Before the reservoir and the anglers' boats, Mequinenza was a coal town. The seams of lignite that run under the hills around the confluence of the Segre and the Ebro were dug for generations, and the coal was shipped down the river to feed the furnaces and power stations of a growing Spain. When the mines faded and the old town was submerged, a good part of the population left, and the people who remained are proud of a heritage that is half underground and half underwater. The Barranc de Canà shelter lies five kilometres out, in dry hills between the town and the road to Fraga.
The surrounding landscape is pale and austere. Low, eroded hills carry rosemary and pine, the fields are small and terraced, and the sky seems very large. The roads are open, quiet and fast, with wide views across the water, and corners come at long intervals. Autumn and spring are the sensible seasons. In summer the heat in this trough of the Ebro is formidable, and winter brings the cierzo, a cold wind that has been known to bring cyclists to a standstill.
Mequinenza has the fuel and a few places to eat, and in the old centre you can find the local specialities of freshwater fish. Seròs, nine kilometres away, is smaller and pleasantly sleepy. Fraga, thirteen kilometres off, is the real town of the district, with nearly fourteen thousand people and a history that includes the battle of 1134, in which Alfonso the Battler of Aragon met a defeat that proved fatal. It is also a centre for fruit, particularly peaches, grown in the irrigated plain of the Cinca.
Reaching the shelter takes a little local knowledge, and the paintings, like others in the region, are small and weathered. Ask at the tourist office in Mequinenza for the latest advice, bring plenty of water, and wear shoes with a grip.