A cortijo is a farm in the Andalusian style, a cluster of whitewashed buildings around a yard, and the one named for La Rosa stands in the mountains of the Sierra del Segura, where Albacete, Murcia and Jaén meet. The shelter nearby, one of the many in the Nerpio district, lies about twelve kilometres from the village of Nerpio and a good deal farther from anything else. It carries paintings of the old Levantine kind, protected by UNESCO as part of the Mediterranean rock art of Spain, and the ride links it with another site at Benizar, in the Moratalla district across the border in Murcia.
This is some of the loneliest country in the south of Spain, and the beauty of the ride is in its emptiness. The land is a series of high ridges clothed in pine, with deep valleys, terraces of almond and olive in the more sheltered folds, and bare limestone above. To the east lies Moratalla, and to the south, the great Parque Natural de las Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas, which is the biggest protected area in Spain and the source of the Segura river. The sound of water in the gullies in spring is one of the pleasures of the place.
Segura de la Sierra, about twenty-eight kilometres away in Jaén province, is worth the detour. It is a village crowded on a hilltop below a castle, with narrow streets and a set of old Moorish baths, and the view across the Sierra from the walls is huge. The road there is a rewarding ride in itself, a long run of bends through forest.
Surfaces in this district are mixed. The main roads are generally good, but the side routes can be rough and patched, with gravel at the corners and the odd landslip after storms. Traffic is nonexistent. Nerpio has only sixteen hundred people, so fuel is uncertain. Yeste, about thirty kilometres off, is the nearest dependable stop, with food and a few shops. Winter brings snow and ice at this height, so check forecasts, and carry warm clothing in all seasons.