High up in the interior of Castellón, where the Maestrat hills fold into the mountains of Els Ports, there is a country of limestone ravines and old farms that few foreign riders ever see. The shelter called Molí Darrer, Abric III, lies in that country, about nine kilometres from Benassal. The name means last mill, a reminder that these ravines once powered small mills on seasonal streams, and that the people who farmed here worked hard with little water.
The shelter belongs to the group of Levantine rock art sites listed by UNESCO in 1998, in the Mediterranean Basin. Most of these sites are small and delicate, and local museums, such as the one at Tírig in the Valltorta gorge, organise visits and explain what you will see, so start there rather than hunting alone.
The riding in the area is among the best in the Valencian interior. Roads wind over high, open plateaux dotted with holm oak and pine, drop into deep valleys and climb again, and the corners are frequent without being tiring. Surfaces are generally good on the main routes, rougher on the side lanes, and there is very little traffic. Villages such as Benassal, Culla and Catí, with their stone houses and old gateways, appear on the hilltops, and the air is cool and clear. Peñagolosa, the highest summit of Castellón at about 1,800 metres, rises in the north-west.
Benassal, a village of some thirteen hundred people, is the nearest place for a bite and a bed, and Villafranca del Cid, a little farther, is larger, with fuel. Catí is known for its goat's cheese, which is excellent with local honey, and a plate of cured ham, black pudding and bread with olive oil is a fair description of mountain cooking here.
Spring and autumn are lovely, with green slopes and cool temperatures, while summer is hot and winter can bring frost and snow on the higher roads. Take water and a full tank, because distances are longer than they look.