Zona 6 sits seven kilometres from Nerpio, in a stretch of country where the numbers of the rock art catalogue replace the poetry of place names. It is part of the group of shelters in the Nerpio basin, the territory of the upper Taibilla river, and the whole group falls inside the UNESCO listing of the Mediterranean rock art of the Iberian Peninsula. The routes that visit it also take in the town of Úbeda, which is a long way off in the province of Jaén and a very different sort of heritage site.
Úbeda and Baeza, a pair of Renaissance towns in the olive country, are on the UNESCO list in their own right, and a day that takes in both paintings and palaces suits anyone who likes to see how human culture has been written on the land at different scales. The contrast is the interesting part. In Nerpio the evidence is a few brown strokes of pigment on a rock wall, made by people about whom we know nothing but their art. In Úbeda it is carved stone, coats of arms and an ostentation of wealth from the sixteenth century. Both are the work of people who wanted to leave a mark.
Riding between the two is a long day, with the Sierra de Segura in the middle. Roads in the Sierra are good, with many bends and few cars, and the landscape rises in pine-clad folds above the Guadalquivir's upper valley. Weather deserves respect. Snow closes some roads in January and February, and in summer you want to be on the move by eight in the morning.
For fuel and supplies go to Huéscar, thirty-eight kilometres away, or to Yeste, a smaller town almost twenty-seven kilometres in the opposite direction. Nerpio has bars and a few shops, and a lunch of local lamb or gazpacho manchego, a stew in spite of its name, is a good end to a morning. Carry water and tell someone where you are going if you plan a walk to the shelter.