Abrigo de la fuente del Sapo and Abrigo del milano
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
416 km
Riding-time estimate
8 h 07
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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 Nerpio to Nerpio, about 8 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Cueva Ambrosio, Abrigo del milano and back through Cueva Ambrosio. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 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. Abrigo de la fuente del Sapo
Nerpio sits high in the Sierra del Segura, in the southwest of Albacete, about eleven hundred metres up, and it feels like an outpost of the Andalusian mountains that happens to be in Castile-La Mancha. The village is small, with roughly sixteen hundred people, and the countryside around is a deep, rumpled landscape of pine forest, rock outcrops and tiny cultivated valleys. More than forty rock shelters with paintings have been found in the area, making Nerpio one of the richest places for prehistoric art in Spain, with paintings in red showing animals, hunters and abstract signs.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de la fuente del Sapo is where the day begins. Next is Cueva Ambrosio.
2. Cueva Ambrosio
Cueva Ambrosio belongs to the high, empty north of Almería province, on the dry plateau where Andalusia runs into Murcia, fifteen or so kilometres out of Vélez-Blanco. This is a landscape of broad, pale fields, almond and cereal farms, low limestone ridges and long skylines, with the pines of the Sierra María to the south and almost nothing built on the horizon.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cueva Ambrosio comes up 64 km in. Next is Abrigo del milano.
3. Abrigo del milano
Bullas is wine country, and the vineyards of Monastrell grapes roll over the hills around the town in the northwest of Murcia, producing robust red wines under their own denomination of origin. The Abrigo del Milano, the kite's shelter, named after the bird of prey that circles over these hills, lies in the countryside between Bullas, Mula and Pliego. It is one of the many rock shelters in Murcia with prehistoric paintings, part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean rock art, though access to many shelters is restricted to protect them, so ask locally before trying to visit.