Abrigo de Vicent and Barraac de la Palla

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Abrigo de Vicent

   For most of its length, the Júcar river in Valencia province runs through gorges, reservoirs and dry hills, and in the days before roads, the way to bring timber from the mountains to the coast was to float it. The woodsmen who did this were called gancheros, after the long hooked poles they used to push logs through rapids, and for centuries they took pine trunks down the Júcar and the Cabriel in spring floods, riding the logs and breaking jams. That trade ended in the twentieth century, but their memory is kept alive in villages like Millares and Bicorp. The shelter named for a man, Abrigo de Vicent, lies about five and a half kilometres from Bicorp, and carries painting in the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain.

   Read the complete Abrigo de Vicent write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Abrigo de Vicent is where the day begins. Next is Abric de la monja.

2. 2. Abric de la monja

   Ontinyent sits in the Vall d'Albaida, in the south of Valencia, a town of about thirty-eight thousand people with a long textile tradition that goes back to wool, blankets and, more recently, home textiles. The Clariano river runs through it, and the hills around are wrinkled limestone, covered in pine, holm oak and wild herbs. In the shelter of those hills, small rock overhangs, called abrics here, carry paintings made by prehistoric people, and the Abric de la Monja is one of them, part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art that UNESCO listed in 1998.

   Read the complete Abric de la monja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Abric de la monja comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Barraac de la Palla.

3. 3. Barraac de la Palla

   Tormos and Sagra are tiny villages at the foot of the mountains in the north of Alicante province, at the point where the plain of the Marina Alta meets the hills. They are surrounded by orange groves and orchards, with the mountains of the Vall de Laguar and the Serra del Migdia rising steeply behind. The Barranc de la Palla, the ravine of the straw, cuts into the hills near Tormos, close also to Orba and the town of Pego.

   Read the complete Barraac de la Palla write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Barraac de la Palla. Next is back through Abric de la monja.

4. 4. back through Abric de la monja

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Abric de la monja write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Abric de la monja, late in the day. Next is Abrigo de Vicent.

5. 5. Abrigo de Vicent

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Abrigo de Vicent write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Abrigo de Vicent. That is the ride.