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 María it runs 318 km to María; allow about 5 h 29 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de la fuente, Andragulla I, Cueva del Gitano and Cueva del Niño. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Cueva Ambrosio belongs to the high, empty north of Almería province, on the dry plateau where Andalusia runs into Murcia, fifteen or so kilometres out of Vélez-Blanco. This is a landscape of broad, pale fields, almond and cereal farms, low limestone ridges and long skylines, with the pines of the Sierra María to the south and almost nothing built on the horizon.
Read the complete Cueva Ambrosio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva Ambrosio is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de la fuente.
Nerpio is about as remote as it gets in southern Spain: a village in the far south-west corner of Albacete province, deep in the Sierra del Segura, close to the borders of Andalucía and Murcia. It sits in the valley of the Taibilla river, surrounded by mountains, with terraced fields, walnut trees and pine forests on the slopes. The Abrigo de la Fuente, the shelter of the spring, lies in the hills about eleven kilometres from the village.
Read the complete Abrigo de la fuente write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la fuente comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Andragulla I.
In the far north-west corner of the Region of Murcia, where the land climbs towards the mountains of Albacete and Jaén, lies Moratalla, a town of whitewashed houses piled up a hillside beneath a castle tower. Its countryside is surprisingly wild for Murcia: pine forests, rivers, gorges and limestone ridges, some of the greenest land in a famously dry region. The rock shelter of Andragulla is one of many painted overhangs scattered through these hills, part of the Levantine rock art sites inscribed together by UNESCO. Many are protected behind fences and need a guide; the tourist office in Moratalla can advise.
Read the complete Andragulla I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 73 km into the recorded legs you reach Andragulla I. Next is Cueva del Gitano.
Some places are remote on the map and remote in the gut, and the country around the Cueva del Gitano is both. It lies in the Sierra de Segura on the southern fringe of Albacete province, in the municipality of Nerpio, where the mountains of Albacete, Murcia, Jaén and Granada all run into one another. This is one of the richest areas for prehistoric rock art in Spain, with dozens of painted shelters along the valley of the Taibilla river and its side ravines, and the Cueva del Gitano is one of the smaller sites in that dense cluster. The art is faint, the walk can be rough, and the setting does most of the talking.
Read the complete Cueva del Gitano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Gitano, about halfway. Next is Cueva del Niño.
Ayna is a village of white houses clinging to the walls of a deep gorge carved by the Mundo river, in the Sierra de Alcaraz in the southwest of Albacete province. Its setting is so dramatic that it is sometimes called the Little Switzerland of La Mancha, and it was the backdrop for the cult Spanish film Amanece, que no es poco, a surreal comedy shot here in the late 1980s. A few kilometres away, in a rocky ravine, the Cueva del Niño holds something rare for this part of Spain: Palaeolithic paintings of deer, ibex and horses, much older than the Levantine figures painted later on the same walls. It is part of the UNESCO listing of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, and access is restricted to protect the paintings.
Read the complete Cueva del Niño write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Niño sits at 159 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cueva del Gitano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Gitano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva del Gitano comes up about 208 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Andragulla I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Andragulla I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 245 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Andragulla I. Next is back through Abrigo de la fuente.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la fuente write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de la fuente, late in the day. Next is Cueva Ambrosio.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva Ambrosio write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 318 km.
Cueva Ambrosio → Abrigo de la fuente is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la fuente → Andragulla I is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Andragulla I → Cueva del Gitano is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Gitano → Cueva del Niño is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Niño → back through Cueva del Gitano is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva del Gitano → back through Andragulla I is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Andragulla I → back through Abrigo de la fuente is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la fuente → Cueva Ambrosio is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.