Beniarrés is the key to this corner of the Alicante hills, a small town beside a reservoir in the mountains between Alcoi and the coast, and the shelter called Coves Roges, the Red Caves, lies a few kilometres to the north-east above the village of Planes. The name is honest: the rock here is stained in warm rust tones, and one of the overhangs carries painted figures in the old Levantine manner, listed by UNESCO along with the other rock art of eastern Spain. A neighbouring shelter, La Sarga, is the better-known site in the district and is often visited together with this one.
The landscape is the Vall d'Alcalà and its neighbours, a district of narrow valleys threaded between steep limestone ridges. After the Christian conquest of the thirteenth century this was Moorish farming country for a long time, and the terraces, irrigation channels and clustered villages are still recognisably theirs. The whole population was expelled in 1609, and the valleys were repopulated by settlers from elsewhere, which is why you hear a surprising mix of place names, Arabic ones beside Catalan ones. Cherry trees blossom here in spring and fruit in early summer, and the slopes can look as if a fall of snow has settled on them.
The ride is the best reason to come. The lanes climb out of Planes, Beniarrés and the neighbouring villages through bends that come one after another, usually tight, sometimes with a short straight where the valley opens. Tarmac is narrow and patched, with loose gravel at the edges, and the cut-through roads between valleys are even rougher. Traffic is thin. Take it slowly, watch for cyclists and keep your eyes up for the views over terraced slopes to the high ridges of the Serra de Benicadell and Mariola.
Planes has fewer than eight hundred people, and Beniarrés, with about thirteen hundred, is only a little larger, so fuel is not a safe bet in either. Cocentaina, to the north-west, and Alcoi, to the south, are the proper towns, and both have plenty of stations and good places to eat. Beniarrés reservoir is a pleasant spot for a break, with shaded paths. In midsummer, the heat is fierce, so start early.