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 324 km round trip from Velez Rubio - roughly 9 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Los Paradores, Izquierda E. de Santonje, Abrigo de la fuente and back through Izquierda E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Los Vélez is a district of its own, a high, dry corner of northern Almería where the province meets Murcia and Granada, and the title of its old masters, the Marquises of Los Vélez, still hangs over it. Las Covachas is a rock shelter about four kilometres from Vélez-Blanco and a bit more from Vélez Rubio, and it belongs to a rich local group of painted sites that includes the famous Cueva de los Letreros. The paintings are in the Levantine style, protected as part of the UNESCO rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. Other shelters have stronger images, so treat this as part of a pattern, not a highlight.
Read the complete Las Covachas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covachas is where the day begins. Next is Los Paradores.
The far north of Almería province is not the desert most people imagine. Around Vélez-Blanco and María the land rises into the Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park, a range of limestone peaks with pine and holm oak forest, high plains of cereal and almond and villages that can see snow in winter. Los Paradores is one of the rock art sites in this area, part of the UNESCO listing of the Mediterranean Iberian rock art, and the region holds one of the most famous painted shelters in Spain, the Cueva de los Letreros, home of the Indalo, a stick figure holding an arc over its head that has become the symbol of Almería.
Read the complete Los Paradores write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Los Paradores comes up about 59 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 31 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.
about 110 km into the recorded legs you reach Izquierda E. de Santonje. Next is Abrigo de la fuente.
Nerpio is about as remote as it gets in southern Spain: a village in the far south-west corner of Albacete province, deep in the Sierra del Segura, close to the borders of Andalucía and Murcia. It sits in the valley of the Taibilla river, surrounded by mountains, with terraced fields, walnut trees and pine forests on the slopes. The Abrigo de la Fuente, the shelter of the spring, lies in the hills about eleven kilometres from the village.
Read the complete Abrigo de la fuente write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la fuente, about halfway. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 31 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 sits at 124 km, about halfway. Next is back through Los Paradores.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Los Paradores write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Los Paradores comes up about 289 km into the recorded legs. Next is Las Covachas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Covachas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covachas closes the day.
Las Covachas → Los Paradores is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Los Paradores → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Abrigo de la fuente is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la fuente → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → back through Los Paradores is 77 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Los Paradores → Las Covachas is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.