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.
105 km from Socovos to Socovos, about 2 h 05 of riding. It goes by way of Cavidad V, Cueva del Gitano and back through Cavidad V. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Zaén is a name that appears on maps of the Sierra de Segura and the Sierra del Taibilla as a small valley with a few farms, and the shelter here is one of the painted caves of the Albacete interior. The area, wild and thinly populated, lies between Letur, Socovos and Férez, in the country drained by the Mundo river. This is the Spain of the unfashionable inland, where roads are quiet, villages are small and the hills are covered with pine and juniper. The paintings belong to the Mediterranean-arc group UNESCO listed in 1998, and the nearby Letreros de los Mártires, mentioned in the ride titles, belongs to the same tradition.
Read the complete Abrigo de Zaén I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de Zaén I is where the day begins. Next is Cavidad V.
Nerpio is about as far from anywhere as you can get in mainland Spain. This village of around sixteen hundred people sits in the Sierra del Segura, in the far south-west of Albacete province, close to the borders of Murcia and Andalusia, and the surrounding hills are dotted with shelters containing prehistoric paintings. The numbered sites around here, Cavidad V among them, are part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin, and the Nerpio area is one of the richest concentrations of Levantine art in Spain, with hunting scenes, archers and animals painted thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Cavidad V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cavidad V comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva del Gitano.
Some places are remote on the map and remote in the gut, and the country around the Cueva del Gitano is both. It lies in the Sierra de Segura on the southern fringe of Albacete province, in the municipality of Nerpio, where the mountains of Albacete, Murcia, Jaén and Granada all run into one another. This is one of the richest areas for prehistoric rock art in Spain, with dozens of painted shelters along the valley of the Taibilla river and its side ravines, and the Cueva del Gitano is one of the smaller sites in that dense cluster. The art is faint, the walk can be rough, and the setting does most of the talking.
Read the complete Cueva del Gitano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 60 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva del Gitano. Next is back through Cavidad V.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cavidad V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cavidad V, late in the day. Next is Abrigo de Zaén I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de Zaén I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Abrigo de Zaén I. That is the ride.
Abrigo de Zaén I → Cavidad V is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad V → Cueva del Gitano is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Gitano → back through Cavidad V is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cavidad V → Abrigo de Zaén I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.