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.
From Hellín it runs 322 km to Hellín; allow about 5 h 17 of riding. On the way it passes El Laberinto, Cueva de las Conchas, Fuensanta II and Abrigo de la Viñuela. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Hellín sits on a ridge between the plains of La Mancha and the dry valleys of Murcia, and the countryside around La Higuera is a lesson in how many shades of ochre a landscape can have. The region is cut by gorges and low sierras of red and yellow rock, with almond trees, esparto grass and pale scrub. The shelters of this part of Albacete, particularly those near Minateda, are among the most important sites of Levantine rock art in Spain, and they form part of the Mediterranean-arc ensemble UNESCO listed in 1998.
Read the complete La Higuera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Higuera is where the day begins. Next is El Laberinto.
Calasparra is a rice town, which sounds odd until you see the terraces beside the Segura river, flooded and green in summer, with herons wading between the plants. The rice here has its own protected designation, and it is the base for paella in much of Spain. The river has carved a deep gorge, the Almadenes canyon, on its way through the hills, and in the rock above the water, hidden among limestone cliffs, there are shelters decorated with paintings made thousands of years ago. El Laberinto is one of them, part of the rock art tradition of the Mediterranean basin, listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete El Laberinto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
El Laberinto comes up about 43 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de las Conchas.
Cehegín's old town rises in a tight cluster of ochre houses and church towers on a hill above the Argos river, in the northwest of Murcia, and it is one of the best-preserved historic centres in the region, with narrow streets, noble houses and churches dating back to the sixteenth century. The Cueva de las Conchas, the cave of the shells, lies less than a kilometre from the town, and it is part of the rich network of prehistoric sites in this area, included in the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art.
Read the complete Cueva de las Conchas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de las Conchas. Next is Fuensanta II.
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, about halfway. Next is Abrigo de la Viñuela.
Segura de la Sierra is a village that looks like a stage set, and it is real. It sits on a conical hill above the olive groves of the upper Guadalimar valley, crowned by a castle, with narrow lanes of whitewashed houses winding up to the walls, and from the top the view takes in miles of olives, pine-covered ridges and distant sierras. The castle was a stronghold of the Order of Santiago, the knightly order that held much of this frontier in the Middle Ages. It has a Moorish bath house, restored and open to the public, a bullring built into the rock, and a medieval keep.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Viñuela write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Viñuela sits at 141 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Fuensanta II comes up about 199 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cueva de las Conchas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de las Conchas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 237 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cueva de las Conchas. Next is back through El Laberinto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete El Laberinto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through El Laberinto, late in the day. Next is La Higuera.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Higuera write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 322 km.
La Higuera → El Laberinto is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
El Laberinto → Cueva de las Conchas is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de las Conchas → Fuensanta II is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuensanta II → Abrigo de la Viñuela is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Viñuela → back through Fuensanta II is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuensanta II → back through Cueva de las Conchas is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de las Conchas → back through El Laberinto is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through El Laberinto → La Higuera is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.