The inland hills of Castellón are some of the emptiest in eastern Spain. Behind the orange groves and resorts of the coast the land rises into the Maestrat, a high, stony country of plateaus, gorges and stone-walled fields, where villages of a few hundred people cluster around fortified churches and the horizon is crowned by the bulk of Penyagolosa, nearly 1,800 metres high. Villafranca del Cid, Culla and Benassal lie in this landscape, and the Roca del Migdia, the Noon Rock, is a shelter in a limestone face that was painted in prehistory.
Not far away, at Tirig, the Cova dels Cavalls shows hunters shooting arrows at galloping deer in a scene of rare movement and economy. The Maestrat also has a medieval past: it was a frontier of the Christian conquest in the thirteenth century, and the military order of Montesa held many of its castles. Culla's castle, on a crag above the village, gives a good idea of how those fortresses dominated the land.
For motorcyclists, this is one of the best places in eastern Spain. Roads climb out of the coastal plain through switchbacks, pine woods and rocky gorges, then run across the plateau with views over ridge after ridge, and the villages along the way are small and silent. The surfaces are mostly good, though patched, and traffic is light even in high summer. Weather can change fast, and snow is possible in winter above a thousand metres. Spring and early autumn are ideal.
The listed distance to l'Alcora is long, since the local villages are small, but Villafranca has a station and a few shops, and Benassal has more bars and restaurants. Try the cured ham and the local lamb, and perhaps a glass of rich red wine from the hills. Carry water if you are going to walk to the shelter, wear sturdy footwear and treat the rock with care, since the paintings are fragile and the paths can be rough.