The Cueva de la Mina lies in the hills behind Alicante's northern suburbs, close enough to the coast that you can leave a beach town after lunch and be among rock and scrub within the hour. That gives it a particular pleasure: the contrast. One moment you are among apartment blocks and palm trees at El Campello, a former fishing village that has become a seaside town of twenty-six thousand people, and the next, you are on a narrow lane with the sea shrinking behind you and the sun pressing on the stones.
The cave belongs to the group of sites in the Alicante hills that carry traces of prehistoric people. Some of them, like the neighbouring Abric de Lambert on the same ride, contain Levantine-style paintings, small red figures that UNESCO protects as part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula.
The country is typical of the Alicante interior, with carob and olive trees, wild rosemary and a lot of bare rock. From the heights, you can often see both the sea and the Sierra de Aitana, a long grey wall to the north. Summer is almost too hot for walking, with temperatures that push past thirty-five degrees by noon, so go in the cooler months or very early. In autumn, brief violent storms can wash gravel across the road.
Riding is a mixture of tight lanes and dull suburban approaches. Coming from the coast, expect roundabouts, and once off the main roads, narrow tarmac that can be broken at the edges. Local drivers are quick, but not unreasonable. Fuel is no trouble, with El Campello, San Juan de Alicante and Villajoyosa all within fifteen kilometres. Villajoyosa, with its brightly painted fishermen's houses and a chocolate-making tradition, is the best place to eat on the way back.