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.
A 146 km round trip from María - roughly 3 h 44 in the saddle. The stops in between: Central E. de Santonje, Colmenas, Derecho E. de Santonje and back through Colmenas. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
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 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 comes up about 22 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 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Colmenas. 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, 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 99 km, about halfway. Next is back through Central E. de Santonje, 25 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Central E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Central E. de Santonje comes up about 122 km into the recorded legs. 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.
Lázar closes the day.
Lázar → Central E. de Santonje is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Central E. de Santonje → Colmenas is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Colmenas → Derecho E. de Santonje is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Derecho 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 Central E. de Santonje is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Central E. de Santonje → Lázar is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.