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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
278 km from El Campello to El Campello, about 4 h 33 of riding. On the way it passes Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi, Palmeral of Elche, Penya roja o Ulls de Canals and back through Palmeral of Elche. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Behind the Costa Blanca's hotel towers there is a quite different country, dry, stony and mostly empty, and the Arroyo de Martín Pérez belongs to it. An arroyo is a gully that stays dry for most of the year, and here, on the hills inland from El Campello and San Juan de Alicante, it carries the water away when the rains arrive. Those rains, when they come, come hard. Autumn storms on this coast can drop a month's water in a few hours, and the gullies fill suddenly, so check the forecast before you go poking about dry beds.
Read the complete Arroyo de martín Pérez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Arroyo de martín Pérez is where the day begins. Next is Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi.
The Carabassí is one of the last stretches of wild-ish coast between Alicante and Santa Pola: a line of dunes held together by pine and marram grass, a long beach, and the sea glittering under the flight path of Alicante airport. In the low rocky ground behind it lies a small cave known for painted marks, the Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassí, close to the village of El Altet and a short hop from Santa Pola.
Read the complete Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi comes up 41 km in. Next is Palmeral of Elche.
Riding into Elche from the dry hills of southern Alicante, the sudden forest of date palms feels like a mistake of geography, as if a piece of North Africa had been set down in Spain. In a sense it was. The palm groves were laid out in their present form during the Islamic period, when Arab settlers brought an irrigation system of channels fed by the Vinalopó river and arranged the orchards in walled plots, with palms on the edges and crops beneath. Tens of thousands of palms remain today in and around the city, the largest palm grove in Europe, and the Palmeral was added to the UNESCO list in 2000.
Read the complete Palmeral of Elche write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
81 km in you reach Palmeral of Elche. Next is Penya roja o Ulls de Canals.
This is the country of toys and herbs, an unusual pairing. Onil and Ibi, in the inland hills of Alicante, grew up as centres of toy-making, starting with tin and later plastic, and the local museum in Ibi tells how a mountain valley became a world supplier of dolls and games. On the other side, the Sierra de Mariola, a natural park rich in aromatic plants, supplies the herbs for a local liqueur and for traditional remedies. Bocairent, a handsome old town on a rocky spur, has houses built right at the edge of a gorge and a set of man-made caves carved into the cliff, the Covetes dels Moros.
Read the complete Penya roja o Ulls de Canals write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Penya roja o Ulls de Canals, about halfway. Next is back through Palmeral of Elche.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Palmeral of Elche write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Palmeral of Elche sits at 163 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi comes up 203 km in. Next is Arroyo de martín Pérez.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Arroyo de martín Pérez write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Arroyo de martín Pérez closes the day.
Arroyo de martín Pérez → Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi → Palmeral of Elche is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palmeral of Elche → Penya roja o Ulls de Canals is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Penya roja o Ulls de Canals → back through Palmeral of Elche is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Palmeral of Elche → back through Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi → Arroyo de martín Pérez is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.