Barbatón is a hill, and the Cerro de Barbatón a rounded bump of limestone that rises above the farmland between Letur and Socovos, in the south of Albacete. The shelter at its foot, catalogued as the Abrigo del Cerro de Barbatón, is twelve kilometres from Letur and fourteen from Socovos, which tells you right away that this is rural country with long distances between villages. The paintings in the region belong to the Levantine rock art that UNESCO recognised in 1998, and they include some of the finest and best preserved in Spain.
Letur is the place to spend an hour. It is a small town of about twelve hundred people spread along a ridge above the Río Mundo, and its centre is a maze of narrow lanes lined with whitewashed houses with wooden balconies, which keep the layout that they had when the town was Moorish. The Mundo, one of the Segura's main tributaries, rises in a spring cave in the Sierra de Alcaraz and cuts a rugged valley that is a delight to ride beside. You can tell what a Moorish origin means when you look at the details: narrow alleys that shade each other, little squares where the wind does not reach.
The roads in this corner of the Sierra are of the unhurried sort. They twist along the valleys, climb over low passes, and cross the river on narrow bridges, and at every turn you see farmland in small plots, with olives, almonds and a little irrigated vegetable ground. Sheep and goats graze on the hillsides, and shepherds still use some of the old tracks. Spring and autumn are the kindest seasons. The summer heat is fierce, and winter can bring frost to the shaded bends.
Letur has a bar or two and some simple food, usually lamb or migas, a dish of fried breadcrumbs that is a staple across inland Spain. Take enough water for a walk, and be careful on the loose gravel of the farm tracks.