Only two kilometres from the village of Castell de Castells, the Barranc de Bil.la runs through a limestone landscape that has been farmed in terraces for centuries and left to scrub in recent decades. Abric II is the second shelter in the series catalogued along the ravine, and sits close enough to the village that you can plan a morning walk from the square without ever going near a map. Castell de Castells itself is a village of fewer than five hundred people in the Marina Alta, on the northern slopes of the Serrella, and it is better known to the archaeologists than to the tourists because of the Pla de Petracos, a famous painted site close by.
The paintings of the region represent two traditions. Levantine art consists of small red figures, deer, bulls and archers, made by hunters around six or eight thousand years ago, and schematic art, which is more abstract and appears later. The UNESCO listing covers both. The ride up from the coast is among the best excuses to see them, because the road leaves the tourist belt behind in the first twenty minutes. Villages of white houses with blue shutters give way to hillsides of cherry and almond trees, then to open limestone ridges.
The roads here are twisting and narrow, graded to suit tractors more than touring bikes, and they crawl in a series of hairpins up the mountainside. They are well maintained, though, and there are few cars. Spring is the loveliest time, when the almond blossom has gone and the cherry trees of the neighbouring Vall de Gallinera flower in white sheets. Summer is hot and dry; autumn brings the first heavy rain, which sometimes washes stones onto the road.
The nearest place for petrol and a big supermarket is Pego, fourteen kilometres away on the plain, where the town sits beside a wetland of reeds and rice fields. Keep water in your bag for the walk, and remember that the rock shelters are fragile and should be admired from a distance.