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 357 km round trip from Nerpio - roughly 10 h 28 in the saddle. The stops in between: Abrigo de las Cañadas II, Letreros de los mártires, Izquierda E. de Santonje and back through Letreros de los mártires. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Abrigo de las Cañadas II.
Nerpio is about as remote as mainland Spain gets. The village sits in the far southwest corner of Albacete province, in the Sierra de Segura, where the mountains of Andalusia, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha meet, and the rock shelters scattered around it make up one of the richest concentrations of prehistoric art in the region. The Abrigo de las Cañadas II belongs to that group, an overhang in the hills between Nerpio and the high plateaus toward Huéscar and Yeste.
Read the complete Abrigo de las Cañadas II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de las Cañadas II comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Letreros de los mártires.
Out in the high north-east of Granada province, Huéscar feels a long way from the Alhambra and the beaches of the Costa Tropical. This is the altiplano, a broad upland of wheat fields, almond trees and pale badlands at around a thousand metres, ringed by mountains, with the great limestone hump of La Sagra rising to the north. The rock shelter called Letreros de los Mártires lies in this country, a dozen or so kilometres from the town.
Read the complete Letreros de los mártires write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 107 km into the recorded legs you reach Letreros de los mártires. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 32 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, about halfway. Next is back through Letreros de los mártires.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Letreros de los mártires write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Letreros de los mártires sits at 127 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo de las Cañadas II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de las Cañadas II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de las Cañadas II comes up about 306 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros I closes the day.
Las Casas de las Ingenieros I → Abrigo de las Cañadas II is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de las Cañadas II → Letreros de los mártires is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → back through Letreros de los mártires is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → back through Abrigo de las Cañadas II is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de las Cañadas II → Las Casas de las Ingenieros I is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.