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.
364 km from Nerpio to Nerpio, about 6 h 37 of riding. The stops in between: Gabar, Cueva de la Plata and back through Gabar. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 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. Cavidad I
The Nerpio area has been lived in, in one way or another, for a very long time, and the people who live there now seem to know it. Cavidad I, one of the shelters that archaeologists numbered in this district, lies about eight kilometres from the village of Nerpio, up on the plateau where the pines give way to farmland. The tradition of keeping sheep and goats on these hills is old, and the tracks that the flocks use to move between summer and winter pasture have shaped the paths you will find.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cavidad I is where the day begins. Next is Gabar.
2. Gabar
High in the north of Almería province, far from the beaches most people associate with the name, the Sierra de María rises in grey limestone above a plateau of almond orchards and cereal fields. Gabar is a point in the hills between the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, part of a cluster of rock-art shelters in the Los Vélez district. This corner of Spain is famous for one painted figure in particular: the Indalo, a little stick man holding an arc over his head, found in the Cueva de los Letreros just outside Vélez-Blanco. It has become the emblem of the whole province, painted on doors and sold as a lucky charm, which is a remarkable career for a prehistoric doodle.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Gabar comes up about 83 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de la Plata.
3. Cueva de la Plata
Aledo is a tiny village on a rocky spur in the hills of Murcia, a place that punches well above its weight in history. In the eleventh century, it was a fortress on the frontier between Christian Castile and the Muslim taifa kingdoms, and the siege of Aledo in 1088 was a major episode in the struggle for the peninsula. A tower still stands above the village. The Cueva de la Plata, the silver cave, lies in the hills nearby, between Aledo, Totana and Alhama de Murcia.