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 216 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 4 h 30 in the saddle. On the way it passes Cañaica del Calar l, Benizar V, Cueva de las Palamas and back through Benizar V. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Concejal is the name of a rock shelter in the sierra above Nerpio, a part of southern Albacete that most Spaniards have never visited. It is numbered I in a series of shelters, and its paintings belong to the Levantine tradition that UNESCO recognised in 1998. There is a Canto Blanco shelter in the same ride, a white rock that gives it its name, and the pair give a feel of how densely the land was used by prehistoric people.
Read the complete Concejal I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Concejal I is where the day begins. Next is Cañaica del Calar l.
Very few people get here. The Cañaica del Calar lies in the far north-west of the region of Murcia, near the border with Albacete and Andalusia, in a wild landscape of limestone plateaus, pine forests and deep valleys around Moratalla and Nerpio. The calar is the local word for a limestone plateau, and the rock shelters on its edges hold prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The area around Nerpio is one of the richest in Spain for rock art.
Read the complete Cañaica del Calar l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cañaica del Calar l comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Benizar V.
Benizar is one of those places that only a handful of maps bother to name. It is a hamlet belonging to Moratalla, in the hilly north-west of the Murcia region, close to where the province meets Albacete and the first ridges of the Sierra de Segura begin. Around it, in the rock faces and gullies, archaeologists have recorded a cluster of painted shelters, and Benizar V is one in this series: a stone overhang with faint prehistoric figures, part of the Levantine rock art that runs along Spain's eastern mountains.
Read the complete Benizar V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 56 km into the recorded legs you reach Benizar V. Next is Cueva de las Palamas.
Cehegín, in the north-west of the Murcia region, is a town of two faces: a modern lower town, and an old town on a hill, with steep streets, noble houses and churches, declared a historic site. The Cueva de las Palomas, the cave of the doves, lies on the edge of the town, less than a kilometre from the centre, with the larger town of Caravaca de la Cruz about five kilometres away.
Read the complete Cueva de las Palamas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de las Palamas, about halfway. Next is back through Benizar V.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Benizar V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Benizar V sits at 113 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cañaica del Calar l.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cañaica del Calar l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cañaica del Calar l comes up about 183 km into the recorded legs. Next is Concejal I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Concejal I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Concejal I closes the day.
Concejal I → Cañaica del Calar l is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cañaica del Calar l → Benizar V is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Benizar V → Cueva de las Palamas is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de las Palamas → back through Benizar V is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Benizar V → back through Cañaica del Calar l is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cañaica del Calar l → Concejal I is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.