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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 353 km round trip from El Campello - roughly 6 h 05 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi, Barranc de les Coves- Abric I, Abric de Gontrán and Olula. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Behind Alicante and its beaches rises a line of bare, grey mountains, and the Cabeçó d'Or is the tallest of them, a ridge of about twelve hundred metres that shows its pale cliffs from the city. The Barranco de la Cueva runs through its foothills, inland from El Campello, in country of dry gullies, pine woods and abandoned almond terraces. It is a wild place for a spot so close to a city of three hundred thousand people.
Read the complete Barranco de la Cueva I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barranco de la Cueva I 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 about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Barranc de les Coves- Abric I.
Ibi is the toy capital of Spain, a fact that surprises everyone who rides through this mountain town in the hills of Alicante. Since the early twentieth century, workshops here have produced dolls, tin toys and plastic figures, and the Valencian Toy Museum tells the story. The rock shelter named Barranc de les Coves Abric I lies in the hills between Ibi and Alcoy, in a ravine whose name simply means the gully of the caves.
Read the complete Barranc de les Coves- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 106 km into the recorded legs you reach Barranc de les Coves- Abric I. Next is Abric de Gontrán.
Head south-west from Xàtiva along the old road to Castile and you climb gently into a corridor between two mountain ranges, the Serra Grossa on one side and the Serra de Enguera on the other. The town of Moixent sits where the corridor narrows, with Vallada just downstream and the vineyards of Fontanars dels Alforins on the plateau beyond. The Abric de Gontran lies in the hills just outside Moixent.
Read the complete Abric de Gontrán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abric de Gontrán, about halfway. Next is Olula.
Caudete and Almansa sit in a corridor of land where Castile-La Mancha, Valencia and Murcia meet, and for centuries this was frontier country, where kingdoms and armies passed and fought. Olula is a point in the hills near Caudete, linked on the rides with rock-art shelters in the surrounding sierras, part of the extensive UNESCO listing of prehistoric art in Mediterranean Spain.
Read the complete Olula write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Olula sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abric de Gontrán.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abric de Gontrán write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abric de Gontrán comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Barranc de les Coves- Abric I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Barranc de les Coves- Abric I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 248 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Barranc de les Coves- Abric I. 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, late in the day. Next is Barranco de la Cueva I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Barranco de la Cueva I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 353 km.
Barranco de la Cueva I → Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi → Barranc de les Coves- Abric I is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Barranc de les Coves- Abric I → Abric de Gontrán is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abric de Gontrán → Olula is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Olula → back through Abric de Gontrán is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abric de Gontrán → back through Barranc de les Coves- Abric I is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Barranc de les Coves- Abric I → back through Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi → Barranco de la Cueva I is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.