Zaén is a name that appears on maps of the Sierra de Segura and the Sierra del Taibilla as a small valley with a few farms, and the shelter here is one of the painted caves of the Albacete interior. The area, wild and thinly populated, lies between Letur, Socovos and Férez, in the country drained by the Mundo river. This is the Spain of the unfashionable inland, where roads are quiet, villages are small and the hills are covered with pine and juniper. The paintings belong to the Mediterranean-arc group UNESCO listed in 1998, and the nearby Letreros de los Mártires, mentioned in the ride titles, belongs to the same tradition.
Letur is the nicest village around, a pile of white houses on a rocky spur above a deep valley, with a medieval street plan that still shows its Moorish origins. Below it the Mundo river has cut a deep gorge through the limestone, and a walk to the edge shows you how high the village sits.
Riding here means long climbs on twisting country roads, with views over folded hills and the odd flock of sheep. The surface is variable. Check fuel before you set off, because the villages have only a few hundred people each. Moratalla, in Murcia, is the nearest real town, eighteen kilometres from the shelter, and Hellín is further off to the north. Spring is the best season, with green slopes and wildflowers, and in autumn the colours deepen. In winter, snow and ice make the high roads difficult.
The air has a clean smell of resin, rosemary and warm stone. Bring water and a small packed lunch, since village bars are scarce and open when they feel like it. The silence in the afternoon, broken only by crickets and a distant tractor, is the real attraction.