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 330 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 7 h 18 in the saddle. On the way it passes Benizar V, Abrigo del Pozo III, Abrigo de los Cortijos and Cueva del Peliciego. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Nerpio sits at about a thousand metres in the Sierra de Segura foothills, at the far south-west corner of Albacete province, in a high valley that feels closer to Andalusia than to La Mancha. It is an out-of-the-way place, with orchards of apples, almond and walnut trees in the valley bottoms and bare limestone peaks above. The area is famous among specialists for its rock art: dozens of shelters in the surrounding gorges hold paintings of the Levantine and Schematic styles, and they are part of the Mediterranean-arc group UNESCO listed in 1998. The Friso de los Gitanos, the Gypsies' Frieze, is one of the better known, and the name tells you that locals have been looking at it for a long time.
Read the complete friso de los Gitanos o Abrigo del Cazador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
friso de los Gitanos o Abrigo del Cazador is where the day begins. Next is Benizar V.
Benizar is one of those places that only a handful of maps bother to name. It is a hamlet belonging to Moratalla, in the hilly north-west of the Murcia region, close to where the province meets Albacete and the first ridges of the Sierra de Segura begin. Around it, in the rock faces and gullies, archaeologists have recorded a cluster of painted shelters, and Benizar V is one in this series: a stone overhang with faint prehistoric figures, part of the Levantine rock art that runs along Spain's eastern mountains.
Read the complete Benizar V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Benizar V comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Pozo III.
The Segura river cuts through the north-west of Murcia in a series of gorges and green oases, and near Calasparra its banks hold a surprising treasure. The Abrigo del Pozo shelters, of which this is the third, contain prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, small human and animal figures in red ochre that form part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean arc. The shelters are fragile and generally protected, often visited only with a guide, so check with the local tourist office before you count on seeing them.
Read the complete Abrigo del Pozo III write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 74 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Pozo III. Next is Abrigo de los Cortijos.
Hellín is a town in the south-east of Albacete province, on the edge of the dry plains of La Mancha, where the landscape breaks into hills and ravines on its way down to the Segura river. Its old town climbs a hill crowned by a castle, and its streets are lined with houses from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Abrigo de los Cortijos lies in the hills about nine kilometres from the town, toward Albatana and Tobarra.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Cortijos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de los Cortijos, about halfway. Next is Cueva del Peliciego.
Jumilla is wine. This town in the north of Murcia sits in a high, dry valley surrounded by bare mountains, and its vineyards, planted with the Monastrell grape, produce powerful red wines under the Jumilla designation of origin, one of the oldest in Spain. The Cueva del Peliciego, a rock shelter in the hills near the town, holds prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, and it has been known since the early twentieth century, when it was one of the first rock art sites studied in the region.
Read the complete Cueva del Peliciego write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Peliciego sits at 149 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo de los Cortijos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Cortijos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de los Cortijos comes up about 200 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Abrigo del Pozo III.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del Pozo III write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 254 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Abrigo del Pozo III. Next is back through Benizar V.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Benizar V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Benizar V, late in the day. Next is friso de los Gitanos o Abrigo del Cazador.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete friso de los Gitanos o Abrigo del Cazador write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 330 km.
friso de los Gitanos o Abrigo del Cazador → Benizar V is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Benizar V → Abrigo del Pozo III is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Pozo III → Abrigo de los Cortijos is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Cortijos → Cueva del Peliciego is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Peliciego → back through Abrigo de los Cortijos is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de los Cortijos → back through Abrigo del Pozo III is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Pozo III → back through Benizar V is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Benizar V → friso de los Gitanos o Abrigo del Cazador is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.