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 382 km round trip from Velez Rubio - roughly 7 h 57 in the saddle. The stops in between: Panal, Letreros de los mártires, Río frío and back through Letreros de los mártires. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Gavilanes means sparrowhawks, and the name fits a shelter high on a limestone face above the dry country where Murcia meets Almería. The Abrigo de los Gavilanes lies in the hills west of Lorca, in an area scattered with painted shelters such as the Collado de la Cruz and Los Grajos, the jackdaws, and it is part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The figures are small, red and schematic, painted by communities who farmed and herded here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Gavilanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes is where the day begins. Next is Panal.
The north of Almería province is a different Spain from the sunburnt beach coast to the south. Here, around Vélez-Blanco and Vélez-Rubio, the land lifts to a high, cold plateau of almonds, cereal and pine woods, and the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park rises above it, a rough limestone ridge with its summit above two thousand metres. Panal is a rock shelter in those hills, a short distance from Vélez-Blanco, and it belongs to the group of paintings recognised by UNESCO as the Mediterranean Basin rock art. Here the paintings are of the schematic kind, simple red signs and figures, rather than the lively hunting scenes found further north.
Read the complete Panal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Panal comes up about 50 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 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Letreros de los mártires. Next is Río frío.
Cold water is a rare luxury in southern Spain, and a stream called Río Frío promises exactly that. It is a land of pine forests, limestone crags, deep river gorges and tiny villages, and the painted rock shelters scattered through these hills are part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.
Read the complete Río frío write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Río frío, 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 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Panal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Panal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Panal comes up about 330 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Gavilanes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Gavilanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes closes the day.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes → Panal is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Panal → Letreros de los mártires is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Río frío is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Río frío → back through Letreros de los mártires is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → back through Panal is 93 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Panal → Abrigo de los Gavilanes is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.