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.
372 km from Nerpio to Nerpio, about 8 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Las Covachicas, Cueva del Gitano, Tenada de Cueva moreno and back through Cueva del Gitano. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
A mill is a good reason to remember how much of the old Spanish countryside ran on water. Molino de las Fuentes lies close to Nerpio, in the same high valley of the Sierra de Segura, where springs rise from limestone and feed small channels that were once enough to turn a millstone. The name means the Mill of the Springs, and it is a suitable one in a landscape with plenty of them. Around the mill the land is a mixture of orchard and scrub, with poplars along the water and a sharp smell of damp earth and mint on summer evenings.
Read the complete molino de las fuentes I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
molino de las fuentes I is where the day begins. Next is Las Covachicas.
The Sierra del Segura, in the far south of Albacete province, is a world of its own: deep valleys, rivers lined with poplars, terraces of olive and almond trees, and white villages that look more Andalusian than Castilian. Letur is one of the most beautiful, a village of Moorish origin built on a rock above a stream, with narrow alleys, arches and gardens watered by old irrigation channels. Las Covachicas, a group of shelters, lies in the hills nearby, between Letur, Socovos and Férez.
Read the complete Las Covachicas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Las Covachicas comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva del Gitano.
Some places are remote on the map and remote in the gut, and the country around the Cueva del Gitano is both. It lies in the Sierra de Segura on the southern fringe of Albacete province, in the municipality of Nerpio, where the mountains of Albacete, Murcia, Jaén and Granada all run into one another. This is one of the richest areas for prehistoric rock art in Spain, with dozens of painted shelters along the valley of the Taibilla river and its side ravines, and the Cueva del Gitano is one of the smaller sites in that dense cluster. The art is faint, the walk can be rough, and the setting does most of the talking.
Read the complete Cueva del Gitano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 131 km into the recorded legs you reach Cueva del Gitano. Next is Tenada de Cueva moreno.
A tenada is a farm shed for livestock, the kind of low stone building that marks old transhumance routes, and the cave that goes with it is a local hollow in the limestone near Letur and Socovos in the south of Albacete province. This is the dry, hilly outer edge of the Sierra del Segura, where the pine woods give way to open scrub and cereal fields, and the horizon is a series of pale ridges. The label also links to the Letreros de los Mártires, a set of painted marks in a nearby shelter, which hints at the density of prehistoric art in this district.
Read the complete Tenada de Cueva moreno write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tenada de Cueva moreno, about halfway. Next is back through Cueva del Gitano.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva del Gitano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva del Gitano sits at 104 km, about halfway. Next is back through Las Covachicas.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Las Covachicas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Las Covachicas comes up about 293 km into the recorded legs. Next is molino de las fuentes I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete molino de las fuentes I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
molino de las fuentes I closes the day.
molino de las fuentes I → Las Covachicas is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Las Covachicas → Cueva del Gitano is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva del Gitano → Tenada de Cueva moreno is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tenada de Cueva moreno → back through Cueva del Gitano is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva del Gitano → back through Las Covachicas is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Las Covachicas → molino de las fuentes I is 78 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.