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.
353 km from Castillejo de Martín Viejo to Castillejo de Martín Viejo, about 6 h 03 of riding. The stops in between: Faia - Vale Afonsinho, Alto Douro Wine Region and back through Faia - Vale Afonsinho. It crosses from Spain into Portugal - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
On the Spanish side of the border with Portugal, the river Águeda cuts through granite and schist on its way to the Douro, and on the rock faces along its banks, at Siega Verde, Palaeolithic people engraved horses, aurochs, deer and goats more than ten thousand years ago. In 2010 Siega Verde was added to the Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley, the Portuguese World Heritage Site just across the border, recognising that these open-air engravings form one of the largest collections of Ice Age art in the world.
Read the complete Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall is where the day begins. Next is Faia - Vale Afonsinho.
Thirty thousand years ago, give or take, people in this valley scratched horses, aurochs and ibex into the schist rocks along the River Côa, and their drawings would almost certainly have been drowned if a dam had been built here in the 1990s. Instead, after a fierce campaign, the dam was abandoned and the Côa Valley rock art became one of the most important open-air Palaeolithic art sites in the world, listed by UNESCO in 1998 together with Siega Verde across the border in Spain. Faia, in the side valley near Vale Afonsinho, is one of its core sites, with engravings and some rare painted figures on the rock faces above the river.
Read the complete Faia - Vale Afonsinho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Faia - Vale Afonsinho comes up about 61 km into the recorded legs. Next is Alto Douro Wine Region.
The Douro river has been carving a gorge through the north of Portugal for millions of years, and for about two thousand years people have been planting vines on its slopes. The terraces, held up by stone walls, climb steeply from the water and rise through schist and slate in rows, and the effect, in the right season, is of a vast green staircase. The Alto Douro was the first wine region in the world to be officially demarcated, by the Marquis of Pombal in 1756, and UNESCO listed it in 2001. Port wine, the sweet fortified red that made the region famous, is still made here.
Read the complete Alto Douro Wine Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 177 km into the recorded legs you reach Alto Douro Wine Region. Next is back through Faia - Vale Afonsinho.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Faia - Vale Afonsinho write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Faia - Vale Afonsinho, late in the day. Next is Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall. That is the ride.
Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall → Faia - Vale Afonsinho is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Faia - Vale Afonsinho → Alto Douro Wine Region is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Alto Douro Wine Region → back through Faia - Vale Afonsinho is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Faia - Vale Afonsinho → Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.