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 Velez Rubio it runs 315 km to Velez Rubio; allow about 6 h 49 of riding. On the way it passes Abrigo de los Gavilanes, Cueva de la Plata, Abrigo del milano and back through Cueva de la Plata. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The north of Almería province is a different Spain from the sunburnt beach coast to the south. Here, around Vélez-Blanco and Vélez-Rubio, the land lifts to a high, cold plateau of almonds, cereal and pine woods, and the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park rises above it, a rough limestone ridge with its summit above two thousand metres. Panal is a rock shelter in those hills, a short distance from Vélez-Blanco, and it belongs to the group of paintings recognised by UNESCO as the Mediterranean Basin rock art. Here the paintings are of the schematic kind, simple red signs and figures, rather than the lively hunting scenes found further north.
Read the complete Panal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Panal is where the day begins. 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.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de la Plata.
Aledo is a tiny village on a rocky spur in the hills of Murcia, a place that punches well above its weight in history. In the eleventh century, it was a fortress on the frontier between Christian Castile and the Muslim taifa kingdoms, and the siege of Aledo in 1088 was a major episode in the struggle for the peninsula. A tower still stands above the village. The Cueva de la Plata, the silver cave, lies in the hills nearby, between Aledo, Totana and Alhama de Murcia.
Read the complete Cueva de la Plata 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 de la Plata. Next is Abrigo del milano.
Bullas is wine country, and the vineyards of Monastrell grapes roll over the hills around the town in the northwest of Murcia, producing robust red wines under their own denomination of origin. The Abrigo del Milano, the kite's shelter, named after the bird of prey that circles over these hills, lies in the countryside between Bullas, Mula and Pliego. It is one of the many rock shelters in Murcia with prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art, though access to many shelters is restricted to protect them, so ask locally before trying to visit.
Read the complete Abrigo del milano write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo del milano, about halfway. Next is back through Cueva de la Plata.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cueva de la Plata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Cueva de la Plata sits at 128 km, about halfway. Next is back through Abrigo de los Gavilanes.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de los Gavilanes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Abrigo de los Gavilanes comes up about 265 km into the recorded legs. Next is Panal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Panal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Panal closes the day.
Panal → Abrigo de los Gavilanes is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de los Gavilanes → Cueva de la Plata is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cueva de la Plata → Abrigo del milano is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del milano → back through Cueva de la Plata is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cueva de la Plata → back through Abrigo de los Gavilanes is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de los Gavilanes → Panal is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.