Abrigo de la Esperilla and Izquierda E. de Santonje
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
103 km
Riding-time estimate
3 h 34
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.
103 km from Velez Rubio to Velez Rubio, about 3 h 34 of riding. On the way it passes Yedra, Izquierda E. de Santonje and back through Yedra. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Abrigo de la Esperilla
Almería is known for its beaches and desert, but the north of the province holds a different landscape: high, dry limestone mountains with pine forests, almond groves and a series of rock shelters where prehistoric people painted. The Sierra de María-Los Vélez rises above two thousand metres, and around the town of Vélez-Blanco several shelters preserve paintings of the Levantine style, with small, lively red figures of hunters, animals and humans. UNESCO lists Spain's Levantine rock art as a World Heritage Site, and the Abrigo de la Esperilla is one of those painted places.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de la Esperilla is where the day begins. Next is Yedra.
2. Yedra
In the souvenir shops of Almería there is a little stick figure with outstretched arms and a rainbow arching over his head, and it comes from here. This is the Indalo, a prehistoric painting found in the Cueva de los Letreros near Vélez-Blanco, and it has become the emblem of the whole province, painted on houses and doors and carved on bracelets. Nobody knows quite what it meant, though some say it was a charm against storms. Yedra is a nearby shelter, a short drive from the village, and belongs to the same group of rock art sites that UNESCO lists as part of the Mediterranean Basin tradition.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Yedra comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 18 km on.
3. Izquierda E. de Santonje
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.