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.
331 km from Nerpio to Nerpio, about 8 h 42 of riding. The stops in between: Diosa madre, Abrigo del Engarbo, Letreros de los mártires and back through Abrigo del Engarbo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abriga de los Idolos
Nerpio is a small village that looks like it has been there for ever, with white houses, a church, a few bars and a plaza where old men sit in the sun, and it is worth getting to know before heading out to the shelters. Its position on a high plateau, at around a thousand metres, makes it cool in summer and cold in winter, and the village has a long tradition of mountain farming: cereals, almonds, sheep and, in the valley bottoms, fruit trees. The Abrigos de los Ídolos are under a kilometre and a half from the plaza.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abriga de los Idolos is where the day begins. Next is Diosa madre.
2. Diosa madre
Some places on a map feel remote; this one actually is. The point named Diosa Madre, mother goddess, lies in the mountains of the Sierra de Segura, in the far southwest of Albacete province, roughly sixteen kilometres from Yeste and not far from the border with Jaén. The mountains themselves are the real experience.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Diosa madre comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Engarbo.
3. Abrigo del Engarbo
Deep in the Sierra de Segura in the northeast of Jaén province, close to where the Segura river is born, the Engarbo rock shelters hide a few small painted figures under limestone overhangs. They belong to the great serial UNESCO listing of Levantine rock art, prehistoric paintings found along the mountains of eastern Spain, with stylised humans and animals in red ochre that have survived thousands of years of sun, frost and goats. The shelters are modest and fragile, often fenced, and visits usually need to be arranged locally, so treat them as a reason to explore this remote corner rather than a guaranteed sight.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Engarbo. Next is Letreros de los mártires.
4. Letreros de los mártires
Out in the high north-east of Granada province, Huéscar feels a long way from the Alhambra and the beaches of the Costa Tropical. This is the altiplano, a broad upland of wheat fields, almond trees and pale badlands at around a thousand metres, ringed by mountains, with the great limestone hump of La Sagra rising to the north. The rock shelter called Letreros de los Mártires lies in this country, a dozen or so kilometres from the town.