Cavidad is the archaeologist's word for a hollow, and the numbered Cavidades near Nerpio are a series of small shelters scattered across the plateau, seven or eight kilometres from the village. Cavidad IV is on a route with the Cañada de la Cruz and Las Cazuelas, the Little Pots, a name that suggests rounded hollows weathered into the rock. They belong to the cluster of rock paintings that UNESCO listed in 1998 as part of the Mediterranean arc, and which in Nerpio includes some of the most varied figures in Spain.
The word cañada is worth a note, because it means a drove road, one of the ancient routes used by shepherds to move their flocks between summer and winter pastures. Spain has some hundred and twenty thousand kilometres of such tracks, protected by medieval law and still marked on maps, and the powerful guild of sheep owners, the Mesta, once controlled them. In the Sierra del Segura the flocks moved up to the high meadows in June and returned to the lowlands in autumn, and a few families still follow the pattern. If you meet a flock on the road, stop, switch off and let it pass.
The plateau between Nerpio and Yeste is an excellent place for riding at an unhurried pace. The road is narrow but well made, climbing gently through juniper and pine, with generous bends that need no braking. The altitude means cool air and a clear sky, and in the evening the light goes gold and long. Wildlife is plentiful, with deer and boar crossing at dusk, so be alert after sunset. In winter the road can be icy, especially in shaded hollows, and gritting is limited.
Fuel is a question of planning. Yeste, with about thirty-six hundred people, is twenty-three kilometres away and has the nearest dependable pumps, and Moratalla is further. Nerpio has shops and bars for lunch and coffee. Carry water for any walk, wear sturdy shoes, and respect the paintings, which are fragile and sometimes protected by fences.