Inland Valencia is a world away from the beaches on the coast. Behind the orange groves and the motorway the land rises into dry, folded mountains cut by deep gorges, where villages of a few hundred people cling to the hillsides and the pines smell of resin in the heat. Millares and Dos Aguas lie in this country, near the Júcar and Cabriel rivers, and the Cueva del Cerro is a rock shelter in the limestone, one of the many places in eastern Spain where prehistoric people left paintings on the walls.
What is true of the region is that the Levantine rock art of the Mediterranean arc, listed by UNESCO, is concentrated in shelters like these, with small red or black figures of hunters, animals and groups of people, painted many thousands of years ago. They are easy to miss, high on a cliff or under an overhang, and often need a local guide and a walk to reach.
The roads in the area are the real pleasure. Narrow ribbons of asphalt wind up from the plain through terraces of almond and olive, with hairpins, short climbs and views across ridge after ridge to the hazy coast, and they are quiet, apart from the occasional farm truck and cyclists in cooler months. Surfaces vary from smooth to broken, and rain can bring gravel down onto the road. The best seasons are spring, when the hills are green and flowers appear, and autumn; summer is hot and dry, and winter mornings can be frosty at altitude.
The villages are tiny, and Millares has only a few hundred people, so do not rely on fuel there. Turís, about sixteen kilometres off, is the nearest town with services, known for its wine cooperative and a local tradition of strong red. Pack water, a snack and a charged phone, and ask in a village bar about access to the shelter, because the people there know the paths and the land better than any map. A bowl of arroz al horno, rice baked with pork and chickpeas, is the dish to look for.