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. On the way it passes 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 far north of Almería surprises people who think the province is all desert and greenhouses. Up here, around the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, you are in the Sierra de María-Los Vélez natural park, a range of limestone mountains covered with pine and holm oak, with snow in winter and cool nights even in August. The site recorded on the map simply as Queso sits in the hills south of María, among the cluster of prehistoric shelters for which this corner of Andalusia is known.
Read the complete Queso write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Queso 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 Queso.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Queso write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Queso closes the day.
Queso → 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 → Queso is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.