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 112 km round trip from Moratalla - roughly 3 h 13 in the saddle. On the way it passes Abrigo de Zaén II, Cavidad V and back through Abrigo de Zaén II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 Abrigo de Zaén II.
Zaén is a quiet valley in the north-western corner of the Murcia region, in the municipality of Moratalla, where pine-covered sierras close in and the streams run clear and cold. The Abrigo de Zaén II is one of several painted rock shelters here, and like the others it belongs to the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin, inscribed in 1998. Levantine art, found along the eastern side of the Iberian Peninsula, shows lively figures of humans and animals, often in scenes of hunting, gathering and, sometimes, conflict.
Read the complete Abrigo de Zaén II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de Zaén II comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Cavidad V. Next is back through Abrigo de Zaén II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de Zaén II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de Zaén II, 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.
Back at Las Cazuelas. That is the ride.
Las Cazuelas → Abrigo de Zaén II is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de Zaén II → Cavidad V is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad V → back through Abrigo de Zaén II is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de Zaén II → Las Cazuelas is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.