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.
From El Campello it runs 246 km to El Campello; allow about 4 h 14 of riding. The stops in between: Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi, Palmeral of Elche, Penya roja o Ulls de Canals and back through Palmeral of Elche. The line favours views over speed.
The hills behind Alicante rise quickly. A few kilometres inland from the Costa Blanca, the flat coastal strip gives way to dry limestone ridges covered in scrub, pine, carob and almond, with deep ravines cut by streams that run only after heavy rain. These are the foothills of the Betic ranges, and in this part of the province the land climbs towards the sierras of Aitana and Mariola. El Campello, a former fishing town of about 26,000 people on the coast, is the closest sizeable place, and the nearby resort towns fill with visitors every summer, but the hinterland stays quieter and more rural.
Read the complete Cimbarrillo Prado Reches write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cimbarrillo Prado Reches 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 34 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 58 km into the recorded legs 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 164 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 about 210 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cimbarrillo Prado Reches.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cimbarrillo Prado Reches write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cimbarrillo Prado Reches closes the day.
Cimbarrillo Prado Reches → Cueva de las Arañas del Carabassi is 34 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 64 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 64 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 → Cimbarrillo Prado Reches is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.