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.
From Fuentespalda it runs 444 km to Fuentespalda; allow about 8 h 35 of riding. The stops in between: Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A, molí Darrer- Abric I, Cova de Gargán and La Joquera. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Matarraña, or Matarranya in Catalan, is the corner of Teruel that tourism brochures like to call Spain's Tuscany, and for once the comparison is not silly. Olive groves and almond orchards climb rolling hills topped by stone villages with church towers, while to the south the limestone wall of the Ports de Beseit rises abruptly, cut by gorges and clear rivers. Near the village of Fuentespalda, a painted shelter called Els Figuerals adds this valley to the long UNESCO roll of Iberian rock art.
Read the complete Els figuerals write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Els figuerals is where the day begins. Next is Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A.
Els Ports is the high, empty country in the north of Castellón province, a land of stone-walled terraces, deep gorges, juniper and pine, and villages that cling to ridges above the river valleys. Palanques is one of the smallest of them, and above it, in a long cliff band known as the Cingle de Palanques, are shelters with prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The Levantine paintings here show human figures and animals in the expressive style typical of this coast's mountainous interior, and like most such sites, they are protected and usually visited with a local guide.
Read the complete Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is molí Darrer- Abric I.
The Alt Maestrat is the high, rugged interior of Castellón province, a country of limestone plateaus, deep ravines and stone villages perched on ridges, and it is crossed by a web of dry-stone walls that farmers have been building and rebuilding for centuries. Near the villages of Benassal, Catí and Villafranca del Cid, under a rock overhang beside an old mill site, the shelter called Molí Darrer holds prehistoric paintings, part of the scattered Levantine rock art that UNESCO inscribed as one site across eastern Spain.
Read the complete molí Darrer- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 106 km into the recorded legs you reach molí Darrer- Abric I. Next is Cova de Gargán.
High in the interior of Castellón, where the coastal orange groves are long forgotten and the land climbs toward the Penyagolosa massif, the shelter known as Cova de Gargán sits in a country of limestone ledges, holm oak and dry-stone terraces. Vistabella del Maestrazgo is the nearest village, a handful of kilometres away on its high plateau, with Villahermosa del Río down in its valley to the other side and Lucena del Cid a little further south. It is quiet up here in a way that the coast never is.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova de Gargán, about halfway. Next is La Joquera.
Just behind Castelló de la Plana, where the coastal plain meets the first hills, the ravine of La Joquera cuts into the limestone near the village of Borriol. Its shelters hold prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean basin, and the area has been studied for its archaeology for decades. It is unusual to find such ancient art so close to a large modern city, and the contrast between the busy plain below, with its orange groves, factories and motorways, and the quiet hills above is striking.
Read the complete La Joquera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Joquera sits at 156 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cova de Gargán.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova de Gargán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova de Gargán comes up about 276 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through molí Darrer- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete molí Darrer- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 337 km into the recorded legs you reach back through molí Darrer- Abric I. Next is back through Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A, late in the day. Next is Els figuerals.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Els figuerals write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 444 km.
Els figuerals → Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A → molí Darrer- Abric I is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
molí Darrer- Abric I → Cova de Gargán is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova de Gargán → La Joquera is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Joquera → back through Cova de Gargán is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova de Gargán → back through molí Darrer- Abric I is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through molí Darrer- Abric I → back through Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cingle de Palanques- Abrigo A → Els figuerals is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.