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 154 km round trip from Velez Rubio - roughly 4 h 10 in the saddle. The stops in between: Hoyos II, Gabar, Hoyos I and Izquierda E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Vélez-Rubio is a larger and busier place than its neighbour Vélez-Blanco, with seven thousand people, a lively main street, and a church that is a surprise in a town this size. The Church of the Encarnación, begun in the eighteenth century, has twin towers and a massive Baroque façade, usually described as the largest Baroque church in Almería, and its bulk dominates the roofs. It is a good place to start before riding up toward the mountains, because the fuel stations here are the nearest reliable ones for a long way.
Read the complete Cueva del Tio Labrador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Tío Labrador is where the day begins. Next is Hoyos II.
Above the whitewashed roofs of Vélez-Blanco stands one of the most unexpected castles in Spain. It was built in the early sixteenth century for the first Marquis of Los Vélez, Pedro Fajardo, on a rocky spur, with a severe Gothic exterior and a Renaissance courtyard of astonishing delicacy inside. In the early twentieth century the owners sold the marble courtyard, which was taken down stone by stone and shipped abroad, and it now stands, reassembled, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A later restoration left the castle itself with plain rooms, but it remains a splendid sight from the road.
Read the complete Hoyos II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoyos II comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gabar.
High in the north of Almería province, far from the beaches most people associate with the name, the Sierra de María rises in grey limestone above a plateau of almond orchards and cereal fields. Gabar is a point in the hills between the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, part of a cluster of rock-art shelters in the Los Vélez district. This corner of Spain is famous for one painted figure in particular: the Indalo, a little stick man holding an arc over his head, found in the Cueva de los Letreros just outside Vélez-Blanco. It has become the emblem of the whole province, painted on doors and sold as a lucky charm, which is a remarkable career for a prehistoric doodle.
Read the complete Gabar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 35 km into the recorded legs you reach Gabar. Next is Hoyos I.
Vélez-Blanco is a white village below a castle, and the hills around it hold some of the most celebrated prehistoric paintings in south-eastern Spain. Hoyos I is one of the painted shelters in the district, which sits in the Sierra María-Los Vélez, a natural park of limestone peaks on the northern edge of Almería province. The nearby Cueva de los Letreros is famous as the source of the Indalo, the little stick figure with an arc above its head that has become the symbol of Almería and appears on car stickers all over Spain. The shelter here belongs to the same tradition of painted art.
Read the complete Hoyos I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hoyos I, about halfway. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 18 km on.
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izquierda E. de Santonje sits at 69 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hoyos I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hoyos I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hoyos I comes up about 99 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gabar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gabar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gabar. Next is back through Hoyos II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hoyos II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hoyos II, late in the day. Next is Cueva del Tio Labrador.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Tio Labrador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 154 km.
Cueva del Tío Labrador → Hoyos II is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hoyos II → Gabar is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gabar → Hoyos I is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hoyos I → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → back through Hoyos I is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hoyos I → back through Gabar is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gabar → back through Hoyos II is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hoyos II → Cueva del Tio Labrador is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.