STAGE: Martos - Alcaudete

We leave the Avenida de los Olivares, leaving the ‘old’ Martos and passing through the ‘new’ part of it we will reach a roundabout, once we have passed the roundabout we continue straight ahead and in a wide street we will go to the right on the pavement, we are coming out on the path of the Fraile de Belda.

We follow this road straight ahead, entering the largest and most extensive area of olive groves in the world. As a reference we will find two large ‘pinetes’ that announce the farmhouse that gives its name to the path. We leave the farmhouse to our left and in front of us a grove of trees announces the ‘Vía Verde del Aceite’. Without taking this path we continue straight on. We see large trees at a crossroads. To cross a stream, we turn left and ford the Arroyo Salado, and after a climb we will come to two paths, taking the right one to join the ‘Vía Verde del Aceite’ (Olive Oil Greenway).

During these kilometres we will pass several picnic areas where we can rest, we will pass under the old N-321, we will continue along the Vía Verde until we reach an old railway building, here we must turn left leaving the Vía Verde, now the new cattle track will take us to a farmhouse and later to an old medieval bridge over the River Víboras, a nice place to relax and have lunch enjoying the beautiful scenery.

From here the path climbs up to the town of Alcaudete, at the start of a climb of about 4 kilometres and a descent of almost 3 will take us to Alcaudete. Once we enter the town, we look for the signposting of the path in a street and it will leave us directly in the Town Hall square.