The Serra Calderona runs between Valencia and Castellón like a green ridge behind the coast, and Náquera sits on its southern flank, a village of nearly four thousand people with views across the Camp de Túria orchards. A short way into the hills, a ravine with the name Aigua Amarga, bitter water, opens beside the Covacha de l'Aigua Amarga, a small shelter with prehistoric paintings, part of the Mediterranean Basin rock art listed by UNESCO in 1998. The figures are modest and the shelter is small, so it is a place for a patient look.
Calderona natural park is a mix of pine forest, scrub of rosemary, gorse and kermes oak, and sandy ridges where the soil turns red after rain. The smell of resin in the heat is strong, and cicadas drown out everything in July. Higher up lies the Carthusian monastery of Portaceli, founded in the thirteenth century, and nearby are the remains of Roman and Moorish workings. To the east, the plain is a quilt of orange groves, and at Puçol the citrus blossom perfumes the air in spring.
Valencia is thirty kilometres south, so the hills are the green lung of a big city, and you will share the roads with cyclists, hikers and city dwellers on Sunday outings. Puçol, with about nineteen thousand people, has fuel and supermarkets, and the coast at Sagunt, with its great hilltop castle and Roman theatre, is a short ride away. A bowl of paella cooked over orange wood in a country restaurant is part of the experience.
The roads in the Calderona wind up and down through pine woods, with decent surfaces and plenty of bends, and they are popular with bikers, so expect company at weekends. Wildfires are a real risk in summer, and some tracks are closed in the dry season. Spring and autumn are best, with wildflowers and cooler air. Early mornings give the clearest views to the Mediterranean.