Abric del Cinto de la Ventana and Abrigo del Buen Aire I
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
416 km
Riding-time estimate
10 h 41
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
416 km from Millares to Millares, about 10 h 41 of riding. On the way it passes Peñon de los machos, Abric de Tortosillas, Olula and Abrigo del Buen Aire I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abric del Cinto de la Ventana
South-west of Valencia the Júcar river has carved a long, winding gorge through the limestone, and the country on either side is some of the most rugged in the region. The Macizo del Caroig, a high limestone massif of pine and scrub, rises to more than eleven hundred metres, and the villages of Millares and Dos Aguas are small places tucked into the valleys at its foot. The Abric del Cinto de la Ventana is a rock shelter in the nearby cliffs, and belongs to the Mediterranean Basin rock art group listed by UNESCO in 1998, the red Levantine paintings painted by prehistoric hunters.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abric del Cinto de la Ventana is where the day begins. Next is Peñon de los machos.
2. Peñon de los machos
Cofrentes is a village at the confluence of two rivers, the Júcar and the Cabriel, in the interior of Valencia province, and it has a curious mix of attractions. Above it stands a castle on a crag. Nearby rises the Cerro de Agrás, the only recently active volcano in the Valencian Community, a dark cone of basalt in a landscape of limestone. And just outside the village, the cooling towers of the Cofrentes nuclear power station send plumes of steam into the sky. The Peñón de los Machos, a rocky outcrop with painted shelters, lies in the hills between Cofrentes, Jalance and Jarafuel.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Peñon de los machos comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abric de Tortosillas.
3. Abric de Tortosillas
The Abric de Tortosillas lies in the mountains near Ayora, in the inland valley of Ayora-Cofrentes in Valencia, and its paintings of human figures and animals are part of the rich rock art of this region, part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin listing. Nearby, at Alpera in Albacete province, the Cueva de la Vieja holds one of the most famous Levantine panels, with dozens of figures, archers, deer and goats, and an interpretation centre in the village. The landscape here is dry and mountainous, with pine forests, cliffs and the valley of the Júcar river.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 115 km into the recorded legs you reach Abric de Tortosillas. Next is Olula.
4. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Olula, about halfway. Next is Abrigo del Buen Aire I.
5. Abrigo del Buen Aire I
Jumilla country is dry, wide and honest. The town sits in the far north of Murcia where it bulges up towards Albacete, surrounded by limestone sierras, almond groves and vineyards of Monastrell grapes that make some of the most powerful red wine in Spain. A few kilometres outside town, in the folds of these hills, lie a group of small rock shelters known as the Abrigos del Buen Aire. They belong to the long chain of prehistoric painted sites strung along the eastern side of the peninsula that UNESCO lists together as the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin.