Why this ride
335 km from Alfarràs to Alfarràs, about 6 h 13 of riding. It goes by way of Cova del Tabac, Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars, Balma del Pantà and Cova del Cogulló.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Monderes and Cova del Cogulló
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 335 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 6 h 13
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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. Monderes
The plain of Lleida is one of the great orchards of Spain, a flat, fertile basin of peach, pear and apple trees, irrigated by canals drawn from the Segre. Alfarràs, Algerri and Almenar are villages in this agricultural world, set among fields and ditches on the edge of Catalonia, where the green plain begins to rise towards the dry hills of the Montsec to the north. In spring the orchards bloom in pink and white, and in late summer the fruit lorries crowd the roads. It is not dramatic scenery, but it is a landscape built by water, and the canals, including the long Canal d'Urgell and the canal of Aragon and Catalonia, are the reason it exists.
Read the complete Monderes write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Monderes is where the day begins. Next is Cova del Tabac.
2. Cova del Tabac
Above the village of Camarasa, where the Segre comes out of the pre-Pyrenean hills onto the plain of Lleida, a cave in the limestone holds some of the most interesting rock paintings in Catalonia. The Cova del Tabac, the tobacco cave, is a wide shelter with schematic paintings, simplified human figures, animals and symbols in red, and it is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art on the Iberian Peninsula. A short walk leads up from the road to the shelter, which also offers a fine view over the valley, and on a clear day the Pyrenees rise white on the northern horizon.
Read the complete Cova del Tabac write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cova del Tabac comes up 24 km in. Next is Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars.
3. Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars
Os de Balaguer is a small village on the edge of the pre-Pyrenean hills in the Noguera district of Lleida, and the Cova dels Vilasos, also known as the Cova dels Vilars, lies just outside it. The site is one of the painted rock shelters of Catalonia counted within the Mediterranean rock art group protected by UNESCO, and its figures are small and reddish, drawn by people who lived from hunting and gathering in what was then a far wilder landscape. Like its neighbours it is protected and rarely dramatic at first sight; give your eyes a moment in the shade and the shapes begin to come out of the stone.
Read the complete Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
48 km in you reach Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. Next is Balma del Pantà.
4. Balma del Pantà
Camarasa is a small town beneath a big wall of water. The dam across the Noguera Pallaresa, built in the early twentieth century, holds back a long reservoir, the Pantà de Camarasa, in a dry, rocky corner of Lleida where the pre-Pyrenees fall toward the Ebro plain. The cliffs rise steep and ochre above the water, and in the folds of that rock, shelters hold painted scenes from long before there was a dam or even a town. The Balma del Pantà is one of the sites of the Levantine rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean, a tradition listed by UNESCO in 1998.
Read the complete Balma del Pantà write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Balma del Pantà, about halfway. Next is Cova del Cogulló.
5. Cova del Cogulló
Between the plains of Lleida and the first serious mountains of the Pyrenees there is a band of country that most people cross without noticing, and it is a mistake. The Cova del Cogulló lies here, in the hills of the Noguera between Artesa de Segre and the Montsec, a long limestone wall that rises abruptly from the farmland. Rock shelters in these hills carry prehistoric paintings, part of the Mediterranean rock art tradition that runs all along eastern Spain, and the region's churches add a medieval layer, small Romanesque buildings in nearly every village.
Read the complete Cova del Cogulló write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cova del Cogulló sits at 96 km, about halfway. Next is back through Balma del Pantà.
6. back through Balma del Pantà
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Balma del Pantà write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Balma del Pantà comes up 119 km in. Next is back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars.
7. back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
143 km in you reach back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars. Next is back through Cova del Tabac.
8. back through Cova del Tabac
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova del Tabac write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Cova del Tabac, late in the day. Next is Monderes.
9. Monderes
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monderes write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 335 km.
Leg by leg
Monderes to Cova del Tabac
Monderes → Cova del Tabac is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Tabac to Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars
Cova del Tabac → Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars to Balma del Pantà
Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → Balma del Pantà is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balma del Pantà to Cova del Cogulló
Balma del Pantà → Cova del Cogulló is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Cogulló to back through Balma del Pantà
Cova del Cogulló → back through Balma del Pantà is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Balma del Pantà to back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars
back through Balma del Pantà → back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars to back through Cova del Tabac
back through Cova dels Vilasos o dels Vilars → back through Cova del Tabac is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Tabac to Monderes
back through Cova del Tabac → Monderes is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.