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 138 km to Nerpio; allow about 4 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of Abrigo de las Cañadas I, Río frío and back through Abrigo de las Cañadas I. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,450 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. molino de las fuentes I
A mill is a good reason to remember how much of the old Spanish countryside ran on water. Molino de las Fuentes lies close to Nerpio, in the same high valley of the Sierra de Segura, where springs rise from limestone and feed small channels that were once enough to turn a millstone. The name means the Mill of the Springs, and it is a suitable one in a landscape with plenty of them. Around the mill the land is a mixture of orchard and scrub, with poplars along the water and a sharp smell of damp earth and mint on summer evenings.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
molino de las fuentes I is where the day begins. Next is Abrigo de las Cañadas I.
2. Abrigo de las Cañadas I
High up in the Sierra del Segura, where the province of Albacete meets Granada and Jaén, the village of Nerpio sits at around eleven hundred metres in a country of oak, pine and bare limestone. The Abrigo de las Cañadas, a rock shelter, lies about twelve kilometres from the village among its dry gullies, in one of the most thinly settled corners of Castilla-La Mancha.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de las Cañadas I comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Río frío.
3. Río frío
Cold water is a rare luxury in southern Spain, and a stream called Río Frío promises exactly that. It is a land of pine forests, limestone crags, deep river gorges and tiny villages, and the painted rock shelters scattered through these hills are part of the UNESCO listing of rock art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.