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 Vila Nova de Foz Côa it runs 483 km to Vila Nova de Foz Côa; allow about 7 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall, Alto Douro Wine Region and back through Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall. It crosses from Portugal into Spain - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Barca means ferry, and the name tells you something about the river. For most of history the Douro was nearly impossible to navigate upstream, blocked by rapids and rocks, so crossing it often meant a boat, and wine travelled down it in flat-bottomed sailing barges called rabelos. In the eighteenth century the rapids at Cachão da Valeira, the worst of the obstacles, were blasted, and the river was opened to boats as far as the Spanish border. The wine trade changed, the quintas grew, and the riverside villages came to depend on the water.
Read the complete Quinta da Barca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Quinta da Barca is where the day begins. Next is Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall.
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 comes up about 64 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 228 km into the recorded legs you reach Alto Douro Wine Region. Next is back through 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 through Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall, late in the day. Next is Quinta da Barca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Quinta da Barca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Quinta da Barca. That is the ride.
Quinta da Barca → Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall → Alto Douro Wine Region is 164 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Alto Douro Wine Region → back through Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall is 191 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Vall → Quinta da Barca is 64 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.