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 Nerpio it runs 252 km to Nerpio; allow about 5 h 59 of riding. The stops in between: Tenada de Cueva moreno, Abrigo de la fuente, Letreros de los mártires and back through Abrigo de la fuente. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Tenada de Cueva moreno.
A tenada is a farm shed for livestock, the kind of low stone building that marks old transhumance routes, and the cave that goes with it is a local hollow in the limestone near Letur and Socovos in the south of Albacete province. This is the dry, hilly outer edge of the Sierra del Segura, where the pine woods give way to open scrub and cereal fields, and the horizon is a series of pale ridges. The label also links to the Letreros de los Mártires, a set of painted marks in a nearby shelter, which hints at the density of prehistoric art in this district.
Read the complete Tenada de Cueva moreno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tenada de Cueva moreno comes up about 47 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de la fuente. Next is Letreros de los mártires.
Out in the high north-east of Granada province, Huéscar feels a long way from the Alhambra and the beaches of the Costa Tropical. This is the altiplano, a broad upland of wheat fields, almond trees and pale badlands at around a thousand metres, ringed by mountains, with the great limestone hump of La Sagra rising to the north. The rock shelter called Letreros de los Mártires lies in this country, a dozen or so kilometres from the town.
Read the complete Letreros de los mártires write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Letreros de los mártires, about halfway. 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 sits at 125 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tenada de Cueva moreno.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tenada de Cueva moreno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tenada de Cueva moreno comes up about 204 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Cueva del Gitano closes the day.
Cueva del Gitano → Tenada de Cueva moreno is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tenada de Cueva moreno → Abrigo de la fuente is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la fuente → Letreros de los mártires is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → back through Abrigo de la fuente is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la fuente → back through Tenada de Cueva moreno is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tenada de Cueva moreno → Cueva del Gitano is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.