Concejal is the sort of name that makes you wonder who the councillor was, and nobody now seems to know. The shelter called Concejal III is seven kilometres from Nerpio, on the high, scrubby plateau of the Sierra del Segura, in a district that has produced one of the largest collections of rock paintings in the whole Iberian Peninsula. The numbering tells you there are several at the same location, and the UNESCO listing of 1998 covers the Nerpio group, whose figures include goats, archers and curious, stylised human forms.
What strikes you about the Nerpio basin is its height. At about eleven hundred metres it is cooler and drier than the coast, and the vegetation is closer to Castile than to Andalusia: junipers, holm oaks, thorny scrub and, in the damp bottoms, poplars along the streams. In winter the plateau is cold, and in summer the evening air is fresh enough to wear a jacket. The high ground is part of the headwaters of the Segura, and many small rivers rise within a few kilometres of the village.
On the bike, your task is to enjoy the emptiness. The roads from Nerpio to Yeste and to Huéscar are narrow and bendy, with few villages in between and no particular hurry, and in autumn the oaks turn bronze and the light through them is lovely. Livestock, tractors and the odd hunter's pickup are the main traffic. The weather can change fast, and a clear morning can end with a thunderstorm at four in the afternoon. Check the forecast, particularly in spring.
Nerpio has some sixteen hundred inhabitants and a few bars where you can have a coffee or a plate of lamb, but treat fuel as a planning issue. The nearest large town is Huéscar, thirty-nine kilometres away, in the province of Granada, and Yeste to the north is about twenty-six. If you walk to the shelter, take water and avoid the hottest hours, and stay on the paths.