This is the dry hinterland of the Costa Blanca, in the stretch between El Campello and Villajoyosa, where the sea is never far but you can easily forget it. A few kilometres inland the hills turn to scrub, rock and abandoned terraces, with barrancos that run dry for most of the year and then flood in a night after a storm. The Barranco de la Cueva is one of those ravines, and the shelter in it belongs to the scatter of painted rocks found across the mountains of Alicante.
The towns on the coast are worth knowing. Villajoyosa has a seafront of tall houses painted in bright colours, said to have been chosen so that fishermen could recognise their homes from the sea, and it is the home of a chocolate factory that has been making bars for generations. El Campello is a working fishing town with a long beach, and Sant Joan lies on the edge of Alicante's urban sprawl. All three have fuel, and Alicante itself, with its castle on a rock, is a short ride south.
Inland, the roads wind up through almond and carob terraces and pine woods to little villages such as Relleu and Busot. The bends are tight and often rough on the surface, and in summer the temperature climbs fast. Spring, autumn and early winter are the right times, when you can ride in a T-shirt in the sun and a jacket in the shade. Near Busot, the Cuevas de Canalobre are a well-known cave with a huge chamber that can be visited.
A ride to Elche, on the plain to the south-west, is a worthwhile addition, as the town has a palm grove that UNESCO listed in 2000, with more than two hundred thousand palms planted by the Moors for dates and irrigation. The mystery play of Elche, performed every August, is also on the intangible heritage list. Take water to the shelter, and be careful about fire, since the pine woods dry out by mid-summer.