Castell de Castells is a village of fewer than five hundred people tucked under the Serrella ridge, and everything about it feels like the far end of something. The Morro Carrascal, the label given to this stretch of country, is a rocky crest above the Barranc de Bil.la, a dry ravine in the mountains of the Marina Alta where the Valencian coast gives way to a rumpled interior of limestone, pine and terraced slopes. The ravine holds painted shelters belonging to the Levantine rock art of the Spanish Mediterranean, which UNESCO listed in 1998.
Shelters like Abric I are small and easily missed. The paintings are in red, a few figures here and there on a sheltered wall, with an archer perhaps, or a deer. Their charm is not in size but in the realisation that someone stood here, in this very ledge of shade, with a pigment and a brush, and made a mark that has outlasted every kingdom since.
The riding around Castell de Castells is some of the best in inland Alicante. Roads wriggle between villages along deep valleys, with few straights and many blind bends, and the gradient changes quickly as the road climbs from one terrace to another. You will see the huge pale mass of the Serrella and, further south, the Aitana range. The road surface is usually serviceable, though the edges can be broken and strewn with grit. Spring and autumn are the best months, with soft light on the rock and cool air. Midsummer afternoons are hot and silent.
This part of the Marina Alta is known for almonds, olives and the muscat grape, and also for cherries, which ripen in late spring. There is a long Moorish heritage, with irrigation channels still in use and names beginning with the Arabic Beni and Ben, meaning sons of, scattered across the map. The thirteenth-century leader Al-Azraq made his stand in the nearby mountains against James I of Aragon, and his name is still remembered here.
Fuel is the planning question. Pego, fourteen kilometres away, is the nearest town of any size, and has pumps and shops. Castell de Castells has a bar, and that is about all. Fill up before you climb, and take water with you if you intend to walk to the shelter, as there is none on the way.