inlandsea

Discovering Cartagena

More Articles By Phillip Bruce www.raxomnium.com

Murcia’s Inland Sea

The Mar Menor is said to be Europe’s largest saltwater lagoon, covering an area of 170 square kilometres.

The Mar Menor is placid and beautiful and nowhere does the depth go over seven metres. Not surprisingly, it is a favourite with fans of water sports such as sailing and wind surfing or just lazing about on the beach.

The inland sea was formed about a thousand years ago when a long sand spit formed from the mainland. Today that sand spit, which runs for about 20 miles north from Cabo de Palos. Much of “the strip” is covered with high-rise buildings housing apartments and hotels. Intensive development started in the 1960s when La Manga strip became a destination for cheap and cheerful “sun ‘n sea” holidays from Britain and northern Europe and inland areas of Spain. There is still plenty of that today, and at the height of the summer season it is said that there can be up to a million people toasting themselves on the beaches. People who live in or visit the plush La Manga Club area, on the mainland, look very pained if you suggest they have anything to do with the strip.

It’s not fair to be too unkind to the strip. It certainly isn’t like the notorious Benidorm, a long way to the north in Valencia, and there are many good hotels. At some points the strip is only a couple of dozen yards wide and you can stroll across from a dip in the inland sea for a swim in the Mediterranean. The place is great for family holidays.

Outside June, July and August, however, things are much calmer. Many of the hotels, shops and restaurants close down for the winter and the place becomes a pleasure to visit. Given the geography, there is only one road in and out and along the strip and drivers can enjoy a traffic light festival. A bridge about halfway along opens to allow pleasure craft to access a marina and this is thought to be great by boaties and terrible for everyone else stuck in the resulting jams. Sometimes the bridge gets jammed and the traffic flows freely while the nautical crowd fumes as they bob about waiting for it to be fixed.

The very end of the strip is well worth a visit. There is a peaceful area of inlets, sea grasses and old salt pans. Visit it quick as a developer has proposed a massive scheme to cover it with concrete. Quite how they get away with this sort of scheme in Murcia is a mystery. They don’t always get away with it, however, and a giant development, hiding behind a blue fence on the Mediterranean side, has been halted in the midst of construction by successful legal challenges from environmentalists. If you are a fan of construction cranes, there are plenty to see elsewhere along the strip.

On the other side of the Mar Menor a string of coastal towns have long been favourite holiday destinations for Spanish people. There is a long tradition of the regional capital of Murcia emptying itself into Los Alcázares, a resort since at least Arab times and probably from the Roman period. Other popular spots are Santiago de La Ribera, Lo Pagan, and San Pedro del Pinatar, north of Los Alcázares, and Los Urrutias, Los Nietos, Mar de Cristal, Playa Honda and Cabo de Palos, to the south.

There is a very important regional park at San Pedro del Pinatar, known as the Salinas de san Pedro. This covers the salt evaporation pans and sand dunes behind the beach. The wetlands provide vital feeding grounds and resting spots for the birds of Europe on their migrations to and from Africa each year. At certain times, the quiet pools are filled with flamingoes, although they tend to feed close to the shore very early in the morning and move out into the middle of the lakes when the visitors arrive. This leads to much frustration for amateur photographers without big telephoto lenses. Walks are arranged during the summer and there is a good visitors’ centre.

Mar Menor food is great with, not surprisingly, seafood featuring as a mainstay. From ancient times fishermen have been active in the shallow waters. A special technique using cane fish traps saw complex structures of interlocking segments anchored in the mud. These have fallen out of use now. Red and grey mullet are particularly valued, as are herrings, sole, and sea bream. If the Mar Menor prawns are in season then you should know that the market price is reaching 200 Euros a kilo, which could blow a sizeable hole in the holiday budget.

