High in the south-east of Albacete province, where the Sierra de Segura meets the Granada highlands, the land turns to pine, juniper and bare limestone ridges, and the village of Nerpio sits in a basin about six kilometres from this stop. The name means the rock shelter of Taibona Castle, and it is one of a cluster of painted overhangs around Nerpio, among the densest groups of rock art in Spain. Hunters, deer and goats were drawn in red on the shelter walls long before anyone built a castle on the crag above, and the whole group counts among the Mediterranean Basin rock art that UNESCO protects. Because the paint is delicate, access is controlled and the shelters are best visited through the local interpretation arrangements rather than by wandering up a slope, so ask in Nerpio before you set out.
The approach is the best part of the day. From Yeste or from Huéscar the roads climb through dry farmland into woods, with long, easy bends rather than hairpins, and surfaces that are fine but not always freshly laid. Traffic is almost absent. The Taibilla river drains this basin, and it feeds the water supply of a huge stretch of the Murcia coast, which gives you an odd thought as you cross a stream in the middle of nowhere. Cold nights arrive early here because of the altitude, and winter can bring ice and snow, so autumn and late spring are my choice, with sun on the rock and not much heat.
Nerpio is a small place, around sixteen hundred people, and it is the sensible spot for a coffee and a bocadillo, with a bar or two and a grocery for water. For fuel, count on Nerpio only if you check first; Yeste, about twenty-six kilometres away, is the larger bet, and Huéscar, thirty-nine kilometres off with some eight thousand inhabitants, is the sure one. Do not run a tank low between them. Segura de la Sierra, with its castle and its stone village on a hilltop, is a good addition if you have time to follow the road north.
The shelter is also a reminder of how long this land has been inhabited. The castle crowning the ridge is medieval and looks out over a landscape that sheep still graze, and the paintings below it come from a world that was already ancient by the time that wall went up.