Road

With crystal-clear waters and 320 days of sunshine per year, this stunning but often-overlooked Costa Blanca destination is the ultimate antidote to Spain’s busiest resorts

Millions of British holidaymakers flock to the Costa Blanca every year, usually making a beeline for the bustling city of Alicante (which shares its name with the wider province) or the famous, neon-lit strip of Benidorm.

However, if you are willing to venture just 45 minutes up the coast, you will find a spectacular “secret paradise” that most tourists completely overlook.

Javea – also known as Xabia in Valencian – is a picturesque coastal town rapidly gaining a reputation as the region’s best-kept secret.

Local YouTuber ‘Benidorm by Ana’ recently showcased the stunning spot in a video tour, admitting the striking shoreline and crystal-clear waters left her totally “surprised and impressed”.

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Passing tourists often bypass the town for busier hubs like Altea and Calpe, but expats have firmly staked their claim on the area. In fact, over half of Javea’s population is made up of foreigners, with British nationals accounting for a whopping 26%.

“It’s easy to see why so many people choose Javea to live here all year long,” Ana noted, praising the town’s phenomenal weather. Basking in an average of 320 days of sunshine a year, it is the perfect spot for an autumn or winter escape.

The culinary scene is just as much of a draw. Whether you want a cheap and cheerful bite or “authentic fancy restaurants with gorgeous views of the sea or in the middle of the forest,” the town caters to every taste.

Foodies absolutely must try Cruet de Peix, a rich local fish stew, and cocas – savoury flatbreads traditionally topped with salted fish and roasted peppers. And instead of the usual paella, make sure to order fideuà, a mouthwatering regional variation made with short pasta instead of rice.

Praising the way the town balances its heritage with its popularity, Ana concluded: “It’s a place where I would say tradition blends seamlessly with a modern touch.”

How to spend your time in Javea

Step back in time: Javea’s historic Old Town is a maze of narrow, winding streets and distinct stone buildings. Ana praised its undeniable “historic charm”, making it a must-visit for architecture lovers.

Discover secret bays: While the main sandy beach of Playa del Arenal is great for sunbathing, the real magic lies just along the coast. The area is dotted with hidden, rocky coves boasting crystal-clear water that is perfect for snorkelling.

Taste the local life: Time your visit right and you can wander around Javea’s bustling weekly markets and cultural fairs, which are packed with authentic local produce and artisan goods.

Hit the trails: Want to escape the town entirely? The surrounding landscape features incredible coastal hikes and lush forest trails that offer sweeping, panoramic views out over the Mediterranean.

This road trip continues a series exploring California’s overlooked scenic highways, inspired in part by artist Earl Thollander’s 1971“Back Roads of California,” whose sketches and travel notes celebrated a slower way of traveling. After tracing Highway 127 along the edge of Death Valley and State Route 78 through the badlands of Anza Borrego, the journey now shifts to the north.

If you’ve ever found yourself driving along Highway 395, chances are good you’ve been craning your head west toward the Range of Light, staring at the formidable granite peaks of the Sierra Nevada.

I wouldn’t blame you.

The escarpment rises precipitously from the sagebrush-covered valley floor, climbing through pinyon and juniper woodlands into thick pine forests. Deep, twisted canyons cut into the mountainsides, their channels lined with aspen, before the forests give way to the exposed granite slopes and summits rising above 14,000 feet.

While I’ve spent countless days wandering that high country, camping in its meadows and watching shooting stars rip across the sky, I’ve spent the last decade driving up the 395 with my eyes fixed to the east. Here, the Sierra Nevada gives way to the sand-colored mountains and salty lakes of the Basin and Range, the arid region writer Mary Austin called the “country of lost borders.”

Much of this vast landscape is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management, some of the least understood and most threatened public lands in the West. These are places I’ve traversed, documented and obsessed over for years, culminating in my book “The Enduring Wild.”

A view of Adobe Valley on River Spring Road off of Highway 120.

(Josh Jackson)

There are many routes that can take you east from the 395 and deep into the parched heart of these landscapes, but there is one route that stands above the rest. It’s what locals call Mono Mills Road and what road warriors nicknamed the “roller coaster highway” for its stomach-lifting undulations.

Welcome to State Route 120 East.