Another specialty is caldero, which is rice cooked in fish stock. Traditionally, this was cooked on the beach by fishermen. Rice grown in the mountains of Calasparra in northern Murcia is normally used as the fat grains split while cooking and absorb the rich flavours of the fish. One British visitor recently sent a lovingly cooked paella back to the kitchen of a fine restaurant because there “wasn’t enough seafood in it.” Both caldero and paella are rice dishes. At an open-air restaurant recently the sight of British tourists eating paella which they loaded onto big plates of chips brought smiles to the faces of local gourmets.

Spanish foodies love the salted fish and fish eggs from the Mar Menor that have definitely been famous since Roman times. These can be a bit of an acquired taste and many people find them, well, too salty. The fish roe can be very expensive indeed. Traditional methods are still used with the strictest modern quality controls. These products are exported all over the world and are popular in Japan.

Fish baked in salt is delicious and you can try that at the beautiful old Encarnación Hotel, in Los Alcázares, which is a throwback to a more leisurely era. Eat on the patio, watch the calm waters and the world passing by along the Paseo. No plates of chips there. The hotel has its own historic spa in the basement but this is not currently operating.

Magic Mud

The mud of the Mar Menor is held to have valuable health-giving properties. Many people go to San Pedro Del Pinatar, or to spas, to smear themselves in the hot mud and relax. An official explanation says:

The climatic conditions of the Mar Menor, with a high number of hours of sun per year and its high salinity, have brought about the deposit, over the centuries, of clays for therapeutic treatment in various areas of the Mar Menor.

The most recent study, carried out by the University of Murcia in 1995, shows these sediments contain a high percentage of positive ions, calcium, magnesium and potassium, in addition to negative ions, chlorine and sulphate, found in much higher levels than expected, even in waters of this salinity.

Furthermore, the measurement of the grains of sand in the area reveals high percentages of fine and very fine sands (mud and clay), that are the true artifices of the healing properties attributed to the muds. The pH is basic and oscillates between 7.12 and 8.45.

The mud bases its therapeutic action on its great power of absorption, its mineralising action, its capacity to neutralize acidity and its stimulating effect on the healing of wounds. For this reason its use is recommended for many types of skin pathologies. One layer of clay applied to the skin absorbs all the toxins of the peripheral system of the connective tissue and eliminates lymphatic toxins of the dermis. It acts as a kind of blotting paper for the skin. Its high calorie conductivity also makes it appropriate as an anti-inflammatory element in cases of rheumatism, arthritis, gout and rehabilitation after breaking bones. It is also recommended for throat infections.

As well as the mud, paddling or swimming in the mineral rich waters of the Mar Menor is also said to be very good for health. The saltiness of the water ranges from 42 per cent to 47 per cent, with higher values recorded between September and October and minimums between January and May. The water of the sheltered inland sea is generally warmer than that of the Mediterranean. The Entremares Hotel, on the strip, has a good spa and health and beauty centre and the hotel uses solar power for a very high percentage of its energy needs.

Officials claim that Murcia enjoys 320 days of sunshine a year, though without offering any backup evidence. In the summer temperatures can reach the high 30s while it can be chilly in the winter. No snow and ice, of course, but you won’t find many people swimming or sunbathing in December.

There are street markets, with many of the stalls selling local fruit and vegetables, at Los Alcázares on Tuesday mornings and at San Javier on Thursday mornings.

Mar Menor Information. The main number to ring for tourist information on the Mar Menor is 902 450 505. The website is at www.marmenor.net. Email – info902@marmenor.net.

Individual tourist offices are located as follows, but remember that everyone goes to sleep in the afternoons, so they are shut then.

La Manga Del Mar Menor. Kilometre 0, just as you go onto the strip. Look for a big concrete ball on a stick by the side of the road. The office is next to that. Telephone 968 146 136.

Lo Pagán (San Pedro Del Pinatar). Parque de los Reyes de Espuña. Telephone 968 182 301.

Los Alcázares. Avenida Trece de Octobre, number 14. Telephone 968 171 361

Santiago De La Ribera (San Javier) Calle Padre Juan. Telephone 968 573 963.

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Gary Smith Fishing