April 24, 2014 WALKS IN HISTORY: La playa de la Costilla… continued Story & photos by J.A. Pilares
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n our last article we took a long walk down the Paseo Marítimo, Rota’s sea promenade in la Costilla beach, ending the trip at Virgen del Mar. From here on the promenade becomes a winding path in the pinewoods to the west of town for some three kilometres to Punta Candor. Let’s take a walk, but first we should get us a six-pack of beer… Our walk will start in the path that leads away into the woods that begins next to the Parque Atlántico. These woods are not natural, but rather man-made. Over the centuries wind and sea erosion have gnawed away at the shore, while sand dunes would be pushed and pulled along the coast, sometimes invading the nearby farms. Humans realised that a barrier was needed to protect their homes from this “invader” and over the last two hundred years several species have been planted into the dunes to immobilise them, with a great deal of success. This forest is known both as “Los pinos” or “La Forestal”, although the second term tends to refer to the old military installations in the woods. Rota was already a military outpost before the Base was built, but not navy or aviation… but artillery. The Spanish 4th regiment of coastal artillery had several batteries
in Rota to defend the entrance to the bay of Cádiz , most of them hidden from view inside the forest; hence the name “La Forestal”. Most of these batteries and bunkers where built at the end of World War Two as Franco’s dictatorship expected an Allied invasion of Spain as part of a campaign against Nazi Germany, even battleship cannons –like those of the cruiser “Cataluña”- where emplaced here. The so called “pieza Guillén”, of 240/42,5mm, served in Rota from 1944 until 1996 when it was taken to Tarifa –in the Straits of Gibraltar-, from where it still defends Spain’s sealines. The Regiment finished moving away from Rota in 2002, and since then the entire forest is open to all that want to enjoy it.The old bunkers can still be seen, slowly sliding down from their original positions on top of the dunes (one has even made it to the beach), some turned into viewpoints from where great sights of the sea are to be enjoyed from over the forest canopy.The artillery emplacements are still there, albeit devoid of cannons, and turned into resting places with wooded canopies and benches. About halfway to Punta Candor, the forest is interrupted by a residential area and the hotel Playa de la Luz. Most of this area was built on top of the old –rather, ancient-
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almadraba of Rota. “Almadraba” is an arab term meaning “killing grounds” and refers to the areas where people would trap and hunt down tuna fish during the autumn months as these animals migrated from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean. “La almadraba” had two distinct areas. In the sea are the fishing weirs, probably built there originally in Roman times, where the tuna would be trapped and hunted down; and on land the factory, where the fish would be quartered, sometimes salted, and all the equipment kept.The factory burned down in the 1930’s and was never rebuilt because of the hardships of the Great Depression; only the empty warehouses and the concrete foundations remained. These warehouses were put to use during –and after- the Spanish Civil War by the Nationalist army, at first, and the Dictatorship, later. The warehouses became a makeshift POW camp and later a concentration camp for political prisoners. These were put to work in road-building in Rota and around town; the Avenida San Fernando or the rebuilding of the calle Calvario are just two of the projects they were put to work in. Again in 1956 many came to live here against their will. At that time the naval base was being built and the inhabitants of
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the farms within the perimeter had to be resettled. One-hundred and one families where moved here by the government, paying 30 pesetas each for the rent… although on official documents the money would figure as a “donation”. With time these people would move away to better housing and eventually the settlement became today’s Hotel Playa de la Luz. After the Hotel and the fishing weirs –or “corrales”- the forest continues on to Punta Candor along the beach. Before we reach the Hotel the beach is young and sporty, with groups of people playing all types of games on the shore while the more adventurous ride surf-boards or fly while kitesurfing. Beyond the hotel, the mood changes. The beach is usually sparsely occupied, which has given rise to a more “adult” use of it.The beach has become an unofficial nudist area… while the woods and dunes behind it have been turned into a gay “cruising” area. We are almost at the end of the beach and the coast begins to turn northwards towards Chipiona, but first we have to cross the Alcántara stream. At high tide it empties into the ocean and can be hard to ford, but by low tide a large sandbar isolates it from the sea, turning the estuary into a haven for wildlife such as migrating ducks. After we cross the stream we cease to see Cádiz as it falls behind the woods, but on the right, the town of Chipiona comes into view in the horizon. As we look at the sun beginning to set in the sea we can sit back in the sand to watch.The first stars begin to come into view as the twilight fades away and to our right the lighthouse of Chipiona blinks into the night, warning mariners of the Salmedina rock on the approach to the mouth of the Guadalquivir. The wind whistles through the pine trees behind us and the waves softly crash into the sand, together playing the music of the sunset. Remember that six-pack we got before setting off? Maybe now would be a good time to share a drink and enjoy the show that Nature grants us.
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