The sun was shining again after the rain yesterday so the beach called to us. We walked down through the town, across a bridge that over the Rio Salado that fronts Conil and onto a path along the beach, through meadows, wetlands and dunes to the Castilnova Tower. That’s the tower in the distance in front of and to the right of Jim.
The mouth of the Salado River has a surface area of 77.4 hectares and a length of 7 kilometres, forming a natural ecosystem in which fresh and salt water coexist creating a beautiful landscape and supporting lots of bird life. It is a protected area, declared a Site of Community Importance and Special Area of Conservation, part of the Natura 2000 Network and the Network of Protected Natural Spaces of Andalusia. With so much of the Costa del Sol developed, it is heartening to see much of the Costa de Luz in a natural state.
Built in the 16th century, the Castilnovo Tower was part of a small fortress for the defense of the coast against possible Berber attacks. It also functioned to alert the fishermen to large shoals of bluefin tuna. An enclosure was built around it, the perimeter of which is still there, which served as accommodation for both the tuna workers and the merchants who came to buy the tuna. The fortress was destroyed by a tsunami resulting from the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 leaving only the Castilnovo Tower.
I had never heard of the Great Lisbon Earthquake that not only impacted Portugal, but also the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, 1755, on the Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, the earthquake almost completely destroyed Lisbon and adjoining areas. Seismologists estimate the Lisbon earthquake had a magnitude of 7.7 or greater.
Estimates place the death toll in Lisbon, with a population of about 200,00 at the time, around 30,000–40,000. A further 10,000 may have died in Morocco. Candles lit in homes and churches all around Lisbon for All Saints' Day were knocked over, starting a fire that developed into a firestorm which burned for hours in the city. Almost all the coastal towns and villages of the Algarve were heavily damaged. In Spain, the tsunamis swept the Andalusian Atlantic Coast, damaging the city of Cadiz.
Shocks from the earthquake were felt throughout Europe, as far as Finland and according to some sources even in Greenland and the Caribbean. Tsunamis as tall as 20 metres swept along the coast of North Africa, and struck Martinique and Barbados across the Atlantic Ocean. A three-metre tsunami even hit Cornwall on the southern British coast and Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. In 2015, it was determined that the tsunami waves may have reached the coast of Brazil. Eighty-five percent of Lisbon's buildings were destroyed, including famous palaces and libraries, priceless historical collections and art, as well as most examples of Portugal's distinctive 16th-century architecture. The earthquake accentuated political tensions in Portugal and profoundly disrupted the Portuguese Empire. As the first earthquake studied scientifically for its effects over a large area, it apparently led to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering. Who knew?
Besides being prompted to find out about the earthquake, and besides the amazing landscape all around us, and the company of a group of the big-horned, red, retinto cows, the other thing of special interest on our walk, was to see some of a colony of one of the 10th most endangered birds in the world, the ibis eremita or northern bald ibis. They became extinct in Europe 400 years ago but were bred in captivity and released, have taken up residence on the roof of the Castilnova Tower and seem to be thriving - and we saw them! They are a very colourful bird, with a red bald face, a long curved red bill, black feathers with metallic green and purple sparkles, though we didn’t get close enough to see that last characteristic. We saw a number of them fly from the tower to the grass where it seems they feed on lizards and insects. I was able to get some profile photos of them. Their severe decline in Europe is linked to humans hunting and eating the fledglings. Us again!
We walked back to the town on the sand and there was an amazing variety of shells on the beach. As is often the case on this coast, there was another more recent defensive structure, a bunker, I think from the Spanish Civil War.
We continued our walk north of town above the beach, scoping out our route out of town the next day, heading north again in the direction of Cádiz. Jim felt pretty confident about our picking up the Eurovelo 8 route not too far from our apartment. There are more high end villa and vacation developments on that end of town, and the odd older development on the beach, perhaps before it was protected. A tsunami would definitely wipe this place out.
Not a riding day but a good 25,000 step day. Later on we found a very sweet little Italian restaurant just a couple of blocks away from “home”. Carbo loading seemed to be called for and we shared an ensalada de cabro with the goat cheese crispy and melted in two thick slices on top of the salad and dug into a couple of pasta dishes. Very nice Italian man serving us and it seemed to be a popular neighbourhood spot.
With the lingering virus still dogging us both, we felt much like this guy when we finally called it a day.
This featured blog entry was written by Jenniferklm from the blog De Nuevo a España.
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