The Tabernas Desert by motorcycle: Sierra Alhamilla, Sorbas and Mojácar

Tabernas is spaghetti-western country: Sergio Leone filmed here in the 1960s, and those shoots left behind the western towns that can still be visited today, Fort Bravo, Oasys MiniHollywood and Western Leone. The desert has been a protected natural area since 1989.

From Tabernas the route climbs into the Sierra Alhamilla. Turrillas sits at around 850 metres, below Colativí, the highest peak of the range. Lucainena de las Torres keeps the calcination kilns where iron ore was roasted before being sent down to the coast on a 36-kilometre mining railway to Agua Amarga, opened in 1896.

Sorbas has its houses hanging over a meander of the Aguas river and, next door, the Karst en Yesos de Sorbas natural area, with more than a thousand caves that can only be visited with a guide or a permit. Bédar, which lived off iron mining around the turn of the 20th century, is the last climb before dropping to Mojácar, a member of Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España.

This is the dry half of Almería, a companion to the Cabo de Gata route along the coast. The mountain roads carry little traffic and have linked bends; take care after rain, as the dry riverbeds wash mud and stones onto the tarmac.