Bocairent is a village built on a rock, its old houses clinging to a limestone spur above a ravine in the Serra de Mariola, in the south of the province of Valencia. Across the ravine, in the cliff face, a row of small square openings looks out like windows: these are the Covetes dels Moros, a series of artificial caves cut into the rock, connected by internal passages, whose purpose is still debated. They may have been granaries, refuges or even a monastery, and their name means the little caves of the Moors.
The Abric de les Finestres, the shelter of the windows, is one of several rock shelters around Bocairent with prehistoric paintings, part of the Levantine rock art of the Mediterranean. The Serra de Mariola is a natural park, a range of limestone mountains covered with pine, holm oak and aromatic plants, many used in traditional medicine and to make herbal liqueurs. Mariola is also known for its old ice houses, the cavas, where snow was stored in winter and sold as ice in the summer.
The riding in the Serra de Mariola and the surrounding mountains is excellent. Roads climb from the valleys of the Vall d'Albaida through forests and over passes, with tight bends, steep gradients and views across the ranges. The road from Bocairent to Alcoi crosses the mountains with plenty of curves. Surfaces are generally good, traffic is light, and the scenery is wild and beautiful. Summer is hot in the valleys but cooler in the mountains, and winters can bring frost and occasional snow at altitude.
Bocairent, three kilometres away, is a village of four thousand with fuel and basic services, and Ontinyent, a town of thirty-seven thousand, is close by. Bocairent has a bullring carved out of the rock, one of the oldest in the region, and its old town is a maze of steep lanes. The local food includes hearty mountain dishes like olleta and gazpacho manchego, a stew of game with flatbread. Herbal liqueurs, such as herbero, made from mountain plants, are a local specialty, best enjoyed in the evening.