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 330 km round trip from Ares del Maestre - roughly 6 h 04 in the saddle. The stops in between: La fenellosa, Cova del Ramat and back through La fenellosa. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,100 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
molí Darrer- Abric I is where the day begins. Next is La fenellosa.
2. La fenellosa
People in Aragón like to call the Matarraña their Tuscany, and for once the comparison is not entirely marketing. It is a comarca of honey-coloured stone villages on hilltops, olive groves on terraces, almond trees and vineyards, with the limestone wall of the Ports de Beseit rising behind. La Fenellosa lies in this country, between Valderrobres, Fuentespalda and Mas de Barberans across the Catalan line, in the rough hills where the farmland gives way to the mountains.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La fenellosa comes up about 90 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cova del Ramat.
3. Cova del Ramat
The Ebro makes a great loop through southern Catalonia, and the Cova del Ramat lies in the dry hills just west of it, above the villages of Ginestar and Rasquera. The river here is broad and slow, lined with orchards and reed beds, and in 1938 it became the site of the Battle of the Ebro, the longest and bloodiest battle of the Spanish Civil War, which raged for nearly four months in the summer and autumn and left the hills riddled with trenches. Their traces survive in the landscape, and several memorial sites and museums, notably around Gandesa, tell the story.