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.
From Nerpio it runs 323 km to Nerpio; allow about 7 h 02 of riding. On the way it passes Gabar, Cueva de las Palamas and back through Gabar. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Cortijo de la Rosa
A cortijo is a farm in the Andalusian style, a cluster of whitewashed buildings around a yard, and the one named for La Rosa stands in the mountains of the Sierra del Segura, where Albacete, Murcia and Jaén meet. The shelter nearby, one of the many in the Nerpio district, lies about twelve kilometres from the village of Nerpio and a good deal farther from anything else. It carries paintings of the old Levantine kind, protected by UNESCO as part of the Mediterranean rock art of Spain, and the ride links it with another site at Benizar, in the Moratalla district across the border in Murcia.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cortijo de la Rosa 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 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cueva de las Palamas.
3. Cueva de las Palamas
Cehegín, in the north-west of the Murcia region, is a town of two faces: a modern lower town, and an old town on a hill, with steep streets, noble houses and churches, declared a historic site. The Cueva de las Palomas, the cave of the doves, lies on the edge of the town, less than a kilometre from the centre, with the larger town of Caravaca de la Cruz about five kilometres away.