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.
514 km from Ayna to Ayna, about 11 h 09 of riding. It goes by way of Solana del molinico, Cañaica del Calar l, Abrigo del Engarbo and Central E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Solana del molinico.
Socovos is the sort of village you only find by getting a little lost: a cluster of white houses below a ruined castle in the far southeast of Albacete province, where the plains of La Mancha give way to the tangled ridges of the Sierra de Segura. Solana del Molinico, close by, is one of the rock-art shelters in this corner of Spain that belong to the UNESCO listing for Levantine rock art. The word solana means a sun-facing slope, and many of these painted overhangs face south, catching the warmth on winter days just as they must have done when hunters and gatherers sheltered here.
Read the complete Solana del molinico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Solana del molinico comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cañaica del Calar l.
Very few people get here. The Cañaica del Calar lies in the far north-west of the region of Murcia, near the border with Albacete and Andalusia, in a wild landscape of limestone plateaus, pine forests and deep valleys around Moratalla and Nerpio. The calar is the local word for a limestone plateau, and the rock shelters on its edges hold prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The area around Nerpio is one of the richest in Spain for rock art.
Read the complete Cañaica del Calar l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Cañaica del Calar l. Next is Abrigo del Engarbo.
Deep in the Sierra de Segura in the northeast of Jaén province, close to where the Segura river is born, the Engarbo rock shelters hide a few small painted figures under limestone overhangs. They belong to the great serial UNESCO listing of Levantine rock art, prehistoric paintings found along the mountains of eastern Spain, with stylised humans and animals in red ochre that have survived thousands of years of sun, frost and goats. The shelters are modest and fragile, often fenced, and visits usually need to be arranged locally, so treat them as a reason to explore this remote corner rather than a guaranteed sight.
Read the complete Abrigo del Engarbo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del Engarbo, about halfway. Next is Central E. de Santonje, 45 km on.
The Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, is now the symbol of the whole province of Almería, painted on houses, cars and souvenirs, and it comes from a rock shelter here in the hills around Vélez-Blanco. The Cueva de los Letreros, a few kilometres from this point, holds the original among other paintings of the Levantine and schematic styles, and the shelters of the Sierra de María are part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, inscribed in 1998. Santonje, as the area is called, is one of a cluster of sites in these mountains.
Read the complete Central E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central E. de Santonje sits at 177 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo del Engarbo.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Engarbo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo del Engarbo comes up about 345 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cañaica del Calar l.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cañaica del Calar l write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 435 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cañaica del Calar l. Next is back through Solana del molinico.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Solana del molinico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Solana del molinico, late in the day. Next is Cueva del Niño.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Niño write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 514 km.
Cueva del Niño → Solana del molinico is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Solana del molinico → Cañaica del Calar l is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cañaica del Calar l → Abrigo del Engarbo is 86 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Engarbo → Central E. de Santonje is 97 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central E. de Santonje → back through Abrigo del Engarbo is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Engarbo → back through Cañaica del Calar l is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cañaica del Calar l → back through Solana del molinico is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Solana del molinico → Cueva del Niño is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.