CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
A 360 km round trip from María - roughly 7 h 23 in the saddle. On the way it passes Abrigo del molino de Bagil, Cavidad II and back through Abrigo del molino de Bagil. 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.
In the early 1980s a skull found at Venta Micena, near the village of Orce in Granada, caused a minor sensation: it was said to belong to the oldest human in Europe, perhaps a million and a half years old. The claim was fiercely disputed, and many specialists now believe that the skull is from a horse, but the Orce basin is still one of the key places for early human presence in Western Europe, with stone tools and remains of ancient animals. The area lies not far from Vélez-Blanco, and it is one of the reasons why the northern Almería and Granada highlands have such a deep sense of the past.
Read the complete Lavadero Tello II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lavadero Tello II is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo del molino de Bagil.
The northwest of Murcia is a world away from the coastal resorts. Around Moratalla, the land rises into the mountains that form the southern edge of the Sierra de Segura, a rugged country of pine forests, deep river valleys, terraced hillsides and white villages perched on rocks. The Abrigo del Molino de Bagil is one of the many rock shelters in this area that contain prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO listing of the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin. Moratalla and its neighbours have an especially rich collection, with scenes of hunters, archers and animals painted in the Levantine style thousands of years ago. Many shelters are protected by fences, and visits are possible only with guides or by arrangement.
Read the complete Abrigo del molino de Bagil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del molino de Bagil comes up 62 km in. Next is Cavidad II.
South of Hellín the land opens into the dry, high steppe of southern Albacete, a country of esparto grass, almond terraces and bare limestone ridges, and it is in these ridges that the small painted cavities of the area hide. Cavidad II is one of them, a modest hollow in the rock with prehistoric pigment on its walls, part of a dense scatter of rock art sites around the Minateda area that archaeologists have studied for more than a century. Like most of the Levantine sites it is fragile and frequently protected by a grille, so it rewards patience and imagination more than a quick photograph.
Read the complete Cavidad II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
124 km in you reach Cavidad II. Next is back through Abrigo del molino de Bagil.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo del molino de Bagil write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo del molino de Bagil, late in the day. Next is Lavadero Tello II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lavadero Tello II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Lavadero Tello II. That is the ride.
Lavadero Tello II → Abrigo del molino de Bagil is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del molino de Bagil → Cavidad II is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad II → back through Abrigo del molino de Bagil is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del molino de Bagil → Lavadero Tello II is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.