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 554 km round trip from María - roughly 13 h 49 in the saddle. The stops in between: Letreros de los mártires, Zona 1, Las Covachicas and Guijarral. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, is now the symbol of the whole province of Almería, painted on houses, cars and souvenirs, and it comes from a rock shelter here in the hills around Vélez-Blanco. The Cueva de los Letreros, a few kilometres from this point, holds the original among other paintings of the Levantine and schematic styles, and the shelters of the Sierra de María are part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, inscribed in 1998. Santonje, as the area is called, is one of a cluster of sites in these mountains.
Read the complete Central E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central E. de Santonje is where the day begins. 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.
Letreros de los mártires comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Zona 1.
Nerpio is about as far from anywhere as you can get in mainland Spain. The village lies in the southwestern corner of Albacete province, close to the borders of Murcia, Granada and Jaén, in a high, wild landscape of limestone ridges, pine forest and deep river valleys. The area is known for two things: walnuts, which grow in huge old trees along the Taibilla river and are celebrated in local cooking, and one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric rock art in the Iberian Peninsula, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. The generic label Zona 1 points at the hills near the village, where rock shelters with painted figures are scattered across the cliffs.
Read the complete Zona 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 122 km into the recorded legs you reach Zona 1. Next is Las Covachicas.
The Sierra del Segura, in the far south of Albacete province, is a world of its own: deep valleys, rivers lined with poplars, terraces of olive and almond trees, and white villages that look more Andalusian than Castilian. Letur is one of the most beautiful, a village of Moorish origin built on a rock above a stream, with narrow alleys, arches and gardens watered by old irrigation channels. Las Covachicas, a group of shelters, lies in the hills nearby, between Letur, Socovos and Férez.
Read the complete Las Covachicas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covachicas, about halfway. Next is Guijarral.
Spain's largest protected area is the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas, and it spreads across a long stretch of wooded mountains in Jaén and Albacete. The Guijarral lies on its northern edge, in country close to Yeste, Segura de la Sierra and Orcera, where black pines and holm oaks cover steep slopes and rivers cut gorges between. Here, among rock walls, shelters preserve paintings, part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art listed by UNESCO in 1998, and the sites of the area, such as Zona 1 and the Collado de la Cruz, tell of hunting peoples who lived in these mountains long ago.
Read the complete Guijarral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Guijarral sits at 150 km, about halfway. Next is back through Las Covachicas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Covachicas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Las Covachicas comes up about 391 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Zona 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zona 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 432 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Zona 1. 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.
back through Letreros de los mártires, late in the day. Next is Central E. de Santonje, 37 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 554 km.
Central E. de Santonje → Letreros de los mártires is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Zona 1 is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zona 1 → Las Covachicas is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Las Covachicas → Guijarral is 82 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Guijarral → back through Las Covachicas is 148 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Las Covachicas → back through Zona 1 is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Zona 1 → back through Letreros de los mártires is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → Central E. de Santonje is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.