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.
412 km from Nerpio to Nerpio, about 8 h 56 of riding. It goes by way of Cortijo de Sorbas I, Cueva del Niño, Cavidad II and Cueva del Peliciego. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Los Sacristanes is a name given to a group of painted shelters in the empty uplands near Nerpio, in the south-western corner of Albacete province. It sits on the high, pine-covered ground between the Taibilla valley and the headwaters of the Segura, a place so thinly populated that the nearest town of any size is the better part of an hour away. The paintings here, like those across this region, belong to the World Heritage site of Levantine rock art, and they are best seen with a local guide from Nerpio's interpretation centre.
Read the complete Los Sacristanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Los Sacristanes is where the day begins. Next is Cortijo de Sorbas I.
Sorbas is the name of a town in Almería, famous for its gypsum caves, and it is also the name of a cortijo, a farmhouse, in the hills south of Letur in Albacete, which is a coincidence that has confused more than one traveller. Cortijo de Sorbas is a shelter in a rough, dry upland that belongs to the municipality of Letur, about twelve kilometres from the village, and the ride that visits it also includes sites such as Los Sacristanes and the Cueva del Gitano.
Read the complete Cortijo de Sorbas I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cortijo de Sorbas I comes up about 38 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva del Niño.
Ayna is a village of white houses clinging to the walls of a deep gorge carved by the Mundo river, in the Sierra de Alcaraz in the southwest of Albacete province. Its setting is so dramatic that it is sometimes called the Little Switzerland of La Mancha, and it was the backdrop for the cult Spanish film Amanece, que no es poco, a surreal comedy shot here in the late 1980s. A few kilometres away, in a rocky ravine, the Cueva del Niño holds something rare for this part of Spain: Palaeolithic paintings of deer, ibex and horses, much older than the Levantine figures painted later on the same walls. It is part of the UNESCO listing of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, and access is restricted to protect the paintings.
Read the complete Cueva del Niño write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 106 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva del Niño. 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.
Cavidad II, about halfway. Next is Cueva del Peliciego.
Jumilla is wine. This town in the north of Murcia sits in a high, dry valley surrounded by bare mountains, and its vineyards, planted with the Monastrell grape, produce powerful red wines under the Jumilla designation of origin, one of the oldest in Spain. The Cueva del Peliciego, a rock shelter in the hills near the town, holds prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, and it has been known since the early twentieth century, when it was one of the first rock art sites studied in the region.
Read the complete Cueva del Peliciego write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cueva del Peliciego sits at 176 km, about halfway. Next is back through Cavidad II.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cavidad II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cavidad II comes up about 241 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Cueva del Niño.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Niño write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 306 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Cueva del Niño. Next is back through Cortijo de Sorbas I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cortijo de Sorbas I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cortijo de Sorbas I, late in the day. Next is Los Sacristanes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Los Sacristanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 412 km.
Los Sacristanes → Cortijo de Sorbas I is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cortijo de Sorbas I → Cueva del Niño is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Niño → Cavidad II is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cavidad II → Cueva del Peliciego is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Peliciego → back through Cavidad II is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cavidad II → back through Cueva del Niño is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva del Niño → back through Cortijo de Sorbas I is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cortijo de Sorbas I → Los Sacristanes is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.