The season begins. How did that happen?!

Beep-beep-beep-CLUNK Beep-beep-beep-CLUNK is how…

The sound of reversing trucks, diggers, tractors and heavy machinery clanking, banging and screeching has become background white noise for us these last few weeks while the beach repairs have been carried out. So used to the sound are we, it will be weird when it is no longer there and is instead replaced by the gentle buzz of beach revellers in holiday mode frolicking in the surf.

The beach repairs to the middle section of Vera Playa naturist beach have been fraught with problems, setbacks and delays, but finally it’s looking like almost everything is in place for the season to begin. Familiar sights lately have included our daily dose of seeing men in high viz gesticulating, shouting, chin-stroking; all flailing arms and sweaty brows while having their mini alpha male dramas and meltdowns. It can’t be easy working in this heat while trying to negotiate your way through a heaving tangle of naturists to do your job fully clothed.

We’ve included here in this blog a photographic chronology of the beach works for anyone interested to see what has been going on at everyone’s favourite naturist beach.

You’ll see some previously unpublished photos showing from the start how the sand was delivered to the naturist beach, dumped and preened to widen this section for this season - at least until the long-term solution of a breakwater is finally installed… we hope some time in the autumn.

But it wasn’t just the major sand-works, smaller changes have taken place, such as renewing the beach paths, replacing broken showers, painting the lifeguard tower, delivering freshly painted lifeguard stations, flag pole bases…it has been a hive of activity here and you wonder what could possibly be next. Ah yes as I write this, it’s the first day of the lifeguard stations being manned and it’s a green flag day, hopefully a good omen for the season!

Probably the biggest news of late has been the drama of the re-siting of the pirate bar. As one of the pictures below show, the pirate bar always comes under attack from high seas in the winter and is usually fully or partly destroyed or at best badly injured in the battle.

Since we don’t have a groyne in place yet and the beach is too narrow in its current position it seems to have been decided to move the bar back say 10 metres from the shoreline. Whether this has been for the safety of customers or to allow emergency beach vehicles (SOS, Guardia, rubbish collectors etc) to pass by easily, we are not exactly sure.

The moving of the bar did not go to plan. The first attempt at moving the bar (which is in 3 separate container sections) ended in failure as the green crane was too small and not powerful enough for the job. A couple of days later a ‘super-size’ white crane was on the beach and the job was completed in little more than an hour or two (pics below).

Perhaps at least for this year only it will be a slightly different pirate bar to the one people are used to, but maybe next year - and if the beach grows in width post-groyne - there’s the chance it could return to the shoreline and people can dip their toes in the sea once more. Either way we will keep our eyes peeled and publish any photos when we can to show the finished look for this year.

Talking of photos…

Since we are snap-happy and addicted to taking photos, we usually share photos either on our website or on social media platforms. However even those aren’t enough to cater for the volume of photos we take and we don’t want to bore people with over-posting and clogging up their newsfeeds. To this end we often put otherwise unpublished or extra photos on our Google page. Recently and for no apparent or obvious reason there has been an upsurge in people viewing our photos - 80,000 views last month, increasing to 90,000 views this month. If you are interested to see our extra photos please take a look here and look at the ‘latest’ section.

The resort is getting busier and busier by the minute. Most of the people do seem to be second homeowners (mainly Spanish), weekenders and locals but there is a steady influx of other tourists from overseas.

The vaccination programme has been ramped up here in Vera and the numbers currently low so now could be a good time to consider a trip here, depending on the current travel restrictions from your country. From next weekend in Spain, the mandatory wearing of face masks outdoors will be dropped. *SIGH* We can all breathe again...

We predict August is going to be busier than ever which will be fabulous news for all the bars, restaurants and other businesses.

Talking of businesses, VP is about to up its cool quotient thanks to a forthcoming new ‘surf shack’, currently under construction on the main road down to the beach, fingers crossed they have a successful first season there. More later.

So you see there really is something here for everyone…come when you can!

Til next time!

Steve and Chris offer two beautiful apartments to rent for the discerning naturist traveller. One is directly on the Vera Playa naturist beach, the other just a few footsteps away. See more here.