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 el Cogul it runs 260 km to el Cogul; allow about 5 h 03 of riding. It goes by way of Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume, Val de Caballé I, Abrigo del Plano del Pulido and back through Val de Caballé I. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
El Cogul is a village of a few dozen houses in Les Garrigues, the low, stony plateau of western Catalonia where the whole landscape seems to be one big olive grove. Just outside it, a wall of rock above a small valley holds one of the most important prehistoric paintings in the country. The shelter is known as the Roca dels Moros, the Moors' Rock, which is simply the Catalan habit of attributing anything old and mysterious to the Moors, and it was brought to scientific attention in the early twentieth century by a local priest.
Read the complete La Roca dels moros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Roca dels moros is where the day begins. Next is Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume.
Mequinenza had to move. In the 1960s and 1970s, two dams built on the Ebro created a huge reservoir known as the Mar de Aragón, and the old town at the meeting of the Ebro and the Segre was abandoned and largely demolished, its people resettled in a new town above. The story is told in the town's museums and in the novels of Jesús Moncada, who grew up in the old Mequinenza. In a ravine nearby, the Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume holds prehistoric paintings, part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Val de Caballé I.
Here the Ebro stops being a river and becomes a lake. Behind the great dams at Mequinenza and Riba-roja, the water backs up for kilometres into the dry hills of eastern Aragon, and locals call the reservoir the Mar de Aragón, the sea of Aragon. Val de Caballé is a gully in the hills south of the water, between Mequinenza, Nonaspe and Fabara, part of a scatter of prehistoric rock shelters in this corner where Aragon, Catalonia and the Matarranya meet.
Read the complete Val de Caballé I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 79 km into the recorded legs you reach Val de Caballé I. Next is Abrigo del Plano del Pulido.
South of Caspe, the lower Aragón country is a dry, sculpted landscape of ochre hills, flat-topped mesas and gullies cut into soft sandstone, with almond and olive groves clinging to the valley floors. In these sandstone outcrops, prehistoric people found shelter and left paintings, and the Abrigo del Plano del Pulido is one of the rock shelters of the area included in the World Heritage site of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The painted figures, in the reddish tones of Levantine art, are small and faded, and as at most of these sites, access is controlled and visits may need to be arranged in advance.
Read the complete Abrigo del Plano del Pulido write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Plano del Pulido, about halfway. Next is back through Val de Caballé I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Val de Caballé I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Val de Caballé I sits at 134 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume comes up about 202 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Roca dels moros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Roca dels moros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Roca dels moros closes the day.
La Roca dels moros → Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → Val de Caballé I is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Val de Caballé I → Abrigo del Plano del Pulido is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Plano del Pulido → back through Val de Caballé I is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Val de Caballé I → back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric del Barranc de Sant Jaume → La Roca dels moros is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.