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.
286 km from Aldeaquemada to Aldeaquemada, about 9 h 58 of riding. It goes by way of Cerro de la Caldera, Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda and back through Cerro de la Caldera. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Sierra Morena is the long, dark range that separates the plains of La Mancha from the valley of the Guadalquivir, and the high-road gateway between them is the gorge of Despeñaperros, a few kilometres to the east of Aldeaquemada. The name means something like the pass where dogs are thrown off the cliff, which tells you how the Castilians felt about it. The Cueva de Apolinario is a rock shelter in these hills, and belongs to the painted shelters of the Sierra Morena, with figures that experts date back several thousand years. The area also holds the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin, as protected by UNESCO.
Read the complete Cueva de Apolinario write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de Apolinario is where the day begins. Next is Cerro de la Caldera.
The Sierra Morena marks the end of Andalusia, the hilly rampart that the old road from Madrid had to cross before dropping into the Guadalquivir lowlands. Cerro de la Caldera, a hill near Aldeaquemada in the north-east of Jaén province, sits in the heart of this frontier, in a quiet landscape of holm oaks, cork oaks, rockrose scrub and sandstone outcrops. Rock shelters in these hills hold schematic and Levantine paintings, and the area is part of the wider World Heritage listing of Iberian rock art.
Read the complete Cerro de la Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cerro de la Caldera comes up about 81 km into the recorded legs. Next is Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda.
Úbeda stands on a ridge above an ocean of olive trees. In every direction, the province of Jaén rolls away in silver-green rows, millions of trees planted in geometric lines up to the horizon, and on this sea floats a town of honey-coloured stone that looks as if it had been lifted from Florence. In the sixteenth century, powerful local families who served the Spanish crown, above all Francisco de los Cobos, secretary to Emperor Charles V, poured their wealth into palaces and churches here, and the architect Andrés de Vandelvira gave them a Renaissance style of rare purity. Úbeda and its smaller neighbour Baeza were inscribed together on the UNESCO list in 2003.
Read the complete Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda. Next is back through Cerro de la Caldera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cerro de la Caldera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cerro de la Caldera, late in the day. Next is Cueva de Apolinario.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de Apolinario write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cueva de Apolinario. That is the ride.
Cueva de Apolinario → Cerro de la Caldera is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cerro de la Caldera → Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda → back through Cerro de la Caldera is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cerro de la Caldera → Cueva de Apolinario is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.