Indian summer – Spanish style!
Morning, Arenal Beach
A whole month in Spain – what better way to spend September!
We were more than ready for our break after an exceptionally busy (even for us!) summer that included a family wedding and family arriving from Oz for a month. We squeezed in a 4-day visit to Javea for seven of us the week before the wedding and afterwards helped another son move house and all that that involved. Somehow, I managed to finish a major work project and also kept a date with a surgeon to remove my troublesome gall bladder.
We lost track of the number of trips we made to and from Heathrow Airport – picking up or seeing off family members on their journeys across the world – it was a summer of happy reunions (even at 5.45 am!), wonderful memories and tearful goodbyes.
Finally, at the end of August, life was just about back to normal so we packed our cabin bags and headed out to Spain on EasyJet. We usually take the ferry and drive down through Spain when we’re away as long as a month, but this year Alec found an irresistible car hire deal of just €6 a day, so it made economic sense to fly. Arriving in the warmth of a summer’s evening at Alicante airport with the prospect of four weeks in sunny Spain was a tonic in itself!
The Costa Blanca has had a severe drought this year, with little rain falling since April. We arrived in the middle of a late summer heatwave, which lasted for the first three weeks of September with temperatures regularly spiking up to 35°C. Perfect weather for swimming and sunbathing but rather too hot for gardening – and there was certainly lots of that to do with masses of pine needles to sweep up and 80-odd dead fronds to cut off the Washingtonia palms.
As well as the usual tidying up and deadheading, we had to dispose of two of our Canary palms – both victims of the red beetle weevil. This horrid pest has wiped out thousands of these graceful and statuesque palms along the Mediterranean in the last few years. We had to take them to a special processing area outside the town, as affected trees can spread the infection. Our garden looks bereft without them as both had grown into large and beautiful specimens. Finding suitable replacements will be difficult (and expensive).
September has certainly been an eventful and social month. We’ve met up with old friends and neighbours, made new friends and my sister joined us for a week. So good to have some quality time together in the sunshine. We always tend to go out more when we have a visitor – we shared some great meals in local restaurants, including a terrific Sunday roast under the palm trees at El Rancho and booked tickets for a classical flamenco show in the gardens of the Parador hotel, which started at the unusually late time of 10pm.
Montgo fire, image courtesy of Piotr Azia
Going down to the Arenal beach one morning for our daily swim, we witnessed the drama of a serious fire on the Montgo mountain. Helicopters and seaplanes were tackling the blaze, filling up with water from the bay then flying low over the beach and up to the headland to douse the flames. It was surreal and very dramatic. We didn’t realise the extent of the fire until we read about it the following day in a local paper. It also made the news on Spanish TV. People were evacuated from their homes for a couple of nights as the flames took hold but thankfully there was no loss of life or injuries and the fire was eventually extinguished.
Fighting the Montgo blaze, image courtesy of Pirotr Azia
Driving to the lighthouse a few days later, to show my sister the spectacular views over the town and the beaches, we were shocked to see just how much land had been destroyed. The national park looked like a black lunar landscape with charred black stumps of the trees and plants.
The weather changed dramatically on the 22 September, as storms, hailstones and sheets of torrential rain hit the area. Road junctions were (and still are) flooded (no drains in this part of Javea) and there’s nowhere for the water to go – it just gradually evaporates. These huge puddles are so deep the water covers the pavements, so until it subsides, walking is impossible. The only way to get out and about is by car.
However, all this rain is exactly what the gardens have been crying out for for months. But even as I write this, the skies are blue and the temperature is 28°C! That’s one of the things I love about Spain, the sun usually makes an appearance at some point – there are few totally grey days like we have at home.