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Confirmation
came last month that the coastal walkway between Burriana beach
and Nerja town centre will definitely not be re-opened at any time
in the near future.
This unfortunate
probability was reported here last November but a final decision
that the path is to remain closed came at a meeting in Madrid
between Nerja’s councillor for beaches, Jonathan Mendez, and José
Fernández, director general of the Costas department.
Interestingly ‘Paseo de los Carabineros’ translates as Customs
Officers’ Walk and anyone who has walked along it from Burriana to
just below the Balcón de Europa will understand why as it takes in
some historically ‘possibly useful’ secluded coves and beaches
along its length. |
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This once attractive
and interesting feature has unfortunately fallen into disrepair
since a number of small rock-falls caused its closure some years
ago and it was high on the agenda at the meeting. Sr Mendez said
afterwards that although the discussions concerning the fate of
the walkway had been held in “a good climate of understanding” the
director had declared that re-opening the path was “unviable.”
However, councillor
Mendez had told Soltalk in November that there are ideas still on
the table concerning the linking up of some of the coves and
beaches as part of the plans for possibly expanding the Burriana
beach area. Despite the costs and logistics involved in creating
two semi-submerged reefs off of the coast the project has not, he
informed me, been rejected out of hand by the ministry. |
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Work on the
Burriana beach improvements went on at a pace throughout the
month. A large number of the trees have now gone and the photo
shows how things looked just before we went to press. There is
obviously a long way to go and a lot of work still to do if the
promised Easter completion date is to be achieved.
The weekend of the 9th and 10th saw some unusually warm weather
for February, and there was a marked upturn in the number of
visitors to the area. This was also the start of half term in the
UK which certainly played a part in this and at lunchtime on the
Sunday there were few parking places available, and not many seats
left in the majority of restaurants. |
One such venue enjoying a bumper day was Woolleys Bitter and Twisted
where an unbeatable combination of the extremely popular Sunday roasts
and several important sporting fixtures being shown on the two large
plasma screens ensured that Mike and Tony didn’t have any spare time
on their hands – especially as they were without Gill out front.
Unfortunately she broke her wrist falling off a stationary
motor-scooter (stop it!) and has gone back to the UK to recuperate.
Sunday March 2 is Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day) in the UK and a
special lunch is planned at the restaurant to celebrate the occasion.
This is bound to be a sell-out, so bookings are essential to avoid
disappointment.
Having said
goodbye to Baron at H20 owners Matt and Simon then said hello to
Alex who joined the team behind the bar, having travelled all the
way across the road from Restaurante La Parra. If his face looks
familiar you may have seen him on television towards the end of
last year, when Gordon Ramsay did a follow up programme for his
series ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ from Alex’s former place of
employment.
With Jane having also moved on from H20
to live in Morocco the only member of the team not appearing in
the photo is Laura as it was taken on a Sunday – her day off. A
new idea introduced recently at the venue is that, in addition to
the free wi-fi access for customers with lap-tops, those who do
not possess such an item are now able to hire, for a very modest
fee, a keyboard and screen, placed conveniently at the end of the
bar. The bar has also had an interior make-over and Simon tells me
that the next target in the offing for some updating work is the
water feature. |
Alex, Matt, Yassir
and Simon |
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As in previous
years John and Richard have got a special evening planned for
Saturday March 1 at the Café del Mar. It is St David’s Day and the
boys will be offering a specially themed Welsh menu which has
proved extremely popular in the past.
Another themed evening
took place here on Friday January 25, this time for the Scottish
folk in our midst, as it was the birthday of ‘A Man, A Poet and A
Legend’ – Mr Robbie Burns. A great highlight of the evening was
the arrival and ongoing participation in events of Alistair
McFarlane in full tartan, playing his bag-pipes (above)
However it was nearly
the night that never was. The problem arose |
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St
Valentine’s Day was celebrated in romantic style at All That Jazz
where a full house enjoyed a candlelight dinner and were
entertained by Sandy Lawrence. Love was certainly in the air
amongst the patrons, thanks to the hard work of Marc and Alasdair
in the kitchen, plus Sandy and Mark at the tables.
The team are putting
on a special menu for Mothers Day again this year. Final touches
were still being made as we went to press, but a quick call or
asking at the bar will now provide full details. |
when, with a very short
period of time to go before the event, there
was no haggis, or ‘beastie,’ as there is a ban on importing offal into
Spain from the UK. Burns’ Night just would not be Burns’ Night without
the delicacy, so step in an enterprising Scottish butcher, now
residing in Benamocarra. John of 2-Js Carvery realised that there was
a potentially huge market across the Costa del Sol, and so he made the
beasties using locally sourced ingredients, thus saving many a
celebration up and down the coast.
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This months
archive picture is an aerial shot of the Nerja Golf area taken in
the early 70’s.
Burriana can be
seen in the background and in the foreground of the shot is the
N-340 (with all of one car on it!) and the lower end of
Capistrano.
Has anyone got a
similar modern day shot of roughly the same area?
It would be very
interesting to compare the two and see just how many green areas
there are still left.
Please keep the
photos coming in and if you can give us your name and a year when
the picture was taken, it would be all the better.
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And who says the med
doesn’t get rough?
It certainly did on
a few occasions during February but this dramatic evening photo
was actually taken in November. Thanks to Jim Skinner of Coventry
and sister Elaine from Dancers Restaurant and Bar for this one.
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And finally - if you
thought our beach gets unbearably crowded at times take heart from
this picture of Burriana’s Chinese equivalent, sent to me by Di
Kitto of Barwell in Leicestershire. The complete lack of trees in
the picture prompted the somewhat wicked thought that perhaps our
councillor for beaches had holidayed in China sometime recently.
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