CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
472 km from Letur to Letur, about 11 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Canalejas de Abajo, 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.
Barbatón is a hill, and the Cerro de Barbatón a rounded bump of limestone that rises above the farmland between Letur and Socovos, in the south of Albacete. The shelter at its foot, catalogued as the Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón, is twelve kilometres from Letur and fourteen from Socovos, which tells you right away that this is rural country with long distances between villages. The paintings in the region belong to the Levantine rock art that UNESCO recognised in 1998, and they include some of the finest and best preserved in Spain.
Read the complete Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón is where the day begins. Next is Canalejas de Abajo.
Canalejas de Abajo is a name on the map rather than a place with a church and a bar: a scattering of farms and old cortijos in the upper valley of the Taibilla river, south of Nerpio, in the mountains where Albacete, Jaén and Granada meet. The Sierra de Segura and the Sierra de las Cabras rise all around, high limestone country cut by deep valleys, and the region is known among archaeologists for its painted rock shelters. The Abrigo del Sabinar and others along the same valley hold some of the most important prehistoric paintings of the Spanish south east, drawn on the soft overhangs that the river and the wind have shaped.
Read the complete Canalejas de Abajo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Canalejas de Abajo comes up 51 km in. 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.
103 km in 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 257 km in. 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.
308 km in you reach back through Letreros de los mártires. Next is back through Canalejas de Abajo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Canalejas de Abajo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Canalejas de Abajo, late in the day. Next is Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 472 km.
Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón → Canalejas de Abajo is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Canalejas de Abajo → Letreros de los mártires is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Queso is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Queso → maina is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
maina → back through Queso is 82 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 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → back through Canalejas de Abajo is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Canalejas de Abajo → Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.