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.
332 km from Nerpio to Nerpio, about 8 h 43 of riding. The stops in between: Diosa madre, Abrigo del Engarbo, Letreros de los mártires and back through Abrigo del Engarbo. 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.
Above the Taibilla valley, Nerpio's higher ground belongs to goats, vultures and wind. The Abrigo de los Cerricos lies a couple of kilometres from the village, among the limestone crags and pine slopes of the Sierra de Taibilla, where the Spanish ibex clambers over the rocks and griffon vultures ride the thermals above. Rock shelters like this one hold some of the finest prehistoric paintings in the region, human figures and animals traced in red pigment, and they sit under World Heritage protection. Cerrico is a diminutive of cerro, a hill, so the name suggests a small rise in the ground.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Cerricos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Cerricos is where the day begins. Next is Diosa madre.
Some places on a map feel remote; this one actually is. The point named Diosa Madre, mother goddess, lies in the mountains of the Sierra de Segura, in the far southwest of Albacete province, roughly sixteen kilometres from Yeste and not far from the border with Jaén. The mountains themselves are the real experience.
Read the complete Diosa madre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Diosa madre comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Engarbo. 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.
Letreros de los mártires, 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 sits at 109 km, about halfway. Next is back through Diosa madre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Diosa madre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Diosa madre comes up about 283 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Cerricos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Cerricos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Cerricos closes the day.
Abrigo de los Cerricos → Diosa madre is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Diosa madre → Abrigo del Engarbo is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Engarbo → Letreros de los mártires is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → back through Abrigo del Engarbo is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Engarbo → back through Diosa madre is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Diosa madre → Abrigo de los Cerricos is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.