Touristic Routes

This route starts and finishes in Los Belones and will take you to the bay of Portmán, one of the most gorgeous and lonely places of the coast, and the famous La Unión mining area.

Length: 24 kilometres. Maximum unevenness: 240 metres.

Difficulty: easy. The only difficult parts are two little saddle points you have to go through, first to enter Portmán bay (100 metres) and then to cross the mining mountain range (240 metres).

Duration: three hours.

Recommendations: try not to go during the hottest hours and walk carefully along the tarmacked areas. In the mining mountain range do not get close to the wells.

Description of the route:

0.0- Los Belones. Enter the village opposite bar Deportivo and take La Fuente avenue, which crosses over the freeway.
1.1- Crossroads. Las Barracas centre. Once we have reached the electric transformer turn right following a tarmacked road that goes between some houses.
1.3- The tarmac ends and the path begins. Pedal along a watercourse and leave behind a dumpster.
1.7- Crossroads next to an electric post. Turn right to cross the watercourse.
2.6- El Puntal property. Horseriding school. Follow the tarmacked road on the left towards a tower and a great watering damn.
2.8- Crossroads. Continue along the path opposite you.
3.2- Crossroads, you will reach a tarmacked road going from Los Belones to Portmán. Continue to the left.
6.3- Crossroads. On the right you will see the road to El Llano. Continue straight on, skip a small saddle point and start going down towards the bay.
8.5- Crossroads. Turn left towards the lighthouse.
10.1- Lighthouse and beach. From this point you can see the terrible ecological disaster caused by the mining waste dumped in the Peñarroya bay, which has been completely covered. The beach is now a kilometre away from its original location. The mooring posts on the old port of Portmán are now some grotesque creatures. Go back along the same path.
11.7- Crossroads, turn right towards Los Belones.
13.7- Saddle point (100 metres).
13.8- Take the path on the left.
16.3- Saddle point (240 metres). From this point you will get a superb view of the Mar Menor, the Carmolí Hill and the battered La Unión mountain range, which has been beat by sweat and tragedy since immemorial times.
17.8- Crossroads to the right towards El Llano del Beal.
18.1- Llano del Beal. Go straight across the village.
18.8- After going under the railway bridge, you will reach the road going from La Unión to Los Nietos. Turn right.
21.5- Cross La Manga freeway. Turn right and take the service road towards Los Belones.
24.0- Los Belones. End of the route.

Interesting places:

- Portmán. The Roman Portus Magnus has suffered the worst ecological attack in the entire Mediterranean coast. The waste dumping from the mining areas has covered this beautiful bay and turned what used to be a flourishing fishermen's village into a small interior village. The landscapes and cliffs around this area are incomparable to anything else on the Mediterranean coast. From here, the ships from Imperial Rome extracted tons of iron and other minerals that travelled on triremes to all corners of the empire.