With the highway typically closing for the winter in December, there’s still time to experience this remarkable stretch of road before the snow arrives. The 45-mile route begins a few miles south of Lee Vining, where big sagebrush and rubber rabbitbrush paint the early miles in olive green and mustard yellow, a rich palette against the muted gravelly slopes of the Mono-Inyo Craters, a 25-mile-long volcanic chain of young rhyolite lava domes.

Soon, the highway cuts through miles of gray and white volcanic pumice and ash, creating a lunar-like landscape that manages to confuse the visual senses. Almost nothing grows here except the resilient Jeffrey pine, with its deep taproot and remarkably low metabolic demand. Each tree stands alone, as if carefully placed on the landscape. You can’t help but pull over and wander through the scratch-and-sniff trees, their bark releasing the scent of vanilla and butterscotch.

Ever present to the south, Mono Lake dominates the view from the highway. Its waters are part of the ancestral homeland of the Kootzaduka’a, whose name, meaning “brine fly eaters,” reflects their longstanding relationship with the lake and its ecology. My favorite time to visit is in late summer and fall, when migratory birds converge on the lake to feast on its abundant brine shrimp and alkali flies. For Wilson’s phalaropes, Mono Lake is often their last chance to fatten up before flying nonstop to South America.

Sagehen Summit offered spectacular views of fall foliage.

(Josh Jackson)

Wild horses roam.

(Josh Jackson)

In “Roughing It,” Mark Twain describes his visit to the lake, where he found “nothing but solitude, ashes, and heartbreaking silence.” For him, the area was “little graced with the picturesque.” You will still find solitude, but I doubt you’ll share Twain’s myopic opinion of beauty.

Twain wasn’t the last to overlook the value of Mono Lake. In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting water from streams that feed the lake, sending it to the City of Angels via its controversial aqueduct. After just four decades, the lake had dropped nearly 50 feet, doubled in salinity and shrunk to half its original volume.

Without the formation of the Mono Lake Committee in 1978 by a group of upstart citizens, the lake might well have suffered the fate of Owens Lake, which had been drained decades earlier by the same Los Angeles aqueduct, leaving behind an eerily dry and dusty salt flat. A landmark 1994 decision curtailed LADWP water diversions, but three decades later, the lake remains roughly 10 feet below its state-established target elevation.

“We saved the lake from destruction,” Bartshé Miller, policy director for the Mono Lake Committee, told me by phone. “But we haven’t gotten the patient out of the hospital yet.” For those who want to help protect the lake, Miller suggests signing up for the committee’s newsletter to learn more about ongoing conservation efforts and ways to get involved.

Back on the highway, the road climbs steadily, surpassing 8,000 feet near mile 15. This is where Sagehen Meadows Road, a well-maintained gravel route, turns south. The 4-mile detour toward Sagehen Summit is worth your effort. In late September, the aspens covering the summit turn from green to amber gold, transforming the mountainside into an astonishing display of autumn color.

The sun kisses the mountains beyond in Adobe Valley.

(Josh Jackson)

Near the halfway point of the journey, another short dirt road leads to the BLM-managed Granite Mountain Wilderness, dominated by an 8,920-foot peak that resembles a stack of boulders glued together in the shape of a pyramid. With no trails on the mountain, reaching the top requires 1,800 feet of climbing. One sweltering July morning, two friends and I made the trek. We switchbacked up steep sandy pitches, scrambled over sections of class 3 granite, and reached the peak in the early afternoon. The summit register revealed roughly 40 names scribbled over the past decade, or what amounts to three or four people annually. Unbelievably, someone had already been there earlier that day, like a ghost we had neither seen nor heard nor felt. One of my companions added his name to the register and then wrote “sage for days.”

A few miles later, the highway earns its nickname as it quickly rises and falls over a succession of short hills that run through Adobe Valley. Between the crimson mesas rising above the flats, hidden lakes and springs, and the pronghorn and wild horses that roam the open country, this is my favorite place to venture off the highway and set up a camp chair. I would trade you a hundred Yosemite Valleys for the solitude and subtle beauty offered here at dusk, as the sun sets over the Glass Mountains and the sky turns mauve.

