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.
The stops in between: Cortijo de la Rosa, Diosa madre, Hornacina de la Pareja and back through Diosa madre. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Cañada de la Cruz is a high valley or drovers' pasture in the Segura mountains; cañada is the word for the traditional livestock routes and grazing grounds used by shepherds moving their flocks between summer and winter pastures, and this part of Spain has a long history of transhumance.
Read the complete Cañada de la Cruz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cañada de la Cruz is where the day begins. Next is Cortijo de la Rosa.
A cortijo is a farm in the Andalusian style, a cluster of whitewashed buildings around a yard, and the one named for La Rosa stands in the mountains of the Sierra del Segura, where Albacete, Murcia and Jaén meet. The shelter nearby, one of the many in the Nerpio district, lies about twelve kilometres from the village of Nerpio and a good deal farther from anything else. It carries paintings of the old Levantine kind, protected by UNESCO as part of the Mediterranean rock art of Spain, and the ride links it with another site at Benizar, in the Moratalla district across the border in Murcia.
Read the complete Cortijo de la Rosa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cortijo de la Rosa comes up about 79 km into the recorded legs. Next is Diosa madre.
Some places on a map feel remote; this one actually is. The point named Diosa Madre, mother goddess, lies in the mountains of the Sierra de Segura, in the far southwest of Albacete province, roughly sixteen kilometres from Yeste and not far from the border with Jaén. The mountains themselves are the real experience.
Read the complete Diosa madre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Diosa madre. Next is Hornacina de la Pareja.
A hornacina is a niche, a small hollow in a wall, the kind you find in a church for a statue. The Hornacina de la Pareja, the niche of the couple, is a small shelter near Nerpio, a kilometre and a half from the village, and the name suggests that someone once saw a pair of figures in the paint. You should treat that as a clue to how fragile and ambiguous these images are: a couple to one eye, a stain and a couple of lines to another.
Read the complete Hornacina de la Pareja write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hornacina de la Pareja, about halfway. Next is back through Diosa madre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Diosa madre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Diosa madre sits at 267 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cortijo de la Rosa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cortijo de la Rosa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cortijo de la Rosa comes up about 324 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cañada de la Cruz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cañada de la Cruz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cañada de la Cruz closes the day.
Cañada de la Cruz → Cortijo de la Rosa is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cortijo de la Rosa → Diosa madre is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Diosa madre → Hornacina de la Pareja is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hornacina de la Pareja → back through Diosa madre is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Diosa madre → back through Cortijo de la Rosa is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cortijo de la Rosa → Cañada de la Cruz is 79 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.