On the coast of Costa de la Luz
We spent some time in camp on the coast near Zahara de los Atunes. It is a small fishing town of long tradition where bungalows and residential estates have sprung up in recent years. Ten kilometres further on is the famous Caños de Meca, an area of exceptional beauty with natural springs and numerous pine groves crowding almost to the sea’s edge.
Hard by is Cape Trafalgar with lighthouse, beaches and great places for surfing. Cabo (or Cape) Trafalgar is known as the site of the famous 1805 Napoleonic battle, in which the outnumbered Nelson defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain. The main attraction of the cape is its flora and of cource breat sandy beaches.
Coast of Trafalgar, Los Canos de Meca
Beach Castillejos in Canos de Meca is probably one of the best known of the whole area, next to the Pirate's Beach, Playa de Marisucia and the most famous, the Playa del Faro de Trafalgar. In most of them practice nudism. In fact in Playa del Faro the regulars have been building small stone shelters to calm a little Levante (a bit annoying wind that sometimes blows in the area). Near all the beaches staying all kinds of establishments: Hotels, hostels, restaurants, beach bars, etc..
Beaches near Trafalgar lighthouse
Beach Marisucia owes its name to the ocean waves after the tidal. Next to the playa Marisucia begins Playa del Faro de Trafalgar which continues until Zahora beach, in the direction of Playa del Palmar and beaches of Conil de la Frontera.
The Pirate's beach
The Pirate's Beach has the highest occupancy. In the area around the Trafalgar lighthouse we must be cautious with the currents that form reefs. Access to the beach can be done by the cerretera going to the lighthouse leaving our car and continuing the journey on foot through the sand dunes.
Trafalgar tombolo - a natural park
Ocean waters are in perpetual movement. When the waves approach the coast the sea bottom affects theur speed and gradually shows them down. The front of the wave adapts to the shape of the coast and when there is and islet the waves surround it and crash behind it leaving behind the sediment they were carrying. The islet is thus joined tho the land by a line of sand that creates a tombolo.
This is what has happened in the case of the Trafalgar Tombolo which joins a small sandstone island between the inlets of Cond de la Frontera and Barbate with the coast by means of the sandbars which enclose an old east lake, now filled up with sediment. Throughout history its strategic location has encouraged intease human activity as can be seen from eustence of both Roman and Spanish-Moslem remains.
Trafalgar lighthouse
A watchtower was built in the IX.C and its ruins can still be seen today beside the lighthouse. It had a quadrangular base, reinforced by ashlars and it seems that it had two storeys built on vaults and a spiral staircase for access to the upper storey. The present-day lighthouse dates from 1850. it consists of a slim white tower shaped like a truncated cone, is 34 meters high and 51 meters above sea level.
The Trafalgar Tombolo was declared a Natural Monument in 2001. This protective measure has the purpose of saving unique enclaves remarkable for their ecological landscape, scientific and cultural qualities. The area of the Natural Monument is 24,19 hecteares. It has also been proposed as a Place of Community Interest as it is part of the Natura 2000 network, the creation of which was regulated by the European Directive Habitats (Directive 92/43/CEC). This area is called Punta de Trafalgar and has an area of 183,31 hectares and is home to a variety of vegetal species and communities