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 90 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 2 h 13 in the saddle. On the way it passes Fuente del Sabuco I, Abrigo del molino de Bagil and back through Fuente del Sabuco I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Covachos, the little caves, are a short ride from Nerpio, a mountain village of about sixteen hundred people in the south-west of Albacete province, in the headwaters of the Segura river. The shelter is one of dozens in this district, which has one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric painting in Spain, in both the Levantine style and the later schematic one. UNESCO protects the Levantine sites as part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. What makes Nerpio special is that the paintings are scattered through a living landscape of farms, springs and sheep tracks, so you may find yourself looking at a thousands-year-old figure with a shepherd's dog watching from the next rock.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Covachos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Covachos is where the day begins. Next is Fuente del Sabuco I.
High in the Sierra del Taibilla, in the borderland hills between Moratalla and Nerpio, the shelters of Fuente del Sabuco hold Levantine paintings of hunters, archers and animals, part of the rich rock art of this remote corner where Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha meet. Nerpio and Moratalla between them hold a remarkable number of painted shelters, making this one of the key centres of rock art in Spain, and an interpretation centre in the village explains the paintings and organises visits. The shelter is part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Fuente del Sabuco I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuente del Sabuco I comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del molino de Bagil.
The northwest of Murcia is a world away from the coastal resorts. Around Moratalla, the land rises into the mountains that form the southern edge of the Sierra de Segura, a rugged country of pine forests, deep river valleys, terraced hillsides and white villages perched on rocks. The Abrigo del Molino de Bagil is one of the many rock shelters in this area that contain prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO listing of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. Moratalla and its neighbours have an especially rich collection, with scenes of hunters, archers and animals painted in the Levantine style thousands of years ago. Many shelters are protected by fences, and visits are possible only with guides or by arrangement.
Read the complete Abrigo del molino de Bagil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 44 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del molino de Bagil. Next is back through Fuente del Sabuco I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuente del Sabuco I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuente del Sabuco I, late in the day. Next is Abrigo de los Covachos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Covachos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Abrigo de los Covachos. That is the ride.
Abrigo de los Covachos → Fuente del Sabuco I is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuente del Sabuco I → Abrigo del molino de Bagil is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del molino de Bagil → back through Fuente del Sabuco I is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuente del Sabuco I → Abrigo de los Covachos is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.