Joshua Parfitt
VISTAS are places for dreamers as well as the adventurous, looking for something different.
They are also perfect places to show off on Instagram and Facebook – and to get in your minimum 10,000 steps a day.
The Mirador Challenge helps you with those… and a lot, lot more.
First created by British expats Mike and Fay Smith over a decade ago, it traces 15 viewpoints (miradores) along the dramatic limestone coastline cradling Javea.
The route covers 29km and promises some of the best scenery in Spain.
You can of course do parts of it, or the whole lot in one day if you get your skates on early.
Here, we pick out our favourite sections.
La Granadella
The challenge starts in the 700ha Granadella Forest Park, a scrubland still recovering from a forest fire in 2016 that decimated the area.
The most challenging part, this walk through scrubland can be steep and rocky, though the lack of trees offers sublime views all the way down to Javea’s amazing Playa de la Granadella.
After a short scramble up the hill from the beach the Mediterranean arrives like a balm for sore bodies out from Castell de la Granadella viewpoint.
Ambolo
The third viewpoint looks out over the Isla del Descubridor (Discoverer’s Island), allegedly named after a Javean sailor who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to the Americas.
A more shocking discovery for anyone who decides to take a pair of binoculars, however, would be the nudist beach at the foot of this cliff.
The real crown jewels is the dramatic coastline stretching east of the Ambolo viewpoint, locked in a perpetual battle with the sea that happily produces the shingled beaches enjoyed by the fully-clothed and nudist alike.
Cabo de la Nau
Cabo de la Nau is the name given to this whole headland south of Javea.
The protruding cliffs here mark the closest point on the Costa Blanca to Ibiza, which can be seen on a clear day across the shimmering blue.
But Cabo de la Nau also refers to a high, rocky outcrop boasting two restaurants, Cabo de la Nau and Mirador de Javea, with unbeaten views over the Med.
The viewpoint itself, the fifth on the challenge, is bejewelled with purple clumps of toothed lavender—a rare, endemic species that is separate to the more common English lavender seen in ornamental gardens.
La Falzia
The woods around La Falzia viewpoint are the only forested area on this otherwise highly-developed coastline.
But with sunrise views over Porticholl island, who can blame residents for choosing such an inspiring vista early in the day.
The water is so crystal clear you can almost see the fish, and you probably would quite rapidly if it wasn’t for wooden barriers keeping you from the sheer cliff-edge.
A great place for walking, La Falzia is only a stone’s throw from the Playa de la Barraca, which offers a secluded bay for swimming in the summer months.
From this, the seventh viewpoint, you drop down to Javea and along the coast to the port.
Cabo San Antonio
From the port you climb the winding footpath up to the top of Cabo San Antonio which offers perhaps the most stunning, near-360 degree views on the Javea coastline.
From Ibiza to the east, the whole of Javea beneath you, and the Montgo mountain to the west, this is a true dreamer’s paradise.
From here, you can see how the citrus groves just outside the old town of Javea find sanctuary in this valley from the hard limestones cliffs that confront the sea like a rampaging Spanish bull.
And as you gaze longingly over the town, it won’t be long before you’re enticed back into one of its bars to remind your battered body why beer is best served ice-cold.
READ MORE:
- ESCAPES: The Olive Press picks its top ten hotels to enjoy the Spanish mountains
- ANALYSIS: What’s so special about the microclimate in Javea on Spain’s Costa Blanca?
- Top 20 of the most exciting and luxurious places to spoil yourself in Spain this year
