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.
A 291 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 8 h 06 in the saddle. On the way it passes Abrigo del Engarbo, Letreros de los mártires, Central E. de Santonje and back through Letreros de los mártires. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Nerpio, in the south-east corner of Albacete province, sits at the end of a long run of mountain road, and the Abrigo de la Hoz belongs to the area's rich group of painted shelters. The name means the shelter of the gorge, hoz being the old Spanish word for a narrow river canyon, and the cliffs near the Taibilla river do indeed have a gorge-like feel. The paintings, in red, show the typical cast of animals and human figures, and they are part of the UNESCO listing for the rock art of the Mediterranean basin.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Hoz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Hoz is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo del Engarbo.
Deep in the Sierra de Segura in the northeast of Jaén province, close to where the Segura river is born, the Engarbo rock shelters hide a few small painted figures under limestone overhangs. They belong to the great serial UNESCO listing of Levantine rock art, prehistoric paintings found along the mountains of eastern Spain, with stylised humans and animals in red ochre that have survived thousands of years of sun, frost and goats. The shelters are modest and fragile, often fenced, and visits usually need to be arranged locally, so treat them as a reason to explore this remote corner rather than a guaranteed sight.
Read the complete Abrigo del Engarbo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Engarbo comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Letreros de los mártires.
Out in the high north-east of Granada province, Huéscar feels a long way from the Alhambra and the beaches of the Costa Tropical. This is the altiplano, a broad upland of wheat fields, almond trees and pale badlands at around a thousand metres, ringed by mountains, with the great limestone hump of La Sagra rising to the north. The rock shelter called Letreros de los Mártires lies in this country, a dozen or so kilometres from the town.
Read the complete Letreros de los mártires write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Letreros de los mártires. Next is Central E. de Santonje, 31 km on.
The Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, is now the symbol of the whole province of Almería, painted on houses, cars and souvenirs, and it comes from a rock shelter here in the hills around Vélez-Blanco. The Cueva de los Letreros, a few kilometres from this point, holds the original among other paintings of the Levantine and schematic styles, and the shelters of the Sierra de María are part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, inscribed in 1998. Santonje, as the area is called, is one of a cluster of sites in these mountains.
Read the complete Central E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central E. de Santonje, about halfway. Next is back through Letreros de los mártires.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Letreros de los mártires write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Letreros de los mártires sits at 123 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo del Engarbo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Engarbo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo del Engarbo comes up about 247 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de la Hoz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Hoz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Hoz closes the day.
Abrigo de la Hoz → Abrigo del Engarbo is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Engarbo → Letreros de los mártires is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Central E. de Santonje is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central E. de Santonje → back through Letreros de los mártires is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → back through Abrigo del Engarbo is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Engarbo → Abrigo de la Hoz is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.