Benizar is one of those places that only a handful of maps bother to name. It is a hamlet belonging to Moratalla, in the hilly north-west of the Murcia region, close to where the province meets Albacete and the first ridges of the Sierra de Segura begin. Around it, in the rock faces and gullies, archaeologists have recorded a cluster of painted shelters, and Benizar V is one in this series: a stone overhang with faint prehistoric figures, part of the Levantine rock art that runs along Spain's eastern mountains.
The land feels big and dry. Pine woods alternate with almond and olive groves, and patches of irrigated green follow the streams. Socovos, with its castle on a crag, lies just over the boundary in Albacete, and the Segura river cuts deep gorges to the west. In early spring the almond blossom drifts across the hillsides like snow; by July the heat is serious and the air hums with cicadas. Eagles are common, and at dusk you may see wild boar crossing the road, which is a good reason not to be riding fast after sunset.
The roads in this part of Murcia are one of the region's best-kept secrets for motorcyclists. They wind through the sierra with long, well-cambered bends and climbs that open onto wide views, and traffic is almost non-existent away from market days. Surfaces are generally decent, though the minor lanes to the shelters can be broken or gravelled. Distances between villages are long, and the landscape can be lonely in the best sense.
Moratalla is the place to refuel and eat. It is a town of about eight thousand built up a steep hill under a castle, with narrow streets that are more fun to walk than to ride. Nearby Caravaca de la Cruz is one of the holy cities of Catholic Spain, home to a relic of the True Cross and a jubilee year that draws pilgrims every few years, while Calasparra is known for rice grown in paddies along the Segura, a surprise in such dry country. In any of them you can get a proper lunch at a reasonable price. Carry water if you walk out to the shelters, tell someone where you are going if you leave the bike for long, and come in spring or autumn when the light is soft and the hills are kind.