In the folded limestone hills behind the Costa Blanca, far enough inland that the resorts feel like another country, a rock shelter called Penya Escrita holds prehistoric paintings. The name means something like the written rock, which is what the people of Tàrbena and Bolulla called it long before archaeologists arrived. The figures belong to the rock art of the Mediterranean Basin of the Iberian Peninsula, a UNESCO site made up of hundreds of shelters scattered from Catalonia down to Andalusia, painted by hunter-gatherers and early farmers thousands of years ago. They are small, faded and easy to miss, and they are best appreciated with patience rather than expectation.
The landscape around is the real attraction for most visitors. The Marina Alta and Marina Baixa meet here in a jumble of ridges, terraced almond groves, loquat orchards and tiny villages perched on spurs. Bolulla has a ruined Moorish castle on its hill. Tàrbena, higher up, was resettled by families from Mallorca after the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609, and people there still speak with a Mallorcan accent and make sobrassada the island way.
The road you will remember is the one over the Coll de Rates between Parcent and Tàrbena. It climbs in a long series of well-surfaced hairpins and bends, with views back over the Jalón valley to the sea, and it is famous among cyclists, so on a winter weekend you will share it with whole teams training in the sun. Take it steadily, pass carefully, and stop at the top where there is a restaurant with a terrace over the valley. From Tàrbena the road down to Callosa d'en Sarrià and Bolulla twists through rock and pine, with the Algar waterfalls nearby offering cool pools in summer.
This part of Spain is at its best from October to May. In July and August the heat is serious, the hills are dusty, and the shade is thin. Spring brings almond blossom early, often as soon as January and February, when the valleys turn white and pink.
The villages are small and fuel is not guaranteed in them. Fill up in Callosa d'en Sarrià or La Nucia before you head up, and carry water, because the walk to the shelter is short but the sun here does not negotiate.