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.
179 km from Puebla de Don Fadrique to Puebla de Don Fadrique, about 4 h 56 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de la Hoz, Fuensanta II, Solana del molinico and back through Fuensanta II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Deep in the Sierra de Segura in the northeast of Jaén province, close to where the Segura river is born, the Engarbo rock shelters hide a few small painted figures under limestone overhangs. They belong to the great serial UNESCO listing of Levantine rock art, prehistoric paintings found along the mountains of eastern Spain, with stylised humans and animals in red ochre that have survived thousands of years of sun, frost and goats. The shelters are modest and fragile, often fenced, and visits usually need to be arranged locally, so treat them as a reason to explore this remote corner rather than a guaranteed sight.
Read the complete Abrigo del Engarbo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Engarbo is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de la Hoz.
Nerpio, in the south-east corner of Albacete province, sits at the end of a long run of mountain road, and the Abrigo de la Hoz belongs to the area's rich group of painted shelters. The name means the shelter of the gorge, hoz being the old Spanish word for a narrow river canyon, and the cliffs near the Taibilla river do indeed have a gorge-like feel. The paintings, in red, show the typical cast of animals and human figures, and they are part of the UNESCO listing for the rock art of the Mediterranean basin.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Hoz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Hoz comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fuensanta II.
Fuensanta II is the sort of name only an archaeologist could love, a numbered rock shelter in the hills of northwest Murcia where prehistoric painters left a handful of figures on the stone. It is one of the hundreds of sites grouped under UNESCO's listing of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Moratalla area is unusually rich in them. The paintings are small, faint to the untrained eye and protected, so the real value of coming is to understand the landscape that drew people here thousands of years ago: springs, shelter and game in rough, broken country.
Read the complete Fuensanta II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Fuensanta II. Next is Solana del molinico.
Socovos is the sort of village you only find by getting a little lost: a cluster of white houses below a ruined castle in the far southeast of Albacete province, where the plains of La Mancha give way to the tangled ridges of the Sierra de Segura. Solana del Molinico, close by, is one of the rock-art shelters in this corner of Spain that belong to the UNESCO listing for Levantine rock art. The word solana means a sun-facing slope, and many of these painted overhangs face south, catching the warmth on winter days just as they must have done when hunters and gatherers sheltered here.
Read the complete Solana del molinico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Solana del molinico, about halfway. Next is back through Fuensanta II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuensanta II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuensanta II sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo de la Hoz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Hoz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de la Hoz comes up about 159 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Engarbo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Engarbo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Engarbo closes the day.
Abrigo del Engarbo → Abrigo de la Hoz is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Hoz → Fuensanta II is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuensanta II → Solana del molinico is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Solana del molinico → back through Fuensanta II is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuensanta II → back through Abrigo de la Hoz is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la Hoz → Abrigo del Engarbo is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.