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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Moratalla it runs 149 km to Moratalla; allow about 2 h 34 of riding. On the way it passes Prado del Tornero I, Diosa madre, Abrigo de la fuente de montañoz I and back through Diosa madre. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Fuensanta II is the sort of name only an archaeologist could love, a numbered rock shelter in the hills of northwest Murcia where prehistoric painters left a handful of figures on the stone. It is one of the hundreds of sites grouped under UNESCO's listing of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Moratalla area is unusually rich in them. The paintings are small, faint to the untrained eye and protected, so the real value of coming is to understand the landscape that drew people here thousands of years ago: springs, shelter and game in rough, broken country.
Read the complete Fuensanta II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuensanta II is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Diosa madre.
Some places on a map feel remote; this one actually is. The point named Diosa Madre, mother goddess, lies in the mountains of the Sierra de Segura, in the far southwest of Albacete province, roughly sixteen kilometres from Yeste and not far from the border with Jaén. The mountains themselves are the real experience.
Read the complete Diosa madre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Diosa madre. Next is Abrigo de la fuente de montañoz I.
Nerpio is about as far from anywhere as you can get in mainland Spain. The village sits in the southwestern corner of Albacete province, where Castilla-La Mancha meets Andalusia and Murcia, in the mountains of the Sierra de Segura, at the end of long, winding roads. It is known for its walnut trees, which line the valleys and give the village its pride, and for its rock art: the hills around are full of shelters with prehistoric paintings, and Nerpio is one of the most important centres for Levantine art in Spain. The Abrigo de la Fuente de Montañoz is one of these shelters, near a spring in the hills above the Taibilla river.
Read the complete Abrigo de la fuente de montañoz I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la fuente de montañoz I, about halfway. Next is back through Diosa madre.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Diosa madre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Diosa madre sits at 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Prado del Tornero I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prado del Tornero I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Prado del Tornero I comes up about 125 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fuensanta II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuensanta II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuensanta II closes the day.
Fuensanta II → Prado del Tornero I is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Prado del Tornero I → Diosa madre is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Diosa madre → Abrigo de la fuente de montañoz I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la fuente de montañoz I → back through Diosa madre is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Diosa madre → back through Prado del Tornero I is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Prado del Tornero I → Fuensanta II is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.