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 171 km round trip from Socovos - roughly 3 h 55 in the saddle. On the way it passes La Risca I, Abrigo de la Ventana I, Prado del Tornero I and Abrigo de la Ventana II. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Socovos is the sort of village you only find by getting a little lost: a cluster of white houses below a ruined castle in the far southeast of Albacete province, where the plains of La Mancha give way to the tangled ridges of the Sierra de Segura. Solana del Molinico, close by, is one of the rock-art shelters in this corner of Spain that belong to the UNESCO listing for Levantine rock art. The word solana means a sun-facing slope, and many of these painted overhangs face south, catching the warmth on winter days just as they must have done when hunters and gatherers sheltered here.
Read the complete Solana del molinico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Solana del molinico is where the day begins. Next is La Risca I.
Moratalla is a hill town that spills down a slope beneath its castle in the north-west of Murcia, a maze of steep, narrow streets, whitewashed houses and stairways. Around it lies a vast municipality of mountains, forests and valleys, and in the valley of Benizar, near the Río Benamor, is La Risca, a group of painted shelters that form part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings include human figures and animals, typical of the Levantine style, small and faded but full of life.
Read the complete La Risca I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Risca I comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de la Ventana I.
High in the Sierra de Segura, where Albacete, Murcia and Jaén meet, the Taibilla river cuts a deep valley through limestone mountains, and the cliffs and shelters along its banks hide some of the finest prehistoric paintings in Spain. The Abrigo de la Ventana, the window shelter, is one of them, near the village of Nerpio, and it is part of the World Heritage site of Levantine rock art.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Ventana I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de la Ventana I. Next is Prado del Tornero I.
Nerpio is the place the road seems to forget. It lies in the far south-west of Albacete province, tucked against the Sierra de Segura and the Murcian border, in a high valley where the headwaters of the Taibilla and other streams gather. It has fewer than two thousand residents and one of the densest clusters of prehistoric rock paintings in Spain, dozens of shelters scattered through the surrounding crags. These are part of the Levantine and schematic traditions, painted in red and black, and covered by the same World Heritage listing as the painted caves of the Levante coast.
Read the complete Prado del Tornero I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Prado del Tornero I, about halfway. Next is Abrigo de la Ventana II.
A window in the rock gives the shelter its name, and the Abrigo de la Ventana II lies about twelve kilometres from Nerpio in the high country of the Sierra del Segura, where limestone cliffs are pierced by natural openings and hollows. It is the second of two shelters of that name, and it appears on a route with the Diosa Madre, the Mother Goddess, which is the title that archaeologists have given to a rock painting that they interpret as a female figure. The whole group belongs to the Mediterranean rock art listed by UNESCO in 1998.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Ventana II write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abrigo de la Ventana II sits at 70 km, about halfway. Next is back through Prado del Tornero I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Prado del Tornero I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Prado del Tornero I comes up about 110 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Abrigo de la Ventana I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Ventana I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 134 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Abrigo de la Ventana I. Next is back through La Risca I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Risca I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through La Risca I, late in the day. Next is Solana del molinico.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Solana del molinico write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 171 km.
Solana del molinico → La Risca I is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Risca I → Abrigo de la Ventana I is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Ventana I → Prado del Tornero I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Prado del Tornero I → Abrigo de la Ventana II is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Ventana II → back through Prado del Tornero I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Prado del Tornero I → back through Abrigo de la Ventana I is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la Ventana I → back through La Risca I is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Risca I → Solana del molinico is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.