Castellón de los machos and Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
287 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 23
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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
287 km from Boniches to Boniches, about 6 h 23 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón, Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas, Cerrada del Tío Jorge and Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Castellón de los machos
High in the Serranía de Cuenca, among pine woods and sandstone outcrops near the village of Villar del Humo, prehistoric hunters painted figures on the rock shelters thousands of years ago. The site called Castellón de los Machos is one of a cluster in this area that belongs to the vast UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, which covers hundreds of painted shelters from Catalonia to Andalusia. The images here are small, reddish and stylised, and finding them takes patience and good eyes.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Castellón de los machos is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón.
2. Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón
Paridera is a shepherd's word: a stone pen where ewes give birth, sheltered from the wind. Above Tormón, a tiny village in the southern Sierra de Albarracín, one such overhang has given its name to a rock shelter with prehistoric paintings, the Abrigo de la Paridera, part of the Levantine rock art sites the Iberian Peninsula shares under one UNESCO listing. The cliff here is rodeno, the red sandstone that gives this corner of Teruel its startling colour, eroded into towers, arches and overhangs among the pine trees.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas.
3. Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas
Albarracín is one of the loveliest villages in Spain, a town of pink-ochre houses on a rock bend above the Guadalaviar river, with medieval walls climbing the hill behind. The Sierra de Albarracín around it is high and cold, at about 1,200 metres, a land of pine forest, red sandstone outcrops called rodeno, and wide empty plateaus. The Guadalaviar, which becomes the Turia in Valencia, rises in these hills, and the Tagus and the Júcar are not far from their sources. The rock shelters of this region, including the Huerto de las Tajadas, hold some of the oldest paintings of the Levantine and Schematic styles, and they are part of the Mediterranean-arc group UNESCO listed in 1998.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 82 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas. Next is Cerrada del Tío Jorge.
4. Cerrada del Tío Jorge
A cerrada, in the dry uplands of Teruel and Cuenca, is a place where the land closes in: a narrow gorge, a pinch in the valley wall, the sort of spot where a shepherd could shut a flock in for the night and be done. Tío Jorge, Uncle George, is one of those anonymous local names that outlast any record of who he was.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cerrada del Tío Jorge, about halfway. Next is Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad.
5. Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad
Albarracín is the town every Spaniard has a photograph of, and with good reason. Its pink-ochre walls climb a rocky spur above a bend in the Guadalaviar river, a medieval fortress-town whose streets are so narrow and steep that cars were long ago banished from the old quarter. Not far off, the Pinares de Rodeno, a forest of pines growing on red sandstone, hides dozens of shelters with prehistoric paintings, also on the World Heritage list. The paridera of the label is a shepherd's stone pen, a humble relic of a pastoral world that endured in these hills for centuries.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 287 km.
Leg by leg
Castellón de los machos to Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón
Castellón de los machos → Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón to Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas
Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón → Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas to Cerrada del Tío Jorge
Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas → Cerrada del Tío Jorge is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Cerrada del Tío Jorge to Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad
Cerrada del Tío Jorge → Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad to back through Cerrada del Tío Jorge
Abrigo Contiguo a la Paridera de las Tajad → back through Cerrada del Tío Jorge is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Cerrada del Tío Jorge to back through Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas
back through Cerrada del Tío Jorge → back through Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas to back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón
back through Abrigo del Huerto de las Tajadas → back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón to Castellón de los machos
back through Abrigo de la Paridera de Tormón → Castellón de los machos is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.