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 306 km to Velez Rubio; allow 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. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 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 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.
Back at Las Covaticas II. That is the ride.
Las Covaticas II → 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 II is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.