Hannibal is the name that should come to mind as you ride toward this part of the Valencian coast. In 219 BC the Carthaginian general besieged the Iberian city of Saguntum, now Sagunto, just north of Puçol, and the eight-month siege that followed set off the Second Punic War. The city fell, and Rome declared war. The castle that crowns the hill at Sagunto today is a long, thin fortress with Roman, Moorish and medieval layers, and its Roman theatre has been restored to a degree that some people find controversial but nobody finds dull.
The Covacha de Picayo lies in the hills behind Puçol, a coastal town of nineteen thousand, in the foothills of the Sierra Calderona. It is a small painted shelter, one of the Levantine sites in the Mediterranean rock art group that UNESCO listed in 1998, and it belongs to a scatter of marks left by hunters on the edge of what is now one of Spain's most intensely farmed coastal plains.
Between the sea and the hills, the land here is a huerta, a patchwork of orange groves and market gardens watered by channels that go back to the Moors. The mix of history is remarkable: in a single morning you can see an Iberian settlement, a Roman theatre and a monastery. The Mercedarian monastery on the hill of El Puig, a few kilometres south, marks the place where in 1237 the Christian army of James I won the battle that opened the way to Valencia.
The riding is easy rather than exciting. The coastal roads are busy, but a short climb inland puts you on quieter lanes among citrus and carob, with the Calderona ridge ahead. Roads here are generally well surfaced, and the corners are mild. Choose a weekday, avoid the beach traffic of summer weekends and aim for the soft light of spring or the cool clear days of November.
Puçol itself has fuel, bars and shops, and the coast has no shortage of paella. Bring water for the walk.