Getting there 

 

Numerous cheap airlines are using both Murcia (San Javier) and Malaga, check whether your bike needs to be in a bag.  We came back with Easyjet which meant we had to carry large plastic bags with us for the whole fortnight, but they came in useful for putting under the groundsheet as Spanish campsites often involve pitching your tent on gravel!

 

Accommodation

 

We camped all but 3 nights, but some of the sites don’t open until Easter and they are quite a long way apart. Although fairly pricey (we paid between 15 – 20 Euros a night for 3 of us) nearly every campsite had a decent restaurant with very cheap food and drink, and a hot shower.  It’s wise to try to find out exactly where the campsites are before you plan your route, if a town advertises a campsite that only means that it is within about a 20km radius!  Two of the three hostals we stayed in were really nice and pretty cheap, so if you don’t fancy carrying all the camping stuff around it wouldn’t cost you too much to stay in hostals and you could cut down some of the distances.

 

Eating and Drinking

 

We took a stove (meths is the easiest type of fuel to get hold of) but rarely used it as the food and drink in the restaurants and bars was so cheap. Beware if you are a vegetarian however as there is very little if anything on the menu that doesn’t contain meat.

 

Airports

 

There is a very convenient, if rather scruffy, campsite right next to Murcia airport with a nice bar and restaurant, and access is on small roads rather than dual carriageways.  We came into Malaga airport on the highly dangerous dual carriageway but if you check CTC touring info someone describes a route in avoiding this which I would strongly recommend! They also made us put our bikes through the X-ray machine at Malaga, so if you have a very big bike you may have to take the wheels out!  Nearest campsite to Malaga is Torremolinos which is worth avoiding.  I would recommend booking an evening flight and staying inland!

 

Maps

 

We used the Michellin 1/400 which doesn’t really have enough detail and we ended up asking directions a few times with varying success as people who don’t cycle seem to always want to send you along main roads thinking you want the shortest route.  Make sure you have an up to date map as the Spanish have a habit of turning main roads into motorways without providing an alternative. We encountered very little traffic except on the coast, but in Murcia especially, some of the roads we expected to be small back roads had been upgraded so the little traffic that was using them tended to be going very fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE TOUR

                                                            Km                   Climb (metres)

Alhama de Murcia                                  99.5                  1154

Moratalla                                               82.5                  1152                

Yeste                                                    104                   1926                            

El Robledo                                            73                     1717

Puente de las Herrerias                          70.5                  1033

Huelma                                                 103                   1697

Guadix                                                  78                     944

Valor                                                     72.5                  1586

Orgiva                                                   75                     1445

Almunecar                                             58.5                  716

Arenas del Rey                                      64                     1799

Antiquera                                              102.5                1778

El Chorro                                               38                     535

Malaga                                                  50

 

Day 1 Alhama de Murcia 99.5km

 

The ride inland from the airport isn’t very exciting but there’s little traffic and it’s pretty flat all the way to Alhama de Murcia. With a headwind the 80+km to Alhama seemed far enough only to discover the camping was a further 12km uphill into the Sierra de Espuna in a small village called “El Berro” not even marked on our map!  It was well worth the extra kms to get to this lovely camping in a great spot with a fantastic little restaurant in the village.

 

Day 2 Moratalla 82.5km

 

Another day fighting a headwind made me think we should perhaps have done this ride W to E! A lot of the roads had been improved so the surfaces were really good but a bit too many long straight stretches for my liking.  The camping was again 6km the other side of Moratalla but had spacious pitches and a really smart restaurant.

 

Day 3 Yeste 103km

 

Set off again on straight roads into a headwind but thankfully having ignored local advice that the roads after Letur were not suitable the second half of the day was on fantastic little back roads down past the Fuensanta reservoir.  Again the nearest camping to Yeste was 6km uphill at Bochorno (again not on Michelin map!) Unfortunately this campsite has no restaurant but is run by a really nice old couple and had some amazing showers and a great view.

This was a very long day with a lot of climbing which could be split by stopping in Letur where there was a camping.  Yeste also had a hotel if you didn’t fancy the extra 6km uphill! Another alternative would be to go to Riopar on the main road CM412 which apparently does have a camping (somewhere in a 20km radius!)

 

Day 4 El Robledo 73km

 

Another reason for going to Riopar is that to get to the N end of the Cazorla National Park from Yeste you have to negotiate a dirt track or go on a seriously long detour.  Having picked up a map of sorts in the local tourist office we decided to go for a dirt track starting from a village called Alcantarilla (between Arguellite and La Donar if you have the Michelin map because this one is not marked on either!).  We consulted with someone there who said he had indeed been across the track and confirmed it would take us where we wanted, but said it was a long way and a lot of climbing.  On the basis that most non cyclists think 2 miles on a bike is a long way we decided to go for it!  15 miles and 3 hours of grinding up a very steep dirt track later I had to admit he had been right!  The scenery was fantastic but beware this was seriously hard work with a fully laden bike. We eventually regained the tarmac a few hundred metres S of the road to Segura de la Sierra exactly where we wanted to be. Campings are marked on the map at both Segura and Hornos but the only one we found was at El Robledo.  If it looks closed take the number from the gate and give the owner a call.  It had a really nice looking restaurant which wasn’t open as we were the only people on the site.  The owner obviously decided it wasn’t worth putting the hot water on just for 3 of us either!  However there was a shop in the village and a bar for beer and coffees and it was a great camping spot.

