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 Nerpio it runs 298 km to Nerpio; allow about 7 h 04 of riding. It goes by way of Zona 1, Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il, Zona 2 and Las Casas de las Ingenieros I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Nerpio is about as remote as it gets in southern Spain: a village in the far south-west corner of Albacete province, deep in the Sierra del Segura, close to the borders of Andalucía and Murcia. It sits in the valley of the Taibilla river, surrounded by mountains, with terraced fields, walnut trees and pine forests on the slopes. The Abrigo de la Fuente, the shelter of the spring, lies in the hills about eleven kilometres from the village.
Read the complete Abrigo de la fuente write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la fuente is where the day begins. Next is Zona 1.
Nerpio is about as far from anywhere as you can get in mainland Spain. The village lies in the southwestern corner of Albacete province, close to the borders of Murcia, Granada and Jaén, in a high, wild landscape of limestone ridges, pine forest and deep river valleys. The area is known for two things: walnuts, which grow in huge old trees along the Taibilla river and are celebrated in local cooking, and one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric rock art in the Iberian Peninsula, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. The generic label Zona 1 points at the hills near the village, where rock shelters with painted figures are scattered across the cliffs.
Read the complete Zona 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zona 1 comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il.
Water from these mountains ends up in the taps of Cartagena. The Taibilla river, which rises in the hills above Nerpio, feeds the canals of the Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla, built in the twentieth century to supply towns across Murcia and beyond, and a name like the engineers' houses hints at how much that project marked the valley. Las Casas de los Ingenieros II is a rock shelter near Nerpio, one of the many painted sites in this remote corner of the Sierra de Segura.
Read the complete Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il. Next is Zona 2.
A label like Zona 2 tells you that someone with a clipboard and a map divided this country into sectors, and numbered them, and then walked every one. That is how the rock art of the Sierra del Segura was found: slowly, valley by valley, by teams who recorded dozens of shelters around Nerpio and the high country towards Jaén. The Zona 2 stop is seven kilometres from Nerpio, in hills of pine and juniper at a bit over a thousand metres, and it is a good example of the way this part of Spain hides things in plain view.
Read the complete Zona 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zona 2, about halfway. Next is Las Casas de las Ingenieros I.
The name points to engineers, and in this corner of Albacete the likeliest explanation is water. The upper Segura and Taibilla valleys feed reservoirs and canals that supply towns and farms far down toward Murcia and the coast, and the people who built and maintained that system needed houses in a remote landscape. Las Casas de los Ingenieros sits some distance from Nerpio, in a quiet valley of pine, scrub and farmland, with a rock shelter nearby, and the whole area is dotted with painted shelters from the prehistoric past. Other shelters in the area carry the names of the people who first recorded them, a reminder of how recently some of these sites were noticed.
Read the complete Las Casas de las Ingenieros I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros I sits at 68 km, about halfway. Next is back through Zona 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zona 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zona 2 comes up about 185 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 211 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il. Next is back through Zona 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zona 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Zona 1, late in the day. Next is Abrigo de la fuente.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la fuente write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 298 km.
Abrigo de la fuente → Zona 1 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zona 1 → Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il → Zona 2 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zona 2 → Las Casas de las Ingenieros I is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros I → back through Zona 2 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zona 2 → back through Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Las Casas de las Ingenieros Il → back through Zona 1 is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zona 1 → Abrigo de la fuente is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.