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Hay making in the winter sun...life carries on at VP!
Chris • 15 November 2019
Still sunny and beach weather even in November
The saying goes “Make Hay While the Sun Shines” – well if the sun keeps shining, you just have to keep making the hay, right?
So it’s November and we’re still making hay…because our guests are still enjoying the sun – it’s a vicious circle, reader. Will I ever get a break?
Perhaps I will, now that the super busy period is over…but only just. Last week, both sets of guests in our apartments were enjoying the beach, swimming in the sea…yes, in November! Guest Nathalie took a photo of a beautiful November sunrise taken from the terrace of our ‘Mediterráneo’ apartment – I include it below.
Does everything stop now that we are in the middle of November? No, not really…it just slows down and enables us to take a well-deserved slower pace for a few months. We take it down a gear and have a gentle sprinkling of winter sun seekers until the full season starts again in April. So there’s still hay for us and sun for our guests, but just at a more relaxing pace. Well-deserved all round!
The other week we saw the annual beach maintenance work completed. Over the course of the summer, a lot of the sand from the naturist beach drifts further down the bay. So come November, the powers that be arrange for a fleet of massive dumper trucks the size of houses to gather and load the sand and bring it all back up to the naturist section of the beach. Of course, the long term solution would be to build another groyne like the one constructed outside the naturist hotel some years back, but until that happens, at least they are doing something. By putting extra sand where the existing beach is, the hope is that while a lot will get washed away, the majority of the original beach will still be there post-winter…but there’ll always be the moaners, won’t there (eyes roll heavenward).
The thing is, while technically it is the end of the official season being November, the weather still allows naked beach days with some days being genuinely hot. So the naturist beach still attracts beachgoers soaking up the sun, splashing about in the water.
Ordinarily, in today’s world of Health and Safety, one would expect the beach to be closed and cordoned off so that the dumper trucks could go about their work unencumbered, but this is Spain. Instead the shoreline is awash with sunbathers and their beach paraphernalia, slumbering away right next to the huge track marks where the dumper trucks thunder past at 80 kph with a plume of sand spray behind them. A most amazing sight to watch.
Off the sand and into the water, there are buoys that mark where watercraft cannot cross in order to protect swimmers and bathers. Recently, these have been removed for the winter which means that local fishing boats from the nearby fishing port of Villaricos come daringly close to the shoreline of an evening in order to place their fishing nets for the evening. Come nighttime, you can see the marker flashing away until the same little fishing boat comes to remove the marker and nets the following morning. This proves that our part of the Mediterranean that fronts our naturist beach is teeming with marine life – a healthy barometer for our waters.
Today, we have been watching the ongoing dismantling of the infamous Pirate Bar – putting the place to bed for winter, ready to return next season. Don’t worry though…there are still naturist establishments open throughout the winter months, namely, both the Natsun and Vera Natura chiringuitos right on the beach and both serving proper food menus, and Puntonat street bar which so far remains open (and only this weekend were doing a special Paella day). Add to this the selection of non naturist bars, restaurants and cafes that remain open all year and within walking distance of the naturist zone – the buzz at VP continues right through the so-called winter months, albeit a little slower paced out of the main season.
So there you have it…life at VP goes on…and so must I…I’ve got an appointment with a pitchfork. Until the next time, happy November!
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
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