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 138 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 2 h 41 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cueva del Gitano, Cavidad V and back through Cueva del Gitano. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
High in the south-east of Albacete province, where the Sierra de Segura meets the Granada highlands, the land turns to pine, juniper and bare limestone ridges, and the village of Nerpio sits in a basin about six kilometres from this stop. The name means the rock shelter of Taibona Castle, and it is one of a cluster of painted overhangs around Nerpio, among the densest groups of rock art in Spain. Hunters, deer and goats were drawn in red on the shelter walls long before anyone built a castle on the crag above, and the whole group counts among the Mediterranean Basin rock art that UNESCO protects. Because the paint is delicate, access is controlled and the shelters are best visited through the local interpretation arrangements rather than by wandering up a slope, so ask in Nerpio before you set out.
Read the complete Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona is where the day begins. 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.
Cueva del Gitano comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Cavidad V. Next is back through Cueva del Gitano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Gitano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva del Gitano, late in the day. Next is Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona. That is the ride.
Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona → Cueva del Gitano is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Gitano → Cavidad V is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad V → back through Cueva del Gitano is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva del Gitano → Abrigo del Castillo de Taibona is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.