The Covachos, the little caves, are a short ride from Nerpio, a mountain village of about sixteen hundred people in the south-west of Albacete province, in the headwaters of the Segura river. The shelter is one of dozens in this district, which has one of the densest concentrations of prehistoric painting in Spain, in both the Levantine style and the later schematic one. UNESCO protects the Levantine sites as part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula. What makes Nerpio special is that the paintings are scattered through a living landscape of farms, springs and sheep tracks, so you may find yourself looking at a thousands-year-old figure with a shepherd's dog watching from the next rock.
This is high country. Nerpio stands above a thousand metres, and the sierras around it, Segura, Alcaraz and Taibilla, are among the wildest in southern Spain. Pine woods cover the slopes, and the limestone cliffs are home to vultures and eagles. The sky at night is exceptionally dark and clear, and on a moonless night in late summer, the Milky Way is impressive. Winters are cold, with snow likely on the higher roads, and summer days, though warm, are rarely oppressive.
The riding is excellent, with empty roads through high valleys and forest, the surface mostly good but with the occasional broken patch or stretch of gravel. Bends range from long sweepers on the plateau to tight turns where the road drops into a ravine. Segura de la Sierra, a hill village in Jaén province about twenty-eight kilometres away, has a castle on a crag and a view that justifies the trip.
You cannot assume fuel at Nerpio. Fill up at Yeste, the nearest town of any size, with about three and a half thousand people, or even farther afield before heading into the sierra, and check opening hours. Letur, a pretty white village with Moorish-looking lanes, makes a good coffee stop. Take a jacket even in summer, as the evening cools quickly.