Honey is the quiet product of the Sierra de Guara, and if you ride through the Vero valley in spring you will smell why. Thyme, rosemary, lavender and wild sage cover the dry slopes, and the bees that visit them produce a thick, aromatic honey that is sold in the villages by the jar. Malforá II lies four kilometres from Alquézar, among the scrub and oak woods on the northern slopes of the valley, and it is the second of three shelters of that name in the catalogue. Like the others it belongs to the Levantine rock art listed by UNESCO in 1998, and it may carry the usual red figures of hunters and animals.
There is an old link between bees and rock art in Spain, famous from the Cueva de la Araña at Bicorp, in Valencia, where a painted figure climbs a rope to reach a hive. The Vero shelters are not known for such scenes, but they remind you that honey was one of the few sweet things available to prehistoric people and that collecting it was a risky, valuable job. Beekeeping is still a living tradition here, and if you see white hive boxes at the edge of a field, keep your visor down and your distance.
The ride along the Vero is a fine thing in May and June, when the verges are filled with flowers and the air is warm but not hot. The A-1232 beyond Alquézar passes through low oak woods and small clearings, with a few tight bends and short straights. Traffic is light and the surface is decent, though you should watch for loose gravel on the inside of corners and for the farm vehicles that use the road. In the heat of July and August it can be unpleasant in the middle of the day.
Barbastro is also the place to buy honey, cheese and cured ham from the market stalls. A walk down to the river from Alquézar, on the paths that lead to the footbridges, is a good way to cool off, and you can carry a picnic. Take a bottle of water with you to the shelter and tread softly.