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 207 km round trip from Ayna - roughly 5 h 01 in the saddle. It goes by way of Solana del molinico, La Risca I, Abrigo de la Ventana I and Prado del Tornero I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 La Risca I.
Moratalla is a hill town that spills down a slope beneath its castle in the north-west of Murcia, a maze of steep, narrow streets, whitewashed houses and stairways. Around it lies a vast municipality of mountains, forests and valleys, and in the valley of Benizar, near the Río Benamor, is La Risca, a group of painted shelters that form part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings include human figures and animals, typical of the Levantine style, small and faded but full of life.
Read the complete La Risca I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 62 km into the recorded legs you reach La Risca I. Next is Abrigo de la Ventana I.
High in the Sierra de Segura, where Albacete, Murcia and Jaén meet, the Taibilla river cuts a deep valley through limestone mountains, and the cliffs and shelters along its banks hide some of the finest prehistoric paintings in Spain. The Abrigo de la Ventana, the window shelter, is one of them, near the village of Nerpio, and it is part of the World Heritage site of Levantine rock art.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Ventana I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Ventana I, about halfway. Next is Prado del Tornero I.
Nerpio is the place the road seems to forget. It lies in the far south-west of Albacete province, tucked against the Sierra de Segura and the Murcian border, in a high valley where the headwaters of the Taibilla and other streams gather. It has fewer than two thousand residents and one of the densest clusters of prehistoric rock paintings in Spain, dozens of shelters scattered through the surrounding crags. These are part of the Levantine and schematic traditions, painted in red and black, and covered by the same World Heritage listing as the painted caves of the Levante coast.
Read the complete Prado del Tornero I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prado del Tornero I sits at 92 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo de la Ventana I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Ventana I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de la Ventana I comes up about 128 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through La Risca I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Risca I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach back through La Risca I. 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 207 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 → La Risca I is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Risca I → Abrigo de la Ventana I is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Ventana I → Prado del Tornero I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Prado del Tornero I → back through Abrigo de la Ventana I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la Ventana I → back through La Risca I is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Risca I → back through Solana del molinico is 20 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.