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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
192 km from Velez Rubio to Velez Rubio, about 3 h 17 of riding. It goes by way of Gabar, Abrigo de los Gavilanes and back through Gabar. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 Gabar.
High in the north of Almería province, far from the beaches most people associate with the name, the Sierra de María rises in grey limestone above a plateau of almond orchards and cereal fields. Gabar is a point in the hills between the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, part of a cluster of rock-art shelters in the Los Vélez district. This corner of Spain is famous for one painted figure in particular: the Indalo, a little stick man holding an arc over his head, found in the Cueva de los Letreros just outside Vélez-Blanco. It has become the emblem of the whole province, painted on doors and sold as a lucky charm, which is a remarkable career for a prehistoric doodle.
Read the complete Gabar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gabar comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Gavilanes.
Gavilanes means sparrowhawks, and the name fits a shelter high on a limestone face above the dry country where Murcia meets Almería. The Abrigo de los Gavilanes lies in the hills west of Lorca, in an area scattered with painted shelters such as the Collado de la Cruz and Los Grajos, the jackdaws, and it is part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The figures are small, red and schematic, painted by communities who farmed and herded here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Gavilanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de los Gavilanes. Next is back through Gabar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gabar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gabar, late in the day. 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.
Back at Las Covachas. That is the ride.
Las Covachas → Gabar is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gabar → Abrigo de los Gavilanes is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes → back through Gabar is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gabar → Las Covachas is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.