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 María it runs 160 km to María; allow about 5 h 09 of riding. The stops in between: Izquierda E. de Santonje, Abrigo de la Esperilla and back through Izquierda E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The Vélez comarca in northern Almería sits high and dry, a land of almond trees, steppe and pale limestone ranges that feels more like the Castilian interior than the beach resorts of the south coast. Lázar lies in this country, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, within the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park. The area is known for some of the most important prehistoric art in Andalusia, and the best-known symbol is the Indalo, a little stick figure holding an arc above its head, taken from a painting in the cave of Los Letreros near Vélez-Blanco and adopted as the emblem of the whole province.
Read the complete Lázar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lázar is where the day begins. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 20 km on.
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izquierda E. de Santonje comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de la Esperilla.
Almería is known for its beaches and desert, but the north of the province holds a different landscape: high, dry limestone mountains with pine forests, almond groves and a series of rock shelters where prehistoric people painted. The Sierra de María-Los Vélez rises above two thousand metres, and around the town of Vélez-Blanco several shelters preserve paintings of the Levantine style, with small, lively red figures of hunters, animals and humans. UNESCO lists Spain's Levantine rock art as a World Heritage Site, and the Abrigo de la Esperilla is one of those painted places.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Esperilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de la Esperilla. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 19 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, late in the day. Next is Lázar.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lázar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Lázar. That is the ride.
Lázar → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Abrigo de la Esperilla is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Esperilla → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → Lázar is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.