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 Velez Rubio it runs 460 km to Velez Rubio; allow about 9 h 26 of riding. It goes by way of Cueva de la Plata, Cejo Cortado I, Abrigo del Canto Blanco and Abrigo del mediodía I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 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. Los Paradores
The far north of Almería province is not the desert most people imagine. Around Vélez-Blanco and María the land rises into the Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park, a range of limestone peaks with pine and holm oak forest, high plains of cereal and almond and villages that can see snow in winter. Los Paradores is one of the rock art sites in this area, part of the UNESCO listing of the Mediterranean Iberian rock art, and the region holds one of the most famous painted shelters in Spain, the Cueva de los Letreros, home of the Indalo, a stick figure holding an arc over its head that has become the symbol of Almería.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Los Paradores is where the day begins. Next is Cueva de la Plata.
2. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Cueva de la Plata comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Cejo Cortado I.
3. Cejo Cortado I
Mula is a town in the heart of the Murcia region, built on the slopes of a hill crowned by a sixteenth-century castle, with an old quarter of narrow streets, noble houses and churches. Around it, a dry landscape of hills, ravines and badlands opens out, with orchards and olive groves along the river. The Cejo Cortado, a name meaning the cut brow, refers to a rocky escarpment with prehistoric shelters about seven kilometres from the town, between Mula, Albudeite and Ricote.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach Cejo Cortado I. Next is Abrigo del Canto Blanco.
4. Abrigo del Canto Blanco
Jumilla is wine country, and you know it as soon as you arrive. The town sits in the north of the Murcia region, surrounded by a high, dry plateau of vineyards growing the Monastrell grape, which produces powerful, dark red wines. A castle tops the hill above the old town, and the bodegas on its outskirts welcome visitors. The Abrigo del Canto Blanco, the shelter of the white stone, lies in the hills about five kilometres away.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo del Canto Blanco, about halfway. Next is Abrigo del mediodía I.
5. Abrigo del mediodía I
North of Yecla, where the Murcia region meets Albacete, the land rises into a series of isolated limestone hills above a wide, dry plain of vineyards and almond groves. The rock shelters scattered through this country, including the Abrigo del Mediodía, are part of the UNESCO listing of Mediterranean Iberian rock art. The best known cluster is on Monte Arabí, a striking, isolated rock mountain north of the town, whose Cantos de la Visera shelters hold both Levantine and schematic paintings.