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 Moratalla it runs 619 km to Moratalla; allow about 13 h 26 of riding. The stops in between: molino de las fuentes I, Letreros de los mártires, Cañada de la Cruz and Abrigo del.melgar. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Moratalla is the kind of hill town that looks as though it was poured down a slope: white houses tumbling below a castle tower, narrow lanes too steep for comfort, church bells echoing off the hills. Ten kilometres out, in the rugged country of north-west Murcia, the shelter of Las Cazuelas holds prehistoric paintings, part of the region's contribution to the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings are fragile and protected, and access is usually by guided visit, arranged in Moratalla or through the regional authorities.
Read the complete Las Cazuelas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Cazuelas is where the day begins. Next is molino de las fuentes I.
A mill is a good reason to remember how much of the old Spanish countryside ran on water. Molino de las Fuentes lies close to Nerpio, in the same high valley of the Sierra de Segura, where springs rise from limestone and feed small channels that were once enough to turn a millstone. The name means the Mill of the Springs, and it is a suitable one in a landscape with plenty of them. Around the mill the land is a mixture of orchard and scrub, with poplars along the water and a sharp smell of damp earth and mint on summer evenings.
Read the complete molino de las fuentes I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
molino de las fuentes I comes up about 41 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 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Letreros de los mártires. Next is Cañada de la Cruz.
The Cañada de la Cruz is a high valley or drovers' pasture in the Segura mountains; cañada is the word for the traditional livestock routes and grazing grounds used by shepherds moving their flocks between summer and winter pastures, and this part of Spain has a long history of transhumance.
Read the complete Cañada de la Cruz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cañada de la Cruz, about halfway. Next is Abrigo del.melgar, 43 km on.
Quesada is a white town at the foot of the Sierra de Cazorla, in the province of Jaén, surrounded by an ocean of olive trees. The groves stretch to the horizon in every direction, a landscape that makes Jaén the world's largest producer of olive oil. Behind the town, the mountains rise steeply, with pine forest and limestone cliffs, and the Guadalquivir river has its source not far away. The Abrigo del Melgar lies in the hills just outside the town.
Read the complete Abrigo del.melgar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del.melgar sits at 169 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cañada de la Cruz.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cañada de la Cruz write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cañada de la Cruz comes up about 445 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 514 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Letreros de los mártires. Next is back through molino de las fuentes I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete molino de las fuentes I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through molino de las fuentes I, late in the day. Next is Las Cazuelas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Cazuelas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 619 km.
Las Cazuelas → molino de las fuentes I is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
molino de las fuentes I → Letreros de los mártires is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → Cañada de la Cruz is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cañada de la Cruz → Abrigo del.melgar is 128 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del.melgar → back through Cañada de la Cruz is 145 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cañada de la Cruz → back through Letreros de los mártires is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Letreros de los mártires → back through molino de las fuentes I is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through molino de las fuentes I → Las Cazuelas is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.