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 Moratalla it runs 88 km to Moratalla; allow about 2 h 29 of riding. On the way it passes fuente del Sauco, Cavidad V and back through fuente del Sauco. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
In the far north-west corner of the Region of Murcia, where the land climbs towards the mountains of Albacete and Jaén, lies Moratalla, a town of whitewashed houses piled up a hillside beneath a castle tower. Its countryside is surprisingly wild for Murcia: pine forests, rivers, gorges and limestone ridges, some of the greenest land in a famously dry region. The rock shelter of Andragulla is one of many painted overhangs scattered through these hills, part of the Levantine rock art sites inscribed together by UNESCO. Many are protected behind fences and need a guide; the tourist office in Moratalla can advise.
Read the complete Andragulla I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Andragulla I is where the day begins. Next is fuente del Sauco.
The Fuente del Sauco is the elder-tree fountain, a small spring that gave its name to a shelter in the hills between Letur and Socovos in the south of Albacete. Water is the story of this country. The Mundo river rises not far to the west, at a spectacular spring in the Calar del Mundo near Riópar, where it bursts out of a cave in a series of waterfalls, and it flows through the gorges below Letur before joining the Segura. Along its banks, and in the cliffs above, ancient people sheltered and painted, and the Andragulla and other shelters here belong to the same tradition, part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art that UNESCO protects.
Read the complete fuente del Sauco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
fuente del Sauco comes up about 21 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 40 km into the recorded legs you reach Cavidad V. Next is back through fuente del Sauco.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete fuente del Sauco write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through fuente del Sauco, late in the day. Next is Andragulla I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Andragulla I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Andragulla I. That is the ride.
Andragulla I → fuente del Sauco is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
fuente del Sauco → Cavidad V is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad V → back through fuente del Sauco is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through fuente del Sauco → Andragulla I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.