Why this ride
328 km from Artesa de Segre to Artesa de Segre, about 5 h 08 of riding. It goes by way of Roques Guàrdies II, Bco. de Campells II and back through Roques Guàrdies II. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Les Aparets I and Bco. de Campells II
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 328 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 08
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Les Aparets I
Artesa de Segre lies in the broad valley where the Noguera Pallaresa comes out of the Pre-Pyrenees, a market town of about three and a half thousand people with the long wall of the Montsec range blocking the northern horizon. The country is the Catalan interior in its most characteristic form, with wheat and barley on the flats, almond and olive on the lower slopes, and pine and oak where the hills become steep. Les Aparets, about five kilometres out, is one of the rock shelters of the region, and the rides tie it with the Cova dels Vilars, sometimes spelled Vilasos, and the Cova del Cogulló. These belong to the cluster of Levantine painted sites that reach into Catalonia, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. Further west in the same province lies the famous Roca dels Moros at El Cogul, with its scene of dancing women, which gives you a sense of how widespread the tradition once was.
Read the complete Les Aparets I write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Les Aparets I is where the day begins. Next is Roques Guàrdies II.
2. Roques Guàrdies II
Les Garrigues is the dry, stony corner of western Catalonia, south-east of Lleida, a land of low hills, terraced olive groves, almond trees and stone huts, where the light is hard and the summers are hot. Roques Guàrdies II is a rock shelter in these hills near Juneda and Arbeca, with traces of prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, part of the World Heritage site of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula.
Read the complete Roques Guàrdies II write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roques Guàrdies II comes up about 73 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bco. de Campells II, 63 km on.
3. Bco. de Campells II
Mequinenza has a double life. There is the town you can ride into today, a quiet place on a hillside above a vast stretch of water, and there is the town that lies underneath that water, the old Mequinenza, which was flooded when the reservoir was filled in the 1960s and whose people were moved up the hill. The writer Jesús Moncada grew up in the old town and made it the subject of his novels in Catalan, so if you want one book to read before coming here, that is the one to look for. The Bco. de Campells is a dry ravine two and a half kilometres out, with a small rock shelter holding prehistoric paintings.
Read the complete Bco. de Campells II write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 166 km into the recorded legs you reach Bco. de Campells II. Next is back through Roques Guàrdies II.
4. back through Roques Guàrdies II
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Roques Guàrdies II write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Roques Guàrdies II, late in the day. Next is Les Aparets I.
5. Les Aparets I
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Les Aparets I write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at Les Aparets I. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Les Aparets I to Roques Guàrdies II
Les Aparets I → Roques Guàrdies II is 73 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roques Guàrdies II to Bco. de Campells II
Roques Guàrdies II → Bco. de Campells II is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bco. de Campells II to back through Roques Guàrdies II
Bco. de Campells II → back through Roques Guàrdies II is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roques Guàrdies II to Les Aparets I
back through Roques Guàrdies II → Les Aparets I is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.