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.
415 km from Monteleone Rocca Doria to Monteleone Rocca Doria, about 7 h 16 of riding. It goes by way of Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante, Necropolis of Brodu and back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Domus de janas means houses of the fairies, and that is what Sardinians called the small chambers cut into rock faces across the island, believing them to be the homes of tiny supernatural women. They are in fact tombs, carved out by the island's Neolithic and Copper Age people some five thousand years ago, often with rooms arranged like houses, carved doorways, false roof beams and symbols such as bulls' horns. The necropolis of Puttu Codinu, near Villanova Monteleone in north-west Sardinia, is a group of these tombs cut into a low limestone outcrop amid fields and scrub, one of thousands across the island.
Read the complete Necropolis of Puttu Codinu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Necropolis of Puttu Codinu is where the day begins. 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.
Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante comes up about 77 km into the recorded legs. Next is Necropolis of Brodu.
Barbagia is the rugged heart of Sardinia, a land of granite hills, shepherds and fiercely held traditions, and on its western edge, near the village of Oniferi, the rock-cut tombs of Brodu are among the most elaborate on the island. Like other domus de janas, these chambers were carved into the stone by the people of the Neolithic Ozieri culture and later, but here several of them have carved decoration inside: false doors, imitation roof beams and, in some, the curved horn motifs that are thought to represent the bull, a symbol of strength and fertility that appears again and again in Sardinian prehistory.
Read the complete Necropolis of Brodu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 204 km into the recorded legs you reach Necropolis of Brodu. 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, late in the day. Next is Necropolis of Puttu Codinu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Necropolis of Puttu Codinu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Necropolis of Puttu Codinu. That is the ride.
Necropolis of Puttu Codinu → Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante → Necropolis of Brodu is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Necropolis of Brodu → back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante is 128 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Domus de janas of Roccia dell’Elefante → Necropolis of Puttu Codinu is 83 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.