Zaén is a quiet valley in the north-western corner of the Murcia region, in the municipality of Moratalla, where pine-covered sierras close in and the streams run clear and cold. The Abrigo de Zaén II is one of several painted rock shelters here, and like the others it belongs to the World Heritage Site of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin, inscribed in 1998. Levantine art, found along the eastern side of the Iberian Peninsula, shows lively figures of humans and animals, often in scenes of hunting, gathering and, sometimes, conflict.
The figures in the Zaén shelters are small and faded, painted in red pigment on the rock face, and you need patience and good light to make them out. The setting, though, is lovely: a valley of farms, orchards and pine woods, with limestone cliffs above and the sound of water. It feels remote and untouched, far from the tourist coasts.
The wider area has much to offer. Caravaca de la Cruz, one of the holy cities of Catholicism, with a shrine housing a relic of the True Cross, is about half an hour's ride away. Every May the town celebrates the Caballos del Vino, when teams of men race horses decorated with embroidered cloaks up the hill to the castle. Socovos, nearby in Albacete province, has a castle on a rock above the village, and Letur is a beautiful village of Moorish origin with narrow streets and water channels.
The roads in this area are a delight: winding, quiet and scenic, through mountains, valleys and villages. The road from Moratalla to Nerpio, through the Sierra de Segura, is particularly good, with curves, climbs and views. Surfaces vary, and you may meet livestock, cyclists and farm vehicles. Summers are hot, especially in the valleys, and winters can be cold, with snow at higher elevations.
Moratalla, eighteen kilometres away, is the base for fuel and supplies. Buy bread, cured sausage and a wedge of local cheese there, and eat by a stream in the Zaén valley where the only interruption will be goat bells.