Forty-five miles after it began, the journey through volcanoes, salt lakes, pine forests, aspens and a valley that stretches across the horizon comes to an end at a lonely intersection with U.S. Route 6, which, improbably, runs all the way to Provincetown, Mass. I’ve made this drive a dozen times, and it’s the quiet and open spaces that always bring me back. The Sierra will always rightly command attention. But there’s an entire world waiting for those willing to turn east.

The route: State Route 120 East, between Highway 395 to U.S. Route 6

Distance: 45 miles (one way)

Drive time: 1.5 hours straight through; allow a full day for stops

Best time to go: With an average elevation of roughly 7,000 feet, the road is usually closed from December until late spring, when snowmobiles are the only way in (in 2023, the road didn’t open until July 1). You can find up to date Highway 120 closures on Caltrans website.

Fuel:

• Lee Vining (Mile 0)
• Benton (Mile 45)

Food/coffee:

Camping:

Lodging:

• El Mono Motel: Charming, family-run boutique lodging and coffee house.
• The Inn at Benton Hot Springs: Rustic elegance in a tranquil surrounding, the perfect spot to get away from it all and to relax and rejuvenate in the historic hot springs.
• Lake View Lodge: Cozy lodge with basic amenities and a cafe.

Hike/Explore/Learn:

Notes:

• These lands are the very definition of a landscape that requires all of us to “pack out what we pack in.” The only pit toilets are found at the South Tufa Interpretive Trail near mile 5.
• Dispersed camping is allowed on BLM land and in the National Forest around Sagehen Summit. There are dozens of gravel roads skirting the area where you can pull off the highway and park/camp for the night (please look for spaces that have previously been occupied). Many of these side roads are 2WD friendly, but please exercise caution!
• Check fire restrictions and get permits here
• Connectivity: Cell service is dependable along the route.
• Wildlife: Watch for pronghorn and wild horses.

  

Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga have apologised for the French striker’s comments about Mao Zedong, but the damage to their reputation in China will not be easily or quickly repaired, experts say.

The France captain, one of the best footballers on the planet, is at the centre of a controversy after a video emerged this week of him appearing to make fun of former leader Mao.

Mbappe talked about being amused by an internet meme of his face digitally altered onto “some guy, think he’s a Chinese dictator”.

Mao remains officially revered as the hero of the communist revolution and founder of the People’s Republic of China.

He is blamed by historians for millions of deaths, but publicly mocking him is taboo, and Mbappe’s remarks saw him become the latest foreign sports figure or entity to infuriate Beijing.

Leading Chinese brands cut ties with the 27-year-old, and Spanish top-flight matches will be pulled from state television broadcaster CCTV’s schedule.

Chinese state media and social media users lined up to lambast Mbappe, although they were left in the dark about what exactly he said.

China is the world’s second-biggest economy and most lucrative market. Within two days, as the video, purportedly filmed in April, circulated online, the striker, his club Real Madrid and La Liga apologised.

A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government took Mbappe’s apology “seriously”.

‘Very damaging incident’

So is that the end of the matter?

“Viewed from a calm, objective and emotion-free standpoint, this is clearly a very damaging incident,” Yan Qiang, a veteran sports commentator, told the AFP news agency.

“It causes serious damage to the image of La Liga and Real Madrid in China.

“In the age of the mobile internet, things blow up on social media quickly and emotions run high.

“An apology does not necessarily mean the end of the story.

“It’s better to have an apology than no apology at all, but it’s definitely not the end of the story.”

The furore and the fallout are not an unfamiliar tale.

Various overseas sports leagues or players have found themselves in hot water for comments on topics that are politically sensitive to China.

China effectively cut ties with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the United States in 2019 after then-Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted his support for Hong Kong protesters.

NBA executives said Morey had the right to freedom of expression. In contrast, La Liga immediately distanced itself from what Mbappe said.

Basketball is among the most popular sports in China along with football. However, Morey’s remark saw the NBA wiped from CCTV for more than a year.

NBA preseason matches returned to China only last year.

Australian National University lecturer Debby Chan called the NBA case – and now Mbappe’s – an illustration of China’s consumer nationalism, where online sentiment and state media converge into “a spiral of outrage”.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league lost “hundreds of millions of dollars” over the split.

No way back for Mbappe, Real Madrid and La Liga?

Spanish football also has a lot to lose.

