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 423 km round trip from Calasparra - roughly 9 h 13 in the saddle. It goes by way of Cueva de las Conchas, Cueva de los Cascarones, Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo and Río frío. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The Segura river does something surprising near Calasparra. It runs between steep walls of limestone, pale and fissured, and in those walls people made their shelters long before anyone built a town. Cueva de Jorge is one of the painted sites in this stretch of the valley, and it forms part of the Levantine art listed by UNESCO. The cave is a small, rough opening high in the cliffs, and the paintings, in the usual red pigment, are modest but real.
Read the complete Cueva de Jorge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de Jorge is where the day begins. Next is Cueva de las Conchas.
Cehegín's old town rises in a tight cluster of ochre houses and church towers on a hill above the Argos river, in the northwest of Murcia, and it is one of the best-preserved historic centres in the region, with narrow streets, noble houses and churches dating back to the sixteenth century. The Cueva de las Conchas, the cave of the shells, lies less than a kilometre from the town, and it is part of the rich network of prehistoric sites in this area, included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art.
Read the complete Cueva de las Conchas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de las Conchas comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de los Cascarones.
This is the country of the upper Segura, where Albacete and Murcia meet, and it is among the least visited corners of southern Spain. The river cuts through limestone sierras, with pine forests, reedy banks and small terraced fields where almond and olive trees grow, and the villages, Socovos and Férez among them, are small, white and quiet. The scale of the land is bigger than its population, and in summer the cicadas are the loudest thing you will hear.
Read the complete Cueva de los Cascarones write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de los Cascarones. Next is Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo.
A rambla is a dry riverbed that only runs after storms, and the Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo is one of many that cut into the limestone hills around Nerpio, in the remote south-western corner of Albacete. In a rock shelter above it, prehistoric people left paintings in the Levantine style, small, lively figures of people and animals, and the site is one of the many shelters around Nerpio that belong to the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Visits are normally arranged through the village, and a guide will know which shelters are accessible and when the light is right for seeing the faded pigment.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo, about halfway. Next is Río frío.
Cold water is a rare luxury in southern Spain, and a stream called Río Frío promises exactly that. It is a land of pine forests, limestone crags, deep river gorges and tiny villages, and the painted rock shelters scattered through these hills are part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.
Read the complete Río frío write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Río frío sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo comes up about 265 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cueva de los Cascarones.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de los Cascarones write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 313 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cueva de los Cascarones. Next is back through Cueva de las Conchas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de las Conchas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de las Conchas, late in the day. Next is Cueva de Jorge.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de Jorge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 423 km.
Cueva de Jorge → Cueva de las Conchas is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de las Conchas → Cueva de los Cascarones is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de los Cascarones → Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo → Río frío is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Río frío → back through Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la Rambla de Pedro Izquierdo → back through Cueva de los Cascarones is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de los Cascarones → back through Cueva de las Conchas is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de las Conchas → Cueva de Jorge is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.