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 178 km round trip from Velez Rubio - roughly 4 h 27 in the saddle. The stops in between: Izquierda E. de Santonje, Abrigo de los Gavilanes 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.
Molinos means mills, and the name tells you how this corner of Almería was run. Above Vélez-Blanco, the sierra drops snow and rain on limestone that gives it back as springs, and for centuries the streams below were harnessed by grain mills, fulling mills and irrigation channels. Many were laid out under Moorish rule, and the system of acequias that still waters fields in the Los Vélez valley follows their pattern. The shelter at Molinos I, a bit under two kilometres from Vélez-Blanco, belongs to the rich cluster of painted sites around the town, in the Levantine tradition protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain. The ride also links it to the site known as Guijarral, a name that means pebbly ground.
Read the complete Molinos I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Molinos I 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 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de los Gavilanes.
Gavilanes means sparrowhawks, and the name fits a shelter high on a limestone face above the dry country where Murcia meets Almería. The Abrigo de los Gavilanes lies in the hills west of Lorca, in an area scattered with painted shelters such as the Collado de la Cruz and Los Grajos, the jackdaws, and it is part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. The figures are small, red and schematic, painted by communities who farmed and herded here thousands of years ago.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Gavilanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de los Gavilanes. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 20 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 Molinos I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Molinos I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Molinos I. That is the ride.
Molinos I → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Abrigo de los Gavilanes is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 69 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → Molinos I is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.