Some of the best meals in the Segura uplands are served in places that have no sign. A bar in a Murcian hill village will put out a plate of migas, the fried breadcrumbs with garlic and chorizo that shepherds have eaten for centuries, or a stew of lamb with potatoes and peppers, and it will be a great deal better than the price suggests. La Risca, in the municipality of Moratalla, is a hamlet of scattered farms twelve kilometres from the town, and the shelter lies among the fields in a pocket of the hills, where the cortijos, the old farmhouses, stand in clumps of almond and olive.
Farms in this country were self-contained. Each had its threshing floor, its well or spring, its bread oven, and its flock of sheep or goats, and some are still in use. As the young went to the cities, many were left to crumble, but some have been restored as rural lodgings, a development that has brought some life back to the countryside. If you are staying overnight, a casa rural near Moratalla can be a good base, though it is wise to book in advance for Holy Week and for the weekends of the Caravaca festival in early May.
For riders, the roads here are twisting and quiet, with views over folds of pine and rock. The surface is variable, so keep a steady pace, and watch for livestock and for farm machinery in the bends. Fuel is at Moratalla, where there are also supermarkets and bars. Socovos and Férez, to the north, are smaller. Try to be out of the high ground before dusk in winter, when temperatures drop fast.
The rock shelter itself, with its small red paintings, is part of the Levantine tradition that covers the east of Spain. It is protected and often fenced, and you should check locally before setting out.
If you want to understand the place beyond the plate and the paint, the thing to do is to talk to someone who farms. The people of these hills know which springs fail in August, which slopes hold the first frost, where the foxes den and where the old paths cut across. The paintings suggest that people have been paying that kind of attention here for a very long time, and a conversation over a coffee, however halting your Spanish, brings the whole landscape into focus.