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.
From Moratalla it runs 164 km to Moratalla; allow about 3 h 26 of riding. The stops in between: Fuente del Sabuco I, Abrigo de los Cerricos, Fuente del Sabuco II and Abrigo del molino Juan Basura o molina Cip. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
The border between Albacete and Murcia runs through a tangle of mountains here, and the villages of Socovos, Férez and Letur sit among them like small islands. The Cueva del Esquilo is one of the painted rock shelters in these hills, a reminder that people lived and hunted in the Segura mountains thousands of years before any border existed. Like most of the rock art in the region, it is protected and best visited with local guidance; the town halls and tourist offices of the surrounding villages are the place to ask.
Read the complete Cueva del Esquilo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Esquilo is where the day begins. Next is Fuente del Sabuco I.
High in the Sierra del Taibilla, in the borderland hills between Moratalla and Nerpio, the shelters of Fuente del Sabuco hold Levantine paintings of hunters, archers and animals, part of the rich rock art of this remote corner where Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha meet. Nerpio and Moratalla between them hold a remarkable number of painted shelters, making this one of the key centres of rock art in Spain, and an interpretation centre in the village explains the paintings and organises visits. The shelter is part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin World Heritage listing.
Read the complete Fuente del Sabuco I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuente del Sabuco I comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Cerricos.
Above the Taibilla valley, Nerpio's higher ground belongs to goats, vultures and wind. The Abrigo de los Cerricos lies a couple of kilometres from the village, among the limestone crags and pine slopes of the Sierra de Taibilla, where the Spanish ibex clambers over the rocks and griffon vultures ride the thermals above. Rock shelters like this one hold some of the finest prehistoric paintings in the region, human figures and animals traced in red pigment, and they sit under World Heritage protection. Cerrico is a diminutive of cerro, a hill, so the name suggests a small rise in the ground.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Cerricos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 34 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de los Cerricos. Next is Fuente del Sabuco II.
Sabuco is the old word for the elder tree, and a fuente is a spring, so this shelter is named for the water that makes the place possible: the Elder Spring. Fuente del Sabuco II lies about eleven kilometres from Nerpio in the high country of south-west Albacete, and it is one of the many shelters of this district that hold paintings. The ride also links it to a site called Diosa Madre, the Mother Goddess, a name given by archaeologists to a type of schematic figure that appears across the prehistoric art of the Iberian Peninsula. The Levantine art of the region is protected by UNESCO as part of the Mediterranean rock art of Spain.
Read the complete Fuente del Sabuco II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuente del Sabuco II, about halfway. Next is Abrigo del molino Juan Basura o molina Cip.
Nerpio sits on a high plateau of the Sierra del Segura, in the south-west corner of Albacete province, at about a thousand metres above the sea, and the climate matches the height: hot dry summers, cold nights, and winters when snow arrives early. The Abrigo del Molino de Juan Basura lies less than two kilometres from the village in the valley of the Taibilla, and it is one of the sites that make Nerpio a name among specialists. In few other places in Spain can you find so many painted shelters within a short walk of a single village.
Read the complete Abrigo del molino Juan Basura o molina Cip write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del molino Juan Basura o molina Cip sits at 66 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fuente del Sabuco II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuente del Sabuco II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuente del Sabuco II comes up about 102 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Abrigo de los Cerricos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Cerricos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Abrigo de los Cerricos. Next is back through Fuente del Sabuco I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuente del Sabuco I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuente del Sabuco I, late in the day. Next is Cueva del Esquilo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Esquilo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 164 km.
Cueva del Esquilo → Fuente del Sabuco I is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuente del Sabuco I → Abrigo de los Cerricos is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Cerricos → Fuente del Sabuco II is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuente del Sabuco II → Abrigo del molino Juan Basura o molina Cip is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del molino Juan Basura o molina Cip → back through Fuente del Sabuco II is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuente del Sabuco II → back through Abrigo de los Cerricos is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de los Cerricos → back through Fuente del Sabuco I is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuente del Sabuco I → Cueva del Esquilo is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.