The word concejal means town councillor, and one can imagine a long argument about who was allowed to graze animals where, which would explain a field name like this. Concejal II is the second of a numbered series of shelters about seven kilometres from Nerpio, in the high basin of the upper Taibilla, among the dry valleys of the Sierra del Segura. They are part of a group of paintings listed by UNESCO in 1998, and they are set at the foot of south-facing cliffs, so that sun lights the walls on winter mornings.
If you want a sense of what this country was like for the first farmers, look at the soils. The basin of Nerpio has thin, stony earth, short summers and cold winters, and yet it was settled very early, perhaps because water and pasture were reliable. The tradition of cereal growing and sheep keeping goes back thousands of years, and the oldest local families still tend sheep. In spring the meadows have a scatter of wild tulips and narcissi, which come up after the snow.
Between Nerpio and Huéscar the road passes a landscape that feels more like Castile than Andalusia, with limestone hills, juniper and treeless plains, and a sky that can be intensely blue. There are not many bends, but each is well judged, and the ride gains its character from the sense of space. In the afternoon the wind picks up, and a loaded bike can feel it. Check the forecast for snow from November to April, and for storms in summer.
You will need fuel from Huéscar, thirty-nine kilometres away, or Yeste, twenty-six, because the village of Nerpio, with about sixteen hundred people, is not a reliable stop. Carry water, snacks and a layer of warm clothing, and take care with the mobile signal, which disappears in the hollows. The shelters are best visited early in the day, when the light is soft and the rock is cool.