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 404 km to Nerpio; allow about 7 h 29 of riding. The stops in between: Izquierda E. de Santonje, Cueva de la Plata and back through Izquierda E. de Santonje. 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. Los Sacristanes
Los Sacristanes is a name given to a group of painted shelters in the empty uplands near Nerpio, in the south-western corner of Albacete province. It sits on the high, pine-covered ground between the Taibilla valley and the headwaters of the Segura, a place so thinly populated that the nearest town of any size is the better part of an hour away. The paintings here, like those across this region, belong to the World Heritage site of Levantine rock art, and they are best seen with a local guide from Nerpio's interpretation centre.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Los Sacristanes is where the day begins. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 64 km on.
2. Izquierda E. de Santonje
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Izquierda E. de Santonje comes up about 102 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.