Lessons from Turre, Alfaix and El PInar

I woke up well before dawn this morning, got up and completed my daily routine early. Rather than languish, I determined to get out into the countryside and take advantage of morning light rather than afternoon light for a change. I drove to the village of Turre via Mojácar Pueblo, inland on the south side of the coastal plain flanked on three sides by jagged sierras I cannot yet identify, and intersected by rivers, chiefly rio Aguas and rio Antas, running down into Mojácar and Vera Playas, respectively.

The area around Turre has been settled for the past three thousand years, though the present village dates from the sixteenth century re-settlement of people after the reconquista. The village rises up the hillside from the plain, with a Mudejár style parish church from that era on a promontory at the heart of the old village. 

Since Mojácar became a holiday destination, and benefited from the influx of expat settlers, Turre is a neighbouring rural village that has grown significantly with the building of new urbanizaciónes in response to demand. 

At 3,300 inhabitants, there are 50% more people living here now than twenty years ago. The number has dropped by several hundred due to the impact of recession on expats. It's hard to imagine how Turre looked when Mojácar was being regenerated in the 60's and 70's. Turre's main street is composed of unremarkable functional modern buildings, easy to drive through and forget. The main and tree shaded Plaza de la Constitución and church are on the uphill side. The choice and shape of the large evergreen trees in the Plaza, is the same as those outside Málaga's bullring on the Paseo de Reding, offering cool shade all year round.

From Turre, I drove further west inland, on the road to Los Galliardos and uphill to Bedar. In between these small towns, the road crosses a handsome mid 20th century brick bridge over the rio Antas, which flows down a valley through a gorge to reach the plain.

Up above the valley from here a few kilometres away is the self styled Pueblito de Alfaix, a modern urbanización, in the traditional style of an Andalucian pueblo . There may have been an old hamlet there of this name, but if so it wasn't that evident, as modern houses in their own grounds were what could be seen when driving through. The camino rural twice crossed over a wide cutting in the landscape, the trackbed of the AVE high speed line from Almeria to Murcia. It remains incomplete as funding for the tracks and other infrastructure ran out during the recession, as it has done in other places along the Corridor Mediterraneo. It's a sad outcome from near sighted economic planning.

After my brief diversion through Alfaix, I drove past Los Galliardos up to Bedar, where I spent an afternoon last year. Bedar is a post-industrial regenerated village which has seen an expansion of its housing stock on surrounding hillsides. On the way there is a signpost for El Pinar, a place I had heard mention of, but not visited last year. I took this road, which wound upwards through a narrow valley into a large modern urbanización, spread across its upper slopes and hilltops, offering great views of the coastal plain and sierras from on high. 

Sections of the development, I noticed, were incomplete, roads and basic services installed in otherwise virgin land, the structural framework of houses yet to be built. Either demand dried up, or investment funds, but the aesthetic impact on the environment would not be something the neighbours invested in when they purchased.

As I walked around, looking for a vantage point from which to take photos, I was greeted twice by men of my own age, in English. It seemed to me like an extensive expat colony, built in a beautiful exclusive area from scratch. Few social amenities, if any. A life entirely dependent on visits by car to nearby towns. A cooler climate, and as I said, great views, but only as long as someone remains independent, healthy and mobile. It's one way of 'living the dream', I guess.

This little excursion was valuable in helping me to join the dots in terms of local geography. I talk of the coastal plain. It's not all flat in between the enclosing sierras. There are sizeable crinkles in this level landscape, due to its underlying of volcanic activity. Now at least I know where the rio Aguas emerges and descends into the plain, ending up, just a few hundred metres from where I stay. In addition its a lesson in housing economics Spanish style. Given the UK Chancellor's latest budget drive to build 300 thousand homes a year, it made me wonder how aware his team is of what can go wrong.

As the sun was setting, I walked up to the rio Aguas bridge to check out the evening bird life and for the first time in my stay instead of the usual half dozen Egrets, there were about a hundred of them roosting in the cane groves along the banks of the charco nearest the beach. Ninety per cent roost on the north side and ten percent on the south just as they did last year from October onwards, I recall. It's curious, and I wonder what the reason is for this occupational pattern. Is it something to do with the specific habitat of the kinds of fish, invertebrates and insects they feed on, I wonder?