Cycle Route 13 - La Manga & The Mar Menor

We parked on the outskirts of San Pedro at the Thaialasia hotel and cycled along the cycle track all the way to Santiago de Ribera (Approx 6kms) nice and flat. We located the ferry terminal which is right next to the canoe club and waited for the ferry. We boarded the ferry which was the first one of the day and was very busy, the cost was €4 each and a €1 to take our bikes. It was a very picturesque crossing with great views of the mainland and the strip. There were masses of jelly fish all the way across we’ve never seen so many. After a 45minute crossing we disembarked to find that one of our group had a puncture (there was 10 of us 5 couples) so I had to quickly change the tube before getting on our way.

We were now at Thomas Maestre Port the largest marina on La Manga . We started cycling about 12.30 leaving the Port and heading for the one and only road which had a cycle track on various places, we cycled for about 15kms and stopped at a really nice sandy beach for a drink, swim and cool down as it was in the high 30s.We continued on our trip just following the road , you can’t really go wrong . At the end of the strip we kept to the right ( Cabo De Palos on the left ) and headed for Los Nietos passing the salt flats and staying as close to the shore as we could. We followed rough tracks most of the way to los Nietos where we all stopped for another swim before having Sunday lunch.

After lunch we picked up the road (F34) which was dead flat and more or less straight all the way. We passed through Los Urrutias, Punta Brava, Los Alcazares, Los Narejos, San Javier and finally arriving back at Santiago De la Ribera where we found a nice Tapas bar on the sea front and ordered 10 Tinto de Veranas and coffees, we also had our final dip in the sea before cycling the last 6kms back to the cars. We had an excellent ride, one of the best trips we have done although it was relatively long we took all day enjoying the scenery and stopping regularly for drinks and swims. If you’ve not done this one then I recommend you do it soon before it gets cooler as it was fantastic being able to swim whenever we felt like it. If you think it might be too far then you can always cycle to the top of the strip and cycle back to the port and get the ferry back. (Roughly 40kms) The ferry goes every 2 hours.

We all met at the Arches in Quesada at 9am and arrived back at 9pm!

See you next month…