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.
389 km from Velez Rubio to Velez Rubio, about 9 h 18 of riding. It goes by way of Derecho E. de Santonje, Chiquita, Letreros de los mártires and back through Chiquita. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 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 Derecho E. de Santonje, 36 km on.
Here the high plateau of northern Almería feels as far from the beach resorts as it is possible to be. The land is a wide, dry tableland of cereal fields, almond groves and scrubby pine, at about a thousand metres, with the Sierra de María rising above it in bare limestone ridges. The little village of María and the towns of Vélez Rubio and Vélez-Blanco are the centres of the district, known as Los Vélez, and the shelters of the area, including this one, hold prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style.
Read the complete Derecho E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Derecho E. de Santonje comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Chiquita.
Almería is known for deserts and beaches, but its northern edge is a different country, a high, cold plateau of almond orchards and pine-covered sierras that the locals call Los Vélez. The town of Vélez-Blanco, with just over 2,000 people, lies under a castle on a rocky crest, and María and Chirivel are smaller places on the plateau. The region is protected as the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park, and the air is clear, the sky enormous, and the nights cold, even in summer. In late winter the almond trees bloom pink and white on the slopes below the peaks.
Read the complete Chiquita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 100 km into the recorded legs you reach Chiquita. 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.
Letreros de los mártires, about halfway. Next is back through Chiquita.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chiquita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chiquita sits at 143 km, about halfway. Next is back through Derecho E. de Santonje, 36 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Derecho E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Derecho E. de Santonje comes up about 330 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Las Covaticas I closes the day.
Las Covaticas I → Derecho E. de Santonje is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Derecho E. de Santonje → Chiquita is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chiquita → Letreros de los mártires is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Letreros de los mártires → back through Chiquita is 106 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chiquita → back through Derecho E. de Santonje is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Derecho E. de Santonje → Las Covaticas I is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.