Cimbarrillo is a name that does not appear on tourist maps, and Ma Antonia, the woman or the farm it recalls, has been lost to anyone but the locals. The shelter, listed as number I, lies in the dry hills of the Alicante coast, between El Campello and Villajoyosa, in the same band of broken limestone as the Garganta de la Hoz shelters. Its red paintings are in the Levantine style and belong to the UNESCO listing for the rock art of the Mediterranean basin.
The ride that includes it ends at the Palmeral of Elche, and the contrast is worth thinking about. Elche, a good half hour south, has a grove of more than a hundred thousand date palms, planted by the Moors a thousand years ago and carefully irrigated ever since, and now a UNESCO site of its own. Here, in the hills, the land is dry and the only shade comes from carob and pine. Between the two lies a landscape of salt pans, orange orchards and bare mountains that shows how much water means in this corner of Spain.
On a motorbike the hills offer a few hours of quiet riding. The roads wind up from the coast through scrub, with views of the sea and a few sharp bends, and the traffic dwindles to almost nothing a few kilometres inland. The surface is mostly fair, and on weekdays you may meet only a cyclist or two. Walkers sometimes use the tracks, so watch for them on blind corners.
El Campello, about twelve kilometres away, has some twenty-six thousand people and all the fuel and food you could need, and its fish restaurants by the harbour are an honest choice for lunch. Villajoyosa, bigger still, has a colourful old quarter on the waterfront.
October and November are the best months, when the heat has gone but the days are still bright. Summer sun on the exposed slopes is punishing, and storms in autumn can bring heavy rain and loose gravel to the road. The walk to the shelter is brief, but a protected site deserves courtesy, so keep to the path.