Val del Charco del Agua Amarga and Els figuerals

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Read the complete Val del Charco del Agua Amarga write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Val del Charco del Agua Amarga is where the day begins. Next is Punta del Alcañizano.

2. 2. Punta del Alcañizano

   Bajo Aragón has the look of a country that works for a living. Olive trees climb the terraces in tidy grey-green rows, almond orchards fill the gaps, and every village seems to own a mill or a cooperative that presses oil under a protected regional name. The Punta del Alcañizano sits in the rolling hills of the Matarraña district, near Valdeltormo and Mazaleón, two villages of a few hundred people each, on the southern edge of Aragón where the land begins to tilt toward Catalonia and the Ebro.

   Read the complete Punta del Alcañizano write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Punta del Alcañizano comes up 25 km in. Next is Els figuerals.

3. 3. Els figuerals

   The Matarraña, or Matarranya in Catalan, is the corner of Teruel that tourism brochures like to call Spain's Tuscany, and for once the comparison is not silly. Olive groves and almond orchards climb rolling hills topped by stone villages with church towers, while to the south the limestone wall of the Ports de Beseit rises abruptly, cut by gorges and clear rivers. Near the village of Fuentespalda, a painted shelter called Els Figuerals adds this valley to the long UNESCO roll of Iberian rock art.

   Read the complete Els figuerals write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   50 km in you reach Els figuerals. Next is back through Punta del Alcañizano.

4. 4. back through Punta del Alcañizano

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Punta del Alcañizano write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Punta del Alcañizano, late in the day. Next is Val del Charco del Agua Amarga.

5. 5. Val del Charco del Agua Amarga

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Val del Charco del Agua Amarga write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Val del Charco del Agua Amarga. That is the ride.