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.
From Velez Rubio it runs 215 km to Velez Rubio; allow about 6 h 21 of riding. On the way it passes Derecho E. de Santonje, Colmenas, Central E. de Santonje and back through Colmenas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
A covatica is a little cave, and the diminutive is charming, because the shelters of Las Covaticas are small, shallow hollows in the rock rather than great vaulted caverns. They lie in the high, dry country of north Almería, far into the hills beyond Vélez-Blanco, where the land climbs toward the Sierra de María and the horizon is made of bare ridges and pale fields of cereal. It is a very different Spain from the beach resorts of the south coast, and the people who live here are used to long winters and big skies.
Read the complete Las Covaticas II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covaticas II is where the day begins. Next is Derecho E. de Santonje, 25 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 Colmenas.
Vélez-Blanco is a white town under a limestone crag in the north of Almería province, with a Renaissance castle on the rock above it and the pine-covered Sierra María rising behind. The Colmenas label sits less than a kilometre away, in country of dry slopes, almond groves and scattered farms.
Read the complete Colmenas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 83 km into the recorded legs you reach Colmenas. Next is Central E. de Santonje, 25 km on.
The Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, is now the symbol of the whole province of Almería, painted on houses, cars and souvenirs, and it comes from a rock shelter here in the hills around Vélez-Blanco. The Cueva de los Letreros, a few kilometres from this point, holds the original among other paintings of the Levantine and schematic styles, and the shelters of the Sierra de María are part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, inscribed in 1998. Santonje, as the area is called, is one of a cluster of sites in these mountains.
Read the complete Central E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Central E. de Santonje, about halfway. Next is back through Colmenas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Colmenas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Colmenas sits at 101 km, about halfway. Next is back through Derecho E. de Santonje, 26 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 157 km into the recorded legs. Next is Las Covaticas II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Covaticas II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covaticas II closes the day.
Las Covaticas II → Derecho E. de Santonje is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Derecho E. de Santonje → Colmenas is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Colmenas → Central E. de Santonje is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central E. de Santonje → back through Colmenas is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Colmenas → back through Derecho E. de Santonje is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Derecho E. de Santonje → Las Covaticas II is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.