Roca del Senallo and Val del Charco del Agua Amarga
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
416 km
Riding-time estimate
8 h 31
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Culla it runs 416 km to Culla; allow about 8 h 31 of riding. It goes by way of Abric de la Tenalla, Val del Charco del Agua Amarga and back through Abric de la Tenalla. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Roca del Senallo
The Maestrat of inland Castellón is a highland of stone: stone villages on hilltops, stone walls running for kilometres across the slopes, stone farmhouses called masos scattered over the plateau. Roca del Senallo is a rock shelter near Culla, Vilafranca and Benassal, one of many painted shelters in this region, and it belongs to the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The Maestrat is one of the richest areas for Levantine art, with famous sites in the Valltorta gorge and around Ares and Albocàsser.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Roca del Senallo is where the day begins. Next is Abric de la Tenalla.
2. Abric de la Tenalla
The Tinença de Benifassà is one of the wildest corners of the Valencian region, a cluster of tiny villages in the mountains where Valencia, Catalonia and Aragon meet, and the Abric de la Tenalla lies on its southeastern edge, near Rosell. It is one of the many rock shelters in this area with prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean Basin, and the nearby Serra de Godall and the Ulldecona shelters to the east are among the most important sites in Catalonia. The landscape is dramatic: limestone cliffs, deep gorges, pine and holm oak forests, and abandoned terraces where shepherds once grazed their flocks.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric de la Tenalla comes up 64 km in. Next is Val del Charco del Agua Amarga.
3. Val del Charco del Agua Amarga
Around ten kilometres from Alcañiz, in a dry ravine among olive groves and limestone ledges, a rock shelter holds one of the most celebrated scenes of Levantine rock art in Spain. The paintings at Val del Charco del Agua Amarga show archers in motion, hunting and perhaps fighting, their thin bodies drawn with a few confident strokes in red. Many experts consider it one of the finest examples in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art, and seeing it, even protected behind a fence, gives a real jolt of connection to people who lived here several thousand years ago.