Abric de la Gleda and Olula

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Abric de la Gleda

   Cocentaina is a small town with a surprisingly grand palace, and it makes a handy reference point for this corner of the Comtat. The Palau Comtal, a fortified residence from the Middle Ages, stands in the centre, and the town holds one of the oldest fairs in Spain, the Fira de Tots Sants, each year around All Saints' Day. Just down the valley is Alcoi, an industrial town built on paper and textiles, whose steep streets hold Modernista buildings and a famous festival of Moors and Christians. The villages of Planes and Beniarrés, a few kilometres away, are pastoral by comparison, and the Abric de la Gleda lies in the cliffs above one of the ravines that cut into the Serra de Mariola.

   Read the complete Abric de la Gleda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Abric de la Gleda is where the day begins. Next is Cueva de la feliceta.

2. 2. Cueva de la feliceta

   Behind the resort towns of the Costa Blanca, a short ride inland, the land rises into dry limestone hills where almost nobody goes. The Cueva de la Feliceta is one of several prehistoric painted shelters in the hills above El Campello, a coastal town of over twenty-six thousand people about fourteen kilometres away, and one of several painted shelters in the same tradition. The surrounding country is scrub, pine and terraced almond groves, with the sea glinting in the distance and the sound of cicadas in summer.

   Read the complete Cueva de la feliceta write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cueva de la feliceta comes up 85 km in. Next is Olula.

3. 3. Olula

   Caudete and Almansa sit in a corridor of land where Castile-La Mancha, Valencia and Murcia meet, and for centuries this was frontier country, where kingdoms and armies passed and fought. Olula is a point in the hills near Caudete, linked on the rides with rock-art shelters in the surrounding sierras, part of the extensive UNESCO listing of prehistoric art in Mediterranean Spain.

   Read the complete Olula write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   169 km in you reach Olula. Next is back through Cueva de la feliceta.

4. 4. Back to Abric de la Gleda

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Abric de la Gleda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Cueva de la feliceta, late in the day. Next is Abric de la Gleda.

5. 5. Abric de la Gleda

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Abric de la Gleda write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Abric de la Gleda. That is the ride.