South of Hellín the land opens into the dry, high steppe of southern Albacete, a country of esparto grass, almond terraces and bare limestone ridges, and it is in these ridges that the small painted cavities of the area hide. Cavidad II is one of them, a modest hollow in the rock with prehistoric pigment on its walls, part of a dense scatter of rock art sites around the Minateda area that archaeologists have studied for more than a century. Like most of the Levantine sites it is fragile and frequently protected by a grille, so it rewards patience and imagination more than a quick photograph.
Hellín itself, seven kilometres away and a town of around thirty thousand, is where everything practical happens. Fuel, food, mechanics and cold drinks are all there, and it is the last place of any size before the emptier lands to the south and west. The town is famous across Spain for its Holy Week tamborada, when thousands of drummers fill the streets for days on end in a roar that you feel in your chest, a tradition recognised as part of the intangible heritage of humanity together with similar drum festivals elsewhere in the country. If you pass through at Easter, accept that sleep is optional.
The riding around here is about space rather than technical difficulty. Roads run long and straight across the plateau, then suddenly fold into a short climb through a gap in a sierra, and the horizon is always wide. The light is hard and white at midday and beautiful at either end of the day, when the ridges turn ochre and the shadows stretch across the fields. Wind can be a real factor on the open stretches, and in July and August temperatures climb high enough to make an early start more than a suggestion.
The esparto that covers so many slopes was once the backbone of the local economy, woven into ropes, baskets, sandals and matting, and the old craft still survives in a few workshops. Further south the land drops towards the Segura and the Murcian border, with Tobarra and its own drumming tradition close by, and towards Jumilla with its vineyards and the caves that this ride links up. Carry water: shade and fountains are scarce once you leave town.