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.
From Aspa it runs 282 km to Aspa; allow about 4 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Cova del Tabac, Balma de les Ovelles and back through Cova del Tabac. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
South of Lleida the irrigated orchards give way abruptly to dry, open steppe, and the little village of Alfés sits on the edge of that change. The Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés are rock paintings in a small sandstone shelter near the village, schematic designs in red pigment, mostly abstract lines, dots and simplified figures, that belong to the later, more symbolic phase of prehistoric art in eastern Spain, and they are included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean Basin rock art. They are modest to look at, but there is something powerful about seeing marks left by people thousands of years ago in such an open, wind-swept place.
Read the complete Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cova del Tabac comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Balma de les Ovelles.
The Balma de les Ovelles, the Sheep's Shelter, lies in the high country where Catalonia meets Aragon, between the valleys of the Noguera Ribagorçana and the Noguera Pallaresa. This is the southern edge of the Pyrenees, a land of limestone ridges, deep gorges, reservoirs and scattered villages, many of them half empty. Rock shelters like this one, used by shepherds and their flocks for thousands of years, are found throughout the region, and some hold traces of prehistoric painting or occupation. The name tells you what it was most recently used for, and the landscape around still carries the sound of sheep bells.
Read the complete Balma de les Ovelles write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 141 km into the recorded legs you reach Balma de les Ovelles. Next is back through Cova del Tabac.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cova del Tabac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cova del Tabac, late in the day. Next is Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés. That is the ride.
Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés → Cova del Tabac is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cova del Tabac → Balma de les Ovelles is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Balma de les Ovelles → back through Cova del Tabac is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cova del Tabac → Pintures Rupestres d'Alfés is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.