la Nativitat → Balma de les Ovelles is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balma de les Ovelles → Cova del Cogulló is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló → back through Balma de les Ovelles is 104 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balma de les Ovelles → Eglésia de la Nativitat is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.