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.
From Socovos it runs 469 km to Socovos; allow about 10 h 46 of riding. On the way it passes Los Sacristanes, Letreros de los mártires, Queso and maina. 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.
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 Los Sacristanes.
Los Sacristanes is a name given to a group of painted shelters in the empty uplands near Nerpio, in the south-western corner of Albacete province. It sits on the high, pine-covered ground between the Taibilla valley and the headwaters of the Segura, a place so thinly populated that the nearest town of any size is the better part of an hour away. The paintings here, like those across this region, belong to the World Heritage site of Levantine rock art, and they are best seen with a local guide from Nerpio's interpretation centre.
Read the complete Los Sacristanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Los Sacristanes comes up about 35 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 91 km into the recorded legs you reach Letreros de los mártires. Next is Queso.
The far north of Almería surprises people who think the province is all desert and greenhouses. Up here, around the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, you are in the Sierra de María-Los Vélez natural park, a range of limestone mountains covered with pine and holm oak, with snow in winter and cool nights even in August. The site recorded on the map simply as Queso sits in the hills south of María, among the cluster of prehistoric shelters for which this corner of Andalusia is known.
Read the complete Queso write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Queso, about halfway. Next is maina.
Maina is an obscure name on the map in the Murcian hills north-west of Totana, where the Sierra Espuña rises above the valley of the Guadalentín. It refers to a rock shelter or painted site in the dry limestone country, part of the cluster of prehistoric art sites around here included in the World Heritage listing of Levantine rock art. As with many such places, there is often little to see without a guide, but the landscape around it is worth the ride.
Read the complete maina write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
maina sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Queso.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Queso write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Queso comes up about 319 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 379 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Letreros de los mártires. Next is back through Los Sacristanes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Los Sacristanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Los Sacristanes, 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.
The route ends here after 469 km.
Abrigo de Zaén I → Los Sacristanes is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Los Sacristanes → Letreros de los mártires is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Queso is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Queso → maina is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
maina → back through Queso is 84 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Queso → back through Letreros de los mártires is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → back through Los Sacristanes is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Los Sacristanes → Abrigo de Zaén I is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.