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 375 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 6 h 51 in the saddle. On the way it passes Izquierda E. de Santonje, Cueva de la Plata and back through Izquierda E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The name points to engineers, and in this corner of Albacete the likeliest explanation is water. The upper Segura and Taibilla valleys feed reservoirs and canals that supply towns and farms far down toward Murcia and the coast, and the people who built and maintained that system needed houses in a remote landscape. Las Casas de los Ingenieros sits some distance from Nerpio, in a quiet valley of pine, scrub and farmland, with a rock shelter nearby, and the whole area is dotted with painted shelters from the prehistoric past. Other shelters in the area carry the names of the people who first recorded them, a reminder of how recently some of these sites were noticed.
Read the complete Las Casas de las Ingenieros I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros I is where the day begins. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 66 km on.
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izquierda E. de Santonje comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de la Plata.
Aledo is a tiny village on a rocky spur in the hills of Murcia, a place that punches well above its weight in history. In the eleventh century, it was a fortress on the frontier between Christian Castile and the Muslim taifa kingdoms, and the siege of Aledo in 1088 was a major episode in the struggle for the peninsula. A tower still stands above the village. The Cueva de la Plata, the silver cave, lies in the hills nearby, between Aledo, Totana and Alhama de Murcia.
Read the complete Cueva de la Plata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 188 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de la Plata. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 66 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, late in the day. Next is Las Casas de las Ingenieros I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Casas de las Ingenieros I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Las Casas de las Ingenieros I. That is the ride.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros I → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 88 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Cueva de la Plata is 100 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cueva de la Plata → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 97 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → Las Casas de las Ingenieros I is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.