 

 

Day 5 Puente de las Herrerias 70km

 

Suddenly we were back into civilisation with places to eat and drink in abundance, on a lovely sunny day the ride along the side of the reservoir was fantastic and a welcome rest from the tough previous day.  There is quite a long climb out of the end of the valley and if you have the energy it would be worth carrying on to the town of Cazorla which has a nice camping and an interesting centre to look round, it would also make the next day a bit shorter.  We had arranged to meet friends at Puente de Herrerias camping a very large and pleasant enough place but it was a bit noisy with a big group of kids and the restaurant was expensive (for Spain!) and not brilliant.

 

Day 6 Huelma 102km

 

The day started with a steady climb up to the Puerto de las Palomas where there is a great view over the national park as well as the opportunity to do some vulture spotting followed by a fantastic ride down to Cazorla.  From here to Jodar we rode through miles of olive groves on undulating roads.  We had considered staying in Jodar but the piles of litter as we rode in combined with a dead dog laying on the side of the road and a distinct lack of any places you would have fancied staying convinced us we would rather cycle another 30km even into a strong headwind.  Although a fairly main road from here to Huelma it wasn’t busy and was certainly worth the effort as we found the fantastic Hostal Solera where we got B&B + evening meal for 20 Euros each!

 

Day 7 Guadix  77km

 

We went via Guadahortuna where I suspect the locals in the bar rarely saw 3 lycra clad cyclists! And then across to Alamedilla a fast ride down the river, followed by some steep climbing and then back down to Fonelas where we finally found somewhere we fancied stopping to eat without attracting too much attention!  We stayed in the Hostal Retiro which was cheap but not up to much.  There were a couple of other smart hotels which were still only about 45 E for a double.  The next day we discovered that there were 2 campings fairly close in Cogollos de Guadix and Jeres del Marquesado that we could have stayed at.

 

Day 8 Valor 72.5km

 

We had been assured that there was no snow on the Puerto de la Ragua and the sun was shinning so we decided to go across the Sierra Nevada.  The climb starts from La Calahorra which could have been a good place to spend the night as it had a really nice looking hostal and a big castle up on the hill above.  The climb up to the Col is a steady 13km with great views out over the plains we had just come across. Unfortunately while we were in the bar at the top it started to hail and the ride down the other side was fairly unpleasant!  We planned to stay at the camping in Laroles but it looked so bleak in the rain we decided to carry on and found the lovely Hostal las Perdices in the pretty Alpujarran village of Valor.

 

Day 9 Orgiva 75km

 

We thought this was going to be an easy day winding our way round the balcony road through the Alpujarras but it was actually quite hard work with a lot more climbing than we expected.  We eventually reached Trevelez for lunch and dropped down to the camping at Orgiva which was full of Brits and run by a really helpful German woman again with a really nice restaurant (there are 2 campings in Orgiva and this one S of the village is apparently the best)

 

Day 10 Almunecar 58.5km

 

We considered going all the way to Alhama de Granada in 1 day but it was a bit too far so we decided to split it in 2.  We went down to Motril on the coast and then went along the coast road about 15km (not for the faint hearted!) to Almunecar which is actually quite a nice town with an interesting eco friendly camping.  Unless you are desperate to go to the sea however a better option might be to cut across from the N323 to Molvizar  and Itrabo and spend the night in Otivar a nice looking village which had a hostal with some stunning views of the hills.

 

Day 11 Embalse de las Bermejales 64km

 

The ride up from Almunecar is probably about 20km but well worth the effort.  We did discover  that we could have come straight across from Albunuelas on a forest road which although not tarmac looked very solid and was obviously well used as it was signposted. This would have made the ride from Orgiva possible in 1 day but missed the road from Almunecar which was one of my favourites. We camped at the reservoir but Alhama de Granada looked like a good alternative with lots of hostals and bars.

 

Day 12 Antequera 102.5km

 

We went via Zafarraya and Villanueva del Trabuco which wasn’t brilliant as there is a quarry between the 2 places and what looks like a quiet road on the map has loads of lorries thundering along it.  Once you cross the motorway there is a fantastic descent to Villanueva de la Concepcion followed by a steep climb up again to go round the El Torcal National Park.  We stayed at the Camping on the C3310 a few km before Antequera but if you go out of season take food as the restaurant was shut.  There is a free camping area a couple of km outside of Villanueva  which would be worth considering then you could take the road up to El Torcal visitor centre the next morning (unless you are really keen this would probably be a bit much tagged on the end of the ride from Bermejales!)

 

Day 13 El Chorro 38km

 

A favourite with climbers we knew this campsite would be open, that there was a nice restaurant in the village and that it was an easy trip to Malaga the next day so we had a short ride and spent the rest of the day making the most of the Spanish sun.

 

Day 14 Malaga airport

 

The roads get busier as you get towards the coast but it is still a pleasant ride back.   It’s worth stopping at the Restaurante de los Cuatro Vientos on the road between El Romeral and Churriana for a last traditional Spanish meal.  We decided to go the whole hog including a bottle of red wine before tackling the dual carriageway into the airport!