The Vall d'Ebo is a pocket of mountains behind the Costa Blanca where the sea is only half an hour away, yet the villages look as if they belong to another century. Adsubia and Vall d'Ebo are tiny settlements of a few hundred people, in a landscape of steep ravines, terraces and bare limestone walls. The Valencian word barranc, a ravine, is on the map everywhere, and each one has its own name. The Barranc de l'Infern, the Hell Ravine, nearby, is a famed walk on a path of thousands of stone steps that the Moriscos, Muslim farmers, built to link villages. They were expelled in 1609, and the terraces and steps are a legacy of their work.
The rock shelters here belong to the family of Levantine paintings, with their small red figures of hunters and animals, which UNESCO listed in 1998. The area has several sites, including the Barranc de Parets, and they are small and fragile. Access is limited, so ask in Pego or Vall d'Ebo about what is open to visitors, and do not try to climb to shelters on your own. The cliffs here are unstable, and the paths can be dangerous after rain.
Below the mountains lies the Marjal de Pego-Oliva, a wetland natural park where the plain beside the sea is flooded for rice. In summer the paddies are bright green, and herons, egrets and many other birds feed in the shallows. Pego, a town of about 11,000 people seven kilometres away, is the centre of the area, with fuel stations, supermarkets and a market, and it is famous for rice dishes, among them arroz al horno, rice baked in the oven with sausage and chickpeas, and for oranges.
The riding here is very good. Roads from Pego climb into the hills with a sequence of bends and long views toward the sea, and the villages along the way are quiet. The surface is variable, and the roads can be narrow, with cyclists on weekends, especially in winter and spring when northern Europeans arrive. Late autumn and spring are lovely, with clear light, and summer can be very hot. Remember to fill up at Pego, as there is nothing in the valley.