Catí is the town people mention when they talk about goat's cheese in this part of Castellón, a small, handsome place of stone houses and arcades in the high Maestrat, and the shelter at Mas d'en Salvador, Abric III, lies about nine kilometres away to the south-west of it, near Albocàsser. It is one of a group of Levantine painted rock shelters in the same ravine, part of the UNESCO-listed rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain, and the series number is the only label it has. Do not expect signs or a ticket office.
The cheese is made from the milk of goats that graze on the same hillsides: herbs, scrub and scrawny oak. It is fresh and slightly tangy, often eaten young and sometimes cured, and it is the sort of thing you should buy from a farm shop or a market stall if you see one open. The village also has a Gothic town hall and a church with a fine bell tower, and the old centre is worth a half hour on foot, with narrow lanes and carved stone doorways.
The surrounding country is poor and beautiful, with pale limestone, dry terraces and ravines carved by the occasional storm. In winter it can be bitterly cold at this height, with frost and the odd snowfall, and in summer the heat is dry and intense. The best times for riding are spring and autumn, when the light is soft, the air clear and the hillsides green or golden.
The roads are narrow, winding and lightly used. Bends come in clusters, with short straights in between, and the surfaces are patchy, with gravel and the odd rough stretch where a ravine has washed across. Distances look short on the map, but progress is slow, which is a good reason to plan a long lunch in Catí. Les Coves de Vinromà and Albocàsser are small, too, and Alcalà de Xivert, on the plain, is the sensible place to fill up before the climb.