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 253 km round trip from Ayna - roughly 4 h 55 in the saddle. The stops in between: Solana del molinico, Andragulla I, Cueva de las Palamas and back through Andragulla I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Andragulla I.
In the far north-west corner of the Region of Murcia, where the land climbs towards the mountains of Albacete and Jaén, lies Moratalla, a town of whitewashed houses piled up a hillside beneath a castle tower. Its countryside is surprisingly wild for Murcia: pine forests, rivers, gorges and limestone ridges, some of the greenest land in a famously dry region. The rock shelter of Andragulla is one of many painted overhangs scattered through these hills, part of the Levantine rock art sites inscribed together by UNESCO. Many are protected behind fences and need a guide; the tourist office in Moratalla can advise.
Read the complete Andragulla I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Andragulla I. Next is Cueva de las Palamas.
Cehegín, in the north-west of the Murcia region, is a town of two faces: a modern lower town, and an old town on a hill, with steep streets, noble houses and churches, declared a historic site. The Cueva de las Palomas, the cave of the doves, lies on the edge of the town, less than a kilometre from the centre, with the larger town of Caravaca de la Cruz about five kilometres away.
Read the complete Cueva de las Palamas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva de las Palamas, about halfway. Next is back through Andragulla I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Andragulla I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Andragulla I sits at 123 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 210 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Cueva del Niño closes the day.
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 → Andragulla I is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Andragulla I → Cueva de las Palamas is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de las Palamas → back through Andragulla I is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Andragulla I → back through Solana del molinico is 52 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.