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.
306 km from Velez Rubio to Velez Rubio, about 6 h 29 of riding. It goes by way of Fuensanta II, Cueva de los Pucheros and back through Fuensanta II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
The name Las Covaticas means the little caves, and the whole area south of Vélez Blanco is a country of small hollows in the rock. The ground rises from the plain of Vélez Rubio to the long ridges of the Sierra de María, where pine forests and bare slopes meet wide sky, and the air at more than a thousand metres feels cool and thin. Vélez Rubio, a town of about 7,000 people 15 km away, is the largest place in the area, with a grand baroque church that seems too big for its surroundings. The Renaissance castle of Vélez Blanco stands nearby on its crag.
Read the complete Las Covaticas I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covaticas I is where the day begins. Next is Fuensanta II.
Fuensanta II is the sort of name only an archaeologist could love, a numbered rock shelter in the hills of northwest Murcia where prehistoric painters left a handful of figures on the stone. It is one of the hundreds of sites grouped under UNESCO's listing of rock art in the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Moratalla area is unusually rich in them. The paintings are small, faint to the untrained eye and protected, so the real value of coming is to understand the landscape that drew people here thousands of years ago: springs, shelter and game in rough, broken country.
Read the complete Fuensanta II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fuensanta II comes up about 70 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de los Pucheros.
North-west of Cieza, the Segura river cuts through a dry landscape of limestone ridges, almond and fruit orchards, and rice fields that look out of place in arid Murcia. The Cueva de los Pucheros, a rock shelter in these hills between Cieza and Calasparra, is one of the many sites in the region holding prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO-listed Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. Like most of these shelters, it is fragile and often protected by a fence, and access may require a guided visit arranged through the local authorities.
Read the complete Cueva de los Pucheros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 141 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva de los Pucheros. Next is back through Fuensanta II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fuensanta II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Fuensanta II, late in the day. Next is Las Covaticas I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Covaticas I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Las Covaticas I. That is the ride.
Las Covaticas I → Fuensanta II is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuensanta II → Cueva de los Pucheros is 71 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de los Pucheros → back through Fuensanta II is 95 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Fuensanta II → Las Covaticas I is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.