Ibex are back. After years of decline, the Spanish ibex, the cabra montés with its swept-back horns, has recovered across the mountains of eastern Spain, and in the Maestrat you may see them on a rocky ledge at dawn or dusk, picking their way along terrain that no human would attempt. They are the descendants of the animals that the Levantine painters drew, and the shelters of the Gasulla ravine hold goats that look much like them: the same curve of horn, the same stance on a slope.
The Cingle de la Mola Remigia, a long limestone cliff over the ravine, is a good place to think about this continuity. The painters hunted ibex and deer, and their pictures show how closely they watched. Today the same cliffs hold griffon vultures, eagle owls and the occasional golden eagle, and wild boar roam the oak woods below. It is a landscape in which life has been constant, with changes at the edges.
Riding up from Benassal, five kilometres away, you cross a plateau with long views, small fields and stone walls, and the bends are easy to read. Take care at dawn and dusk, when animals are on the move and may cross the road, particularly wild boar, which do not look both ways. The roads are good, but fog and ice can appear on winter mornings.
Alcalà de Xivert, thirty-three kilometres away, is the town for fuel, and Culla and Villafranca del Cid have a few shops. The shelter is part of a protected zone, and visits are managed, so enquire first. Carry water and binoculars if you have them, because the cliffs are best scanned slowly.
Dawn is the hour for it. Before the sun is on the rock, the ledges are quiet and the animals that spent the night there are still moving, and a rider who has parked at the lip of the plateau with a flask of coffee has a good chance of seeing something. By nine the thermals have started, the vultures lift off in slow spirals, and the ibex retreat into the shade. If you prefer your wildlife with a bit less effort, a clear evening gives the same show in reverse, with the cliff glowing orange and the first bats appearing.