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.
309 km from María to María, about 8 h 14 of riding. It goes by way of Senda de la Cabra, Solana del molinico and back through Senda de la Cabra. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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.
Gabar is where the day begins. Next is Senda de la Cabra.
Senda de la Cabra, the goat path, is the kind of name a mountain gives to the only way across a slope. It lies in the high country of the upper Segura, near Nerpio on the border of Albacete and Murcia provinces, where the Sierra de Segura folds into the Sierra de Alcaraz and the rivers run cold and clear. The painted shelters of the area, Gabar among them, are part of the large group of rock-art sites in the Nerpio district, which includes some of the best-known Levantine and schematic paintings in Spain.
Read the complete Senda de la Cabra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Senda de la Cabra comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 156 km into the recorded legs you reach Solana del molinico. Next is back through Senda de la Cabra.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Senda de la Cabra write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Senda de la Cabra, late in the day. Next is 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.
Back at Gabar. That is the ride.
Gabar → Senda de la Cabra is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Senda de la Cabra → Solana del molinico is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Solana del molinico → back through Senda de la Cabra is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Senda de la Cabra → Gabar is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.