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.
349 km from Nerpio to Nerpio, about 7 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of La Risca I, Abrigo del Pozo III, Abrigo de los Cortijos and Cueva del Peliciego. 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. Prado del Tornero I
Nerpio is the place the road seems to forget. It lies in the far south-west of Albacete province, tucked against the Sierra de Segura and the Murcian border, in a high valley where the headwaters of the Taibilla and other streams gather. It has fewer than two thousand residents and one of the densest clusters of prehistoric rock paintings in Spain, dozens of shelters scattered through the surrounding crags. These are part of the Levantine and schematic traditions, painted in red and black, and covered by the same World Heritage listing as the painted caves of the Levante coast.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Prado del Tornero I is where the day begins. Next is La Risca I.
2. La Risca I
Moratalla is a hill town that spills down a slope beneath its castle in the north-west of Murcia, a maze of steep, narrow streets, whitewashed houses and stairways. Around it lies a vast municipality of mountains, forests and valleys, and in the valley of Benizar, near the Río Benamor, is La Risca, a group of painted shelters that form part of the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. The paintings include human figures and animals, typical of the Levantine style, small and faded but full of life.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La Risca I comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo del Pozo III.
3. Abrigo del Pozo III
The Segura river cuts through the north-west of Murcia in a series of gorges and green oases, and near Calasparra its banks hold a surprising treasure. The Abrigo del Pozo shelters, of which this is the third, contain prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, small human and animal figures in red ochre that form part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean arc. The shelters are fragile and generally protected, often visited only with a guide, so check with the local tourist office before you count on seeing them.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo del Pozo III. Next is Abrigo de los Cortijos.
4. Abrigo de los Cortijos
Hellín is a town in the south-east of Albacete province, on the edge of the dry plains of La Mancha, where the landscape breaks into hills and ravines on its way down to the Segura river. Its old town climbs a hill crowned by a castle, and its streets are lined with houses from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Abrigo de los Cortijos lies in the hills about nine kilometres from the town, toward Albatana and Tobarra.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Abrigo de los Cortijos, about halfway. Next is Cueva del Peliciego.
5. Cueva del Peliciego
Jumilla is wine. This town in the north of Murcia sits in a high, dry valley surrounded by bare mountains, and its vineyards, planted with the Monastrell grape, produce powerful red wines under the Jumilla designation of origin, one of the oldest in Spain. The Cueva del Peliciego, a rock shelter in the hills near the town, holds prehistoric paintings in the Levantine style, and it has been known since the early twentieth century, when it was one of the first rock art sites studied in the region.