Nerpio's numbered Cavidades are a series of rock cavities scattered over the hills east of the village, and Cavidad VII lies seven or eight kilometres away from it, on the borders of the Sierra del Segura. The paintings in the shelters of this district form one of the largest and most varied groups in Spain, with Levantine figures and later schematic marks, and they fall within the UNESCO listing of 1998. Cavidad VII is on a route with the Cueva de la Plata and the Cueva del Peliciego, both of which are better known.
What do people see in this landscape? To a modern eye it is bleak, a high plateau of rock, juniper and thin pasture. To a prehistoric hunter it was a larder: deer, ibex, wild boar, rabbits and partridges, plus water in the springs and shelter in the overhangs. The animals that appear on the walls were the ones that mattered most to survival, and the people who painted them were closely observing the animals on which their lives depended.
The road to the shelter is the stuff of motorcycling daydreams, if your daydreams involve empty country. It climbs through pine forest on a surface that varies between smooth and rough, with bends that follow the contours and long straight stretches across the plateau. The altitude gives it a freshness in summer, but also winter ice. If the forecast is for snow, stay away. In spring the air has the scent of broom and wild thyme, and the sky is wide and blue.
Services are limited. Moratalla, twenty-nine kilometres off, is bigger still. Pack water and a spare layer, and plan the day so that you are back on a paved road by dusk, because the unlit tracks can be dangerous.