The first Levantine paintings were found by chance, in the first years of the twentieth century, by shepherds, hunters and local amateurs who noticed red marks on a rock wall and told someone who might care. Archaeologists were sceptical at first. Some thought the figures too lively and natural to be prehistoric, and the debate went on for decades, with the French scholar Henri Breuil, who had studied the great painted caves of the north, playing a leading role in making the case for their antiquity. Today, the paintings are accepted as the work of hunter-gatherer and early farming peoples, and the argument has moved to the question of exactly when.
La Saltadora, a ravine about six and a half kilometres from Albocàsser, holds a number of these painted shelters, and Abric IX is one of them. It carries paintings in the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain, and the ride links it with the Racó de Nando. The pictures are small, and many are faded, but they reward the patient eye.
It is worth remembering that each shelter was first found by someone on foot, and that the best way to see them is the same. The paths are rough, the signs few, and the sense of finding the place yourself is part of the pleasure. Take your time, go quietly, and look at the whole landscape, not just the wall, because the choice of site was part of the meaning.
The lanes from Albocàsser are narrow, twisty and patchy, with tight bends and gravel. Traffic is almost nil, though you may meet a farmer on a tractor. Spring and autumn are the best seasons, with clear air and mild temperatures. Summer is hot and dry, and winter can bring frost and fog.
Albocàsser has fewer than fourteen hundred people and no guarantee of fuel, so fill up at Alcalà de Xivert, about sixteen kilometres away. Les Coves de Vinromà and Catí have bars and a few shops. Carry water and wear sturdy shoes.