Oliva – the endless beach – a storm – and please don’t shit in the showers! Days 17-27

 

We fell in love with Oliva in the late 1990s when our friends Linda and Kevin had suggested we explore the area in our previous camper, Daisy the Dodge. With its 8km long beach and half a dozen campsites to choose from, it soon became a firm favourite. So much so, that for almost 12 years we owned a little casita, or summerhouse, at the nearby Font Salada

 

We have many happy memories of Oliva, although have only visited once, briefly, since we sold up, making this quite a poignant trip for us, as it still feels very much like home.

 

We still have friends here too, and this was also part of the reason to visit. As we pulled off the motorway slip road, it felt as though little had changed in this small town that was once a part of our lives for so many years. The traffic still snakes between the old town with its castle and the newer part with its paseo and weekly market, and before long there are roads leading off to the miles of dune backed sandy beaches. This stretch of coastline is remarkably undeveloped, which is another reason to love it here.

 

And it was wonderful to be back and see that little had changed. We were especially pleased to see that although some of the dunes had taken a battering over the years, they are now being actively protected as a nature reserve, to protect the flora and fauna and indeed seedlings could be seen pushing up through the sand and a small flock of the little ‘clockwork’ birds we remembered were feeding on the shoreline.

 

 

And the mile after mile of perfect beach walking was just calling to us!

 

 

We took a stroll up to look at the old campsite we used to stay on many years ago, El Rancho, abandoned and derelict the last time we visited. And it still is, providing us in this photo with a classic example of the microclimate in Oliva, with the interior often cloudy, dark and with lowering skies, sometimes even raining, but the beach in full sun! The picture of Mrs B above, literally having been taken minutes afterwards!

 

 

Our friends Janette and Ian have a lovely casita a few hundred metres from the beach and towards the town, and had kindly offered to allow us to park up outside the house the day we arrived.

 

Pulling into their part of a small barrio, we parked Evie up for the night and settled in for an evening of their legendary hospitality and a good old natter about what’s changed in Oliva since we were last here.

 

 

 

Over the years, they have transformed their house into a beautiful home that has stayed true to its Spanish ‘casita de verano’ origins.

 

Over our first weekend we were treated to a fabulous range of authentic Spanish cuisine, including a paella Valencia on no other than Valencia day itself! Thank you both!

 

 

Choosing to extend our stay longer than we initially planned, we went in search of a campsite further down the beach, opting for one we’ve not stayed on before, Eurocamping.

 

After establishing that we could have our pick of any number of vacant pitches, we were pleased to see that amongst the numerous German and Dutch campers, was a strong showing of Spanish weekenders in caravans and tents, making for guaranteed lively weekends.

 

We were lucky to be able to choose a pitch that had a mix of German, Dutch and Spanish neighbours and it was great to see large groups of locals all gathered to eat at enormous tables, BBQs smoking away and even the odd giant paella being carried back to a caravan from the obliging campsite restaurant!

 

 

Often criticised in ACSI reviews by Northern Europeans as noisy, we love these opportunities to experience a slice of Spanish holidaying, complete with its Latin sense of exuberance.

 

This site turned out to be a great find, with generously sized pitches, lovely showers and a nice bar/resto and right on the beach, plus just a 30-minute cycle into town. What it also had, weirdly, was something we have only ever experienced once before in Sardinia – the eccentric practice of taking a dump in a campsite shower! We had assumed that the time Mr B had needed to report an unexpected deposit in the shower cubicle to reception back then was a one-off accident, but, as you can see from this unambiguous-in-any-language sign that greeted him in the showers, it’s not simply an Italian phenomenon, although clearly a male one as no signs existed in the women’s shower block.

 

 

After enjoying a run of lovely sunny days, our return to Oliva also gifted us with another of its autumnal weather features – a storm of biblical proportions known locally as the ‘gota fria’ – the cold drop – when the warmth of the land and the cool of the sea produce spectacular storms and quantities of rain you might expect in the tropics.

 

We should have guessed when we experienced a fabulous full moon rising over the sea – often a portent of a change in the weather…

 

 

Deciding to sit tight and ride it out, the view out from our window on day one gave us a taste of what was to come…

 

 

 

And of course, camp-life has to continue in the gaps between the deluges…

 

 

With staff obviously being well prepared…

 

 

We had heard that the site uses a series of pumps to help get the water out of their drains, and we certainly heard them when in use, so when we spotted a gap in the rain we dealt with our rising cabin fever by taking a walk through the campsite to see what happened.

 

After passing numerous flooded access roads, including one deep enough for a group of little girls to have claimed it as a paddling pool, we exited the main entrance to find that the water is simply pumped out into the ‘campo’ – land not used for anything at the moment it seems…

 

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Musing that this seemed a bit like a ‘my problem is now your problem’ solution as we saw what happened to the nearby kids’ playground, now resembling a boating lake…

 

 

We subsequently learned from one of the owners that until the adjacent urbanisation had been built, water from the campsite mostly drained into the surrounding land. However, since the increase in development, managing water and planning for the consequences of new developments might be fairly described as work in progress. Still, it gave us a chance to experience a genuine autumn experience in Oliva and as is usually the case here, a day or two later all was back to normal.

 

Extending our stay further once the rains had abated, we managed to make it over to see our old neighbourhood at Font Salada.

 

 

The owner of the chiringuito there, Antonio, and one of the waiters, Dani, both recognised us and we were treated to a free cortado as we nattered about the now declining number of our old Valenciano neighbours, either dead or poorly and no longer using their summer houses.

 

And how it showed, as we looked up the communal access road to our old house, which between us we used to maintain with the need for frequent repairs. It didn’t look like anyone had done any maintenance for some time and we abandoned our idea of walking up to the house to have a look and instead enjoyed our time next to the crystal clear waters of the font. Some memories are best left as they were.

 

 

On our way back we saw another change as we crossed the N322. What was once an Indian restaurant when we first got the house, and had then fallen into disrepair and dereliction by the time we left, and had been covered in Valenciano graffiti, was now covered in Russian graffiti – and, as we’d heard Russian voices further up the coast so we had in Oliva… Russians are not new to this part of Spain, but it was interesting to see that their influence had spread to this level of integration!

 

 

As the sun returned with gusto and daily temperatures rose to the mid 20s, we made full use of our easy access to the beach, walking north and south to vary the scenery, but always coming back to our favourite – the long stretch south towards Montgo.

 

 

Our extended stay managed to include a trip to Oliva’s vibrant weekly market – an absolute treat of fresh, local and seasonal produce, with a couple of the stallholders we used to buy from still there and smiling!

 

 

The consequence of such abundance of course was that one of us was obliged to return to ‘el burro’ mode as we carted our haul of fresh produce and supermarket top-ups back to the campsite on the bikes. It’s a lovely ride along old narrow roads and views are always a useful offset to the anxiety that we might be pushing the design limits of these bikes!

 

 

The best benefit of our extended stay in Oliva though, was that we got to return some of the hospitality extended to us by Janette and Ian, when we invited them back to ours for dinner before we left, and enjoying our first BBQ of the trip, in weather that seemed like an endless summer treat!

 

 

We love you Oliva – and we will be back!

 

S&J

17.10.22