Ayora is the town for this country, and the road to the shelter starts there, in a broad valley of cereal fields, vines and almond trees where the horizon seems to move away as you approach it. The Valle de Ayora-Cofrentes lies in the south-west of the province of Valencia, between the Júcar river and the mountains of the interior, and it is the kind of landscape that you might cross without noticing, if you were not on the lookout for the dozens of painted shelters hidden in the surrounding gorges.
This shelter, associated with the names Lucio and Gavidia, lies a short distance from Bicorp, about four kilometres off. It belongs to the same family of Levantine paintings as the more famous Spider Cave, which is also near Bicorp. The red figures are small and slender, and some show the details of clothing or hairstyle, hints that make these paintings feel less like decoration and more like portraits. UNESCO listed the whole tradition in 1998.
Cofrentes, to the south, is known for an unlikely pair of things: a dramatic castle on a volcanic rock above the Júcar and a nuclear power station on the river below. The two sit awkwardly side by side. The Júcar here has been squeezed into a deep canyon, and the rafting companies that operate on it in spring and summer give some life to what would otherwise be a quiet corner.
The ride from Ayora to Bicorp is a pleasure for anyone who likes long, quiet roads. The surface is mostly good, with a mix of wide curves across the plateau and a scatter of tighter bends as the road drops into the valleys. There is little traffic and very few places to stop, and the air smells of thyme and dust. Spring is lovely, and the plateau is carpeted with flowers. Winter is cold, and frost can linger on the shaded stretches.
Ayora, with five and a half thousand people, is the place for fuel and for a proper meal, twenty-one kilometres from the shelter. Bicorp has a bar and a shop. Carry water for the walk, and take your time on the path.