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 Los Corrales de Buelna it runs 447 km to Los Corrales de Buelna; allow about 6 h 55 of riding. It goes by way of Covalanas, Archaeological Site of Atapuerca and back through Covalanas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Above the village of San Felices de Buelna, on a limestone hillside in the Besaya valley of Cantabria, a cave called Hornos de la Peña holds engravings made by Palaeolithic hunters. The most famous is the outline of a horse, scratched into the rock thousands of years ago, along with other animals and signs that take time and a good guide to pick out. The cave is one of the seventeen in northern Spain listed by UNESCO alongside Altamira, and visits are limited and guided, so check ahead rather than simply turning up.
Read the complete Hornos de la Peña write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hornos de la Peña is where the day begins. Next is Covalanas.
Covalanas is known as the cave of the red deer. Its walls carry red ochre paintings of hinds, drawn in a distinctive dotted technique, and they are among the finest Palaeolithic paintings in the Cantabrian region. The cave sits on a steep, wooded hillside above Ramales de la Victoria, in eastern Cantabria, and it was one of the first painted caves to be recognised in Spain, in the early twentieth century. It is part of the UNESCO-listed Cave of Altamira and Palaeolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain, and visits are limited to small groups, so booking ahead is advisable.
Read the complete Covalanas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Covalanas comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is Archaeological Site of Atapuerca.
Atapuerca does not look like much from the road: low, scrubby hills, a railway cutting, oaks and gorse. But the limestone caves here have yielded some of the most important remains in the history of humanity. In the Gran Dolina, archaeologists found bones of Homo antecessor, around 850,000 years old, among the oldest human fossils in Western Europe, and in the Sima de los Huesos, a deep pit, they found the remains of at least twenty-eight individuals about 430,000 years old. UNESCO listed the site in 2000.
Read the complete Archaeological Site of Atapuerca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 224 km into the recorded legs you reach Archaeological Site of Atapuerca. Next is back through Covalanas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Covalanas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Covalanas, late in the day. Next is Hornos de la Peña.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hornos de la Peña write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Hornos de la Peña. That is the ride.
Hornos de la Peña → Covalanas is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Covalanas → Archaeological Site of Atapuerca is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca → back through Covalanas is 139 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Covalanas → Hornos de la Peña is 85 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.