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.
324 km from Alghero to Alghero, about 5 h 50 of riding. On the way it passes Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu, Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante, Necropolis of Sos Furrighesos and back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Not far from Alghero, on the flat land behind the coast, lies the largest group of domus de janas in Sardinia. Anghelu Ruju is a necropolis of more than thirty rock-cut tombs, dug into the sandstone with stone tools around five thousand years ago and later reused for burials into the Bronze Age. The site was found in 1903 when workers were preparing land for a vineyard, and excavations revealed chambers with carved bull's horns, false doorways and painted ochre, together with pottery, figurines and personal ornaments now displayed in museums in Sassari and Cagliari. The bull motifs are thought to have been linked to fertility and protection, and they give these dim chambers a surprisingly powerful presence.
Read the complete Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju is where the day begins. Next is Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu.
Sardinians call them domus de janas, houses of the fairies, and when you crouch at the entrance of one you understand the name. They are tombs cut straight into the soft limestone by the island's Neolithic and Copper Age people, small chambers linked by low doorways, sometimes with carved false doors or bull horns on the walls. The necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu, just inland from Porto Torres, holds a couple of dozen of them scattered across a low rocky plateau among fields and scrub, one of the largest groups in the north of the island.
Read the complete Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante.
On the side of the main road below Castelsardo, in northern Sardinia, a huge reddish rock stands alone at a bend, and it really does look like an elephant, trunk lowered, as if about to drink. It is a block of volcanic trachyte that broke away from the hills above and was sculpted by wind and rain into its strange shape. What most passing drivers miss is that its base was used long before anyone thought of elephants: two prehistoric tombs, domus de janas, were cut into the rock in the Neolithic period, and in one of them carved horn shapes, the symbol of the bull, can still be made out.
Read the complete Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante. Next is Necropolis of Sos Furrighesos.
In the Goceano hills of north-central Sardinia, a low cliff of pale volcanic rock above the village of Anela hides one of the island's more striking prehistoric cemeteries. Sos Furrighesos is a cluster of domus de janas, the rock-cut tombs whose Sardinian name means houses of the fairies, carved into the face of the stone by Neolithic farmers some five thousand years ago. Some of the chambers are simple niches; others open into several rooms, and a few still carry carved reliefs of bull horns, a symbol you meet again and again in Sardinian prehistory.
Read the complete Necropolis of Sos Furrighesos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Sos Furrighesos, about halfway. Next is back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu comes up about 292 km into the recorded legs. Next is Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju closes the day.
Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju → Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu → Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante → Necropolis of Sos Furrighesos is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Necropolis of Sos Furrighesos → back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante → back through Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Necropolis of Su Crucifissu Mannu → Necropolis of Anghelu Ruju is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.