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.
A 154 km round trip from Benassal - roughly 3 h 37 in the saddle. On the way it passes Centelles- Abric I, Abric del mas dels Ous, Cova dels Cavalls and back through Abric del mas dels Ous. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Culla stands on a hilltop in the interior of Castellón, a medieval village of stone houses and narrow lanes wrapped around the remains of a castle. In the thirteenth century, after the Christian conquest, the area was granted to the Knights Templar, and later to the Order of Montesa, which explains the old walls and the sense of a place built for defence. Below the village, among the ravines and terraces, the rock shelter of Els Covarxos holds prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Like many such shelters, it is protected and not easy to find on your own; enquire locally before setting off on foot.
Read the complete Els Covarxos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Els Covarxos is where the day begins. Next is Centelles- Abric I.
Albocàsser and Catí are two quiet stone towns in the inland hills of Castellón, and between them, in a rocky ravine, the Centelles shelters hold some of the prehistoric paintings that make this corner of Spain a capital of Levantine rock art. The style is distinctive: small human figures, often archers, painted in red with long legs and dynamic poses, hunting deer, ibex and boar, sometimes in groups, sometimes in battle. The sites are part of the UNESCO listing of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Nearby, the Valltorta gorge, near Tírig, holds some of the most famous examples, and its museum explains the art and the people who made it.
Read the complete Centelles- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Centelles- Abric I comes up about 29 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric del mas dels Ous.
Xert is the kind of village you pass through on the way to somewhere else and then wonder why you did not stop. It lies in the Baix Maestrat in northern Castellón, below a ridge of bare limestone, with the old village climbing the slope and a newer part down by the road. The shelter called the Abric del Mas dels Ous, the shelter of the farmhouse of the eggs, is out in the dry hills nearby, between Xert, Canet lo Roig and Rosell.
Read the complete Abric del mas dels Ous write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 55 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric del mas dels Ous. Next is Cova dels Cavalls.
A line of archers closing in on a herd of deer, one animal already wounded and fleeing: the hunting scene in the Cova dels Cavalls is one of the most reproduced images of Spanish prehistoric art, and it sits in the Barranc de la Valltorta, a dry limestone gorge in the Castellón hinterland between Albocàsser and Tírig. The Valltorta shelters, together with nearby Gasulla, form one of the key groups of Levantine rock art, and the Museu de la Valltorta near Tírig runs guided visits to the main shelter and explains the paintings with replicas and finds. Check visiting times at the museum before you set off, because the shelter is only seen with a guide.
Read the complete Cova dels Cavalls write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova dels Cavalls, about halfway. Next is back through Abric del mas dels Ous.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del mas dels Ous write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abric del mas dels Ous sits at 103 km, about halfway. Next is back through Centelles- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Centelles- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Centelles- Abric I comes up about 124 km into the recorded legs. Next is Els Covarxos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Els Covarxos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Els Covarxos closes the day.
Els Covarxos → Centelles- Abric I is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Centelles- Abric I → Abric del mas dels Ous is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del mas dels Ous → Cova dels Cavalls is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Cavalls → back through Abric del mas dels Ous is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric del mas dels Ous → back through Centelles- Abric I is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Centelles- Abric I → Els Covarxos is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.