A source within La Liga told AFP that China and the US alone finance the “majority” of international broadcasting rights, which were valued at 748 million euros ($834m) for the 2024-25 season.

According to the Real Madrid-affiliated newspaper Marca, the Madrid club generates 10 to 15 percent of its jersey and other merchandise sales in China.

Real Madrid also counts Chinese companies among its main sponsors, with Hisense, sports betting firm Kaiyun Sports and Linglong Tire all featuring prominently.

Adam Zhang, founder of the Beijing-based Key-Solution Sports Consulting, said showing fast and heartfelt remorse was the first step.

“This will influence the decision on whether to continue the broadcast ban and, if so, for how long,” he told AFP.

Sports commentator Yan cast doubt on whether the reputation of Mbappe, whose face has adorned drink bottles and advertising campaigns in China, can ever fully recover.

“Judging by commercial sponsorships and big ad campaigns he appeared in during the World Cup, he has a huge influence in China,” he said.

“If that influence can’t be sustained, there can be no talk of commercial interests, and La Liga and Real Madrid will definitely be badly affected.”

Yan said it was “genuinely hard to predict” what happens next.

“In the short term, I’m certainly not optimistic,” he added.

“If they want to repair their image and the relationship, their future actions and behaviour will be key.”

Church mourners die on Kenya’s Nairobi-Mombasa Highway weeks after another crash killed 17 people.

A bus carrying mourners has collided with a truck on a major highway in southeastern Kenya, killing at least 24 people, police say.

The crash happened in the Kanga area near Mtito Andei, on the road linking the capital, Nairobi, to the coastal city of Mombasa, at about 7:45am (04:45 GMT) on Sunday, October 25.

Another 24 people were injured, hospital officials said.

The deaths came just over three weeks after another crash on the highway killed 17 people, prompting fresh government promises to improve road safety.

The bus belonged to Power of the Word Church International in Mombasa and was taking passengers home from their pastor’s funeral in western Kenya.

They had stopped for breakfast shortly before the collision, according to one survivor.

The other vehicle was a truck transporting cement.

Violet Mwandonyi, who survived the crash, told the Associated Press on Sunday that she remembered passengers crying out for passing motorists to help.

She said she did not know what had happened to her two children, who had been travelling on the bus.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Makueni County Commissioner Abdullahi Khalif, the government’s senior administrator in the area, told Kenyan newspaper The Standard that the bus driver had tried to overtake several vehicles before colliding with an oncoming truck.

Kenya’s National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) also identified dangerous overtaking as a possible cause. Another survivor said the truck struck the bus from behind.

On October 3, a crash involving several vehicles killed 17 people, most of them Catholic pilgrims travelling to a prayer site, near Salama on the same highway.

Police said a truck driver had tried to overtake another truck before the collision.

The NTSA had identified that stretch of road as an area with a history of crashes.

President William Ruto offered condolences on Sunday and ordered inspections of vehicles used for public transport.

Transport Minister Davis Chirchir said the government would step up enforcement against speeding and unsafe overtaking, improve dangerous sections of road and strengthen training and checks for commercial drivers.

In a statement on Sunday, Chirchir said the government would work with police, local authorities and lawmakers on the measures, including closer oversight of buses and heavy goods vehicles.

“We cannot continue treating road safety as business as usual,” he said, calling for stronger action to reduce deaths.

Figures from the NTSA, reported by Kenyan media, show that 5,009 people died in road crashes in 2025, with 2,150 deaths recorded in the first half of 2026.

The authority estimates that about 20,000 crashes occur across Kenya each year.

Following Sunday’s collision, it called for road crashes to be declared a national disaster.

Ally Sentnor scored the go-ahead goal in the 43rd minute as Angel City rallied from an early deficit behind three unanswered goals in a 3-2 win on the road against the Denver Summit on Saturday.

Denver forward Melissa Kössler’s tap-in off a corner kick gave Denver (10-10-8) the lead in the second minute. Midfielder Lindsey Heaps’ volley doubled the lead in the 18th. It was her fourth goal in the last three games.

Angel City responded with Sveindís Jónsdóttir scoring in the 32nd minute. Seven minutes later, Taylor Suarez scored to make it 2-2 before Sentnor scored four minutes later.

Gisele Thompson had two assists.

Angel City (13-8-7) is unbeaten in its last eight games.