Rock art is easy to walk past. The paintings in the Maestrat shelters are small, usually a hand's breadth to a forearm's length, painted in a red that has faded to the colour of dried blood or brick, and often covered by a film of mineral crust or a scatter of lichen. The trick is to stop, let your eyes adjust, and look slowly, not for pictures but for shapes: a line that is too regular for a crack, a blob that has a head and legs, a slender figure with a bow. Raking light helps, so mid-morning or late afternoon is better than noon, and a torch held at a low angle can reveal what the sun hides. At Mas d'en Josep, Abric II, about six kilometres from Albocàsser, that patience is the whole game.
The shelter is one of a numbered group, part of the Levantine rock art that UNESCO has protected as a single World Heritage listing across eastern Spain. Another site on the same ride, the Arenal de la Fonseca, has a name that sounds like a beach, and in a way it is: arenal means sandy ground, and the pale sandstone ledges do crumble into grit. Never touch the paintings or wet them to make them clearer. It has been done, and it does damage.
The country around is a lovely mixture of terraced slopes and ravines. Almond and olive trees stand in rows on stone steps built by farmers over centuries, and between them grow thyme, rosemary and tufts of grass. In spring, poppies and yellow daisies fill the margins, and in autumn, the carob trees drop their long, dark pods. Sheep graze in the open spaces, with a dog and a shepherd somewhere near.
The lanes to the shelter are narrow and quiet. Bends are tight, and the surface changes from decent asphalt to rough patches in a few hundred metres. Gravel is common. On a motorbike, a relaxed pace is the right one, and you will have time to enjoy the view across the ravines. Fuel is not available in the villages, so fill up at Alcalà de Xivert, about sixteen kilometres away, or at one of the towns on the coast. Albocàsser itself has a couple of bars, and Les Coves de Vinromà has a few more services.