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CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE

Colmenas and Cueva de la Higuera

Plan this ride

Recorded distance
282 km
Riding-time estimate
4 h 16
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis

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.

Open this ride in CurveScout

Why this ride

282 km from Velez Rubio to Velez Rubio, about 4 h 16 of riding. It goes by way of Cueva de la Plata, Cueva de la Higuera and back through Cueva de la Plata. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

  1. 1. Colmenas

    Vélez-Blanco is a white town under a limestone crag in the north of Almería province, with a Renaissance castle on the rock above it and the pine-covered Sierra María rising behind. The Colmenas label sits less than a kilometre away, in country of dry slopes, almond groves and scattered farms.

    Read the complete Colmenas write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Colmenas is where the day begins. Next is Cueva de la Plata.

  2. 2. Cueva de la Plata

    Aledo is a tiny village on a rocky spur in the hills of Murcia, a place that punches well above its weight in history. In the eleventh century, it was a fortress on the frontier between Christian Castile and the Muslim taifa kingdoms, and the siege of Aledo in 1088 was a major episode in the struggle for the peninsula. A tower still stands above the village. The Cueva de la Plata, the silver cave, lies in the hills nearby, between Aledo, Totana and Alhama de Murcia.

    Read the complete Cueva de la Plata write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Cueva de la Plata comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de la Higuera.

  3. 3. Cueva de la Higuera

    Mazarrón has always been about what lies under the ground. Roman miners dug silver and lead from these dry hills, and later generations extracted alum and ochre, and the coast near the town still shows the scars and the rust-coloured earth of that trade. Two Phoenician ships from about the seventh century BC were found wrecked on the nearby shore, an astonishing find for archaeologists. The Cueva de la Higuera lies inland from the coast in the arid hills of the Región de Murcia, and its name means the cave of the fig tree, a small mark of green in a very dry place.

    Read the complete Cueva de la Higuera write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    about 142 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de la Higuera. Next is back through Cueva de la Plata.

  4. 4. back through Cueva de la Plata

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Cueva de la Plata write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    back through Cueva de la Plata, late in the day. Next is Colmenas.

  5. 5. Colmenas

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    Read the complete Colmenas write-up.

    Recorded stop-planning note

    May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

    Planning note

    Back at Colmenas. That is the ride.

Leg by leg

Colmenas to Cueva de la Plata

Colmenas → Cueva de la Plata is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Cueva de la Plata to Cueva de la Higuera

Cueva de la Plata → Cueva de la Higuera is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

Cueva de la Higuera to back through Cueva de la Plata

Cueva de la Higuera → back through Cueva de la Plata is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

back through Cueva de la Plata to Colmenas

back through Cueva de la Plata → Colmenas is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.

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