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 483 km round trip from Socovos - roughly 11 h 13 in the saddle. It goes by way of Abrigo de los Covachos, Letreros de los mártires, Queso and maina. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The northwest of Murcia is a world away from the coastal resorts. Around Moratalla, the land rises into the mountains that form the southern edge of the Sierra de Segura, a rugged country of pine forests, deep river valleys, terraced hillsides and white villages perched on rocks. The Abrigo del Molino de Bagil is one of the many rock shelters in this area that contain prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO listing of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. Moratalla and its neighbours have an especially rich collection, with scenes of hunters, archers and animals painted in the Levantine style thousands of years ago. Many shelters are protected by fences, and visits are possible only with guides or by arrangement.
Read the complete Abrigo del molino de Bagil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del molino de Bagil is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de los Covachos.
The Covachos, the little caves, are a short ride from Nerpio, a mountain village of about sixteen hundred people in the south-west of Albacete province, in the headwaters of the Segura river. The shelter is one of dozens in this district, which has one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric painting in Spain, in both the Levantine style and the later schematic one. UNESCO protects the Levantine sites as part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. What makes Nerpio special is that the paintings are scattered through a living landscape of farms, springs and sheep tracks, so you may find yourself looking at a thousands-year-old figure with a shepherd's dog watching from the next rock.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Covachos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Covachos comes up about 43 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 98 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 326 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 386 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Letreros de los mártires. Next is back through Abrigo de los Covachos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Covachos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de los Covachos, late in the day. Next is Abrigo del molino de Bagil.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del molino de Bagil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 483 km.
Abrigo del molino de Bagil → Abrigo de los Covachos is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Covachos → Letreros de los mártires is 55 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 Abrigo de los Covachos is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de los Covachos → Abrigo del molino de Bagil is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.