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 175 km round trip from Moratalla - roughly 4 h 49 in the saddle. The stops in between: Cavidad V, Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras, Cavidad VI and back through Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Hondares is a word on a map that barely registers, and that is exactly why people come. It lies in the high, dry country where the province of Murcia gives way to Albacete, between the Sierra de Segura foothills and the Segura river, which has carved a long valley here before it spills into the Fuensanta reservoir. Moratalla, the nearest real town, is about twelve kilometres away, and in this part of Spain that counts as close.
Read the complete Hondares write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hondares is where the day begins. Next is Cavidad V.
Nerpio is about as far from anywhere as you can get in mainland Spain. This village of around sixteen hundred people sits in the Sierra del Segura, in the far south-west of Albacete province, close to the borders of Murcia and Andalusia, and the surrounding hills are dotted with shelters containing prehistoric paintings. The numbered sites around here, Cavidad V among them, are part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin, and the Nerpio area is one of the richest concentrations of Levantine art in Spain, with hunting scenes, archers and animals painted thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Cavidad V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cavidad V comes up about 23 km into the recorded legs. Next is Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras.
The name means the stream of the foxes' spring, which is the kind of place name that only survives in country where people still walk. The ravines around Nerpio hold dozens of painted rock shelters, with Levantine and Schematic paintings of hunters, animals and symbols, and they form part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Visits to many of them need to be arranged through the local interpretation centre.
Read the complete Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras. Next is Cavidad VI.
Nerpio is a village of sixteen hundred people at more than a thousand metres in south-west Albacete, and the area is among the richest in Spain for prehistoric painting. The shelter at Cavidad VI is one of dozens, in the Levantine tradition protected by UNESCO as part of the Mediterranean rock art of Spain, and the ride links it with a site called Las Cazuelas, the Cooking Pots, and a cave named for a Gypsy, Cueva del Gitano, a name that probably recalls a squatter or a shepherd rather than any famous event. The label Cavidad, meaning a cavity, tells you something about the people who numbered these places. They were archaeologists with a long list of holes in the rock.
Read the complete Cavidad VI write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cavidad VI, about halfway. Next is back through Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cavidad V.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cavidad V write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cavidad V comes up about 152 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hondares.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hondares write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hondares closes the day.
Hondares → Cavidad V is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad V → Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras → Cavidad VI is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad VI → back through Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Arroyo de la fuente de las Zorras → back through Cavidad V is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cavidad V → Hondares is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.