Spanish Mediterranean Coast
Just over three weeks ago we continued our eastward travel along the Iberian coast - Costa del Sol, from Fuengirola, Puerto de la Mona, Motril, Granada to Almerimar, around Cabo de Gata to the Costa Blanca, Los Genoveses Bay, Punta Parda, Cartagena, Mar Menor, Nueva Tabarca, Alicante, Benidorm, Calpe to Denia - experiencing very little wind and climbing temperatures - this past week has seen the daytime temperature reach 38° and a night-time low of 28°, same as the sea temperature, phew, not complaining, just saying… but hasn’t stopped us from climbing hills and mountains when we can.
Matt left us at Fuengirola for a two week visit to Barcelona and the UK, giving us the opportunity to wear less clothes, if any, catch up on all those little jobs and practice two handed sailing, the latter made more difficult with increasingly no wind instrumentation, but finally resolved in Alicante with local Raymarine dealer Satrónika discovering component corrosion at the top of the mast, apparently it’s a cat thing, so fingers crossed…..
The coastline is mountainous, stark and arid with old stone forts atop every strategic vantage point. And of course stretches and patches of golden beach (rock sand not the white shell sand of Portugal) – most with brightly coloured umbrellas and backed by apartments and hotels, once upon a time small fishing villages.
Midway along, near Almeria, are vast areas of white plastic – hydroponic horticulture feeding Spain, we had expected to see plastic in the sea but surprisingly not, in fact so far on our travels we are impressed with how clean the beaches and sea are – there are always plenty of rubbish bins and people use them.
People are friendly, they admire NOETA and good anchorages have been relatively easy to find. There is always that thought after spending a night or two in a beautiful bay, making the decision to move on – will I find another as good?
We have made the most of warm seas and spent hours on hull maintenance – scrubbing our props and scraping millions of mussel sprat off our Micanti antifouling, must have picked them up coming down the Atlantic coast – we may be starting a new marine industry down this way!
We go ashore to provision, climb a mountain or just look around – in most towns there is a lot of modern development with the remains of a small town hidden amoungst the concrete, even so most still have Spanish marble footpaths and orange trees along the streets, and of course forts and castles… with successive cultures literally building from and on the ruins of the previous - the Phoenicians from Lebanon (1100 BC), Greeks (800 BC), Carthaginians from Tunisia (600 BC), Romans (200 BC), Goths (400), Moors (700), Spanish (1200), Barbary pirates (1600), tourists (1960) and now an abundance of Chinese emporiums…..
Standouts?
Granada – a green oasis on a vast plain, backed by the snow topped Sierra Nevadas, the Alhambra fortress and palaces sit atop cool green gardens, running water everywhere
Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata – volcanic, austere, arid desert beauty and an anchorage in crystal clear 25° water
Cartagena – a defensible natural harbour with stone forts on every high point and well-presented Roman remains
Calpe – Roman rock sea pools Baños de la Reina used for fish farming and climbing Peñón de Ifach, a narrow rocky track to a great view
Disappointing lack of sealife – occasional dolphin pod, jellyfish, baby bream at anchor, two sunfish, seagulls, terns, one shag
We arrived in Denia three days ago, less mountainous, more trees, a welcome change. Denia is a popular jumping off point to the Balearics, we had planned to head up the coast and spend a couple of days in Valencia, but a 20 knot southerly forecast means a headwind from there versus a reach from here, so tomorrow we are up early and off to Ibiza, about 60 nautical miles, a longish day….to be continued…