The Costa Cálida swelters in a 40-degree August heatwave

As the middle of August approaches it hardly comes as a surprise that the main talking point in the Costa Cálida this week has been the heat, but the last few days have brought an especially intense heatwave to the Region of Murcia with temperatures inland rising to over 40 degrees from Tuesday to Friday and set to do so again on Saturday.

Not until Sunday is any relief forecast by the State meteorological agency Aemet, and in the meantime locations in Murcia have featured regularly in the list of the hottest places in Spain. On Tuesday Alhama de Murcia was the third hottest place in the country, and the following day the list was topped by Archena with a high of 40.8 as the 8^th hottest July on record in Murcia – and the warmest ever in Europe - looks like being followed by an even warmer August.

Within all of this, it has to be said that those on the coast are escaping the most extreme heat. On Thursday, for example, the maximums at the Aemet weather stations in Cartagena and La Manga del Mar Menor were just 30 and 32 degrees respectively, and while on Friday the expected top temperatures are between 40 and 42 in Caravaca de la Cruz, Lorca, Yecla and the city of Murcia for Cartagena the figure is just 31!

All of which leads to the conclusion that there is little doubt that the most comfortable places in the Region of Murcia at the moment are the beaches of the Costa Cálida!

But for those unable to cool down on the coast the conditions have been not only uncomfortable but even dangerous. On Wednesday afternoon a 66-year-old woman was admitted to hospital in El Palmar after developing heatstroke, after the regional health authorities issued a red alert warning urging members of the public to take precautions: principally these involve resting in the shade during the hottest part of the day and drinking plenty of water.

These warnings directly affect approximately a quarter of those in employment in the Region of Murcia, including many of those working in the fields in the agriculture sector, with the CCOO trade union estimating that some 120,000 people are exposed to “heat stress” on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, Spain is preparing for what is traditionally one of the busiest weekends of the year on the Costas, coinciding with the national holiday next week on Thursday 15^th August and the long weekend following it. Thursday markets are being brought forward to Wednesday in many locations, and another minor consequence is that next week and the following week, due to staff holidays, there will be no Murcia Today weekly bulletin.

Apologies for our temporary absence from your inboxes, we´ll be back for the last week of August!

 

Goldcar accused of new rip-off, sparking social media fury as customers are charged for leaving sand in footwells!

The car hire company Goldcar, which operates at Corvera airport as well as numerous others throughout Spain, was slammed in the UK press in a damning article last weekend as an expert described the firm as “the worst for ripping off customers in an already tarnished industry”.

The issue of unjustified surcharges charged by car hire companies at Corvera has unfortunately become a constant topic on social media sites since the airport opened in January, and Murcia Today regularly receives emails from readers on the subject. One of the most recent was from a man who reports that he has been visiting Spain for 40 years but had never had a problem with car hire until now: “apart from the rip off to get you to buy expensive insurance cover and petrol scams”, he stated, “it appears that they are now resorting to actual fraud”, referring to a charge for 400 euros “to cover non-existent damage to the car”.

In addition, it seems the company has now discovered another lucrative source of rip-off revenue: sand!

Several readers in the last few days have been astonished to find that they have been charged 30 euros for a “special clean” as a result of sand being found in the footwells and boots of their hire cars on return, hardly surprising given the number of beaches here in Murcia.

In the words of one reader, “My daughter has just been advised that they are being charged 30€ for a ‘Special Clean’ to remove sand from the foot wells of the car they rented from Goldcar!!!

They were on holiday with their two little girls (4 & 8yrs old) so inevitably some sand got in the car over the 2wk period - I’ve seen the photos they’ve sent her & quite frankly it’s nothing that a simple hoover round couldn’t shift!

Terrible company to deal with - I certainly won’t be using them again."

Reades have since asked the question what exactly is a special clean and at what point does an ordinary clean, always necessary after a rental vehicle is used, become a special clean and justify an additional charge of 30 euros?????

 

News at the beaches of the Costa Cálida

Three bottlenose dolphins freed from the “almadraba” fishing nets in la Azohía: the dolphins were attracted by the fish caught in the nets but needed help in making their escape, according to ANSE.

Undersized octopus confiscated from amateur harpoon user in Puerto de Mazarrón: rules and regulations govern the popular beach activity of octopus fishing in the Costa Cálida and harpooning undersized octopus is not a permitted activity.

New street cleaning machines unveiled in Águilas: compact machinery improves service in the narrow streets of the old town centre.

Two boats catch fire off the beaches of Águilas: no serious injuries as the occupants are rescued at Playa de las Delicias and near one of the Águilas marinas.

Remote Cartagena beach closed after the fastest customs speedboat in Spain is gutted by fire: the Colimbo III burst into flames after a series of explosions on Sunday and the reason given for the beach being cordoned off is a fuel spillage.

9 no smoking beaches in the Costa Cálida for the summer of 2019: smoking cannot be banned but beachgoers in Murcia are asked to join the Playas sin Humo initiative in the municipalities of Águilas, Mazarrón, Los Alcázares, San Javier and San Pedro del Pinatar. It's not the smell so much as the cigarette butts left behind which kill marine life by filling their stomachs with indigestible rubbish, starving the bird to death.

120 tons of seaweed removed from the beaches of Cartagena: a response to the strong winds and choppy seas of 10 days ago in the Costa Cálida which brought large quantities of seagrass ashore.

Woman suffers broken tendon from fish bite at Alicante beach: this was not the first incident of its kind this summer at the beach of El Rebollo in La Marina, and the bite has been attributed to a fish which was captured at the beach on Thursday, the day after the attack.

Marine biologists report that the Pomatomus saltatrix is far from uncommon in the Mediterranean off the coast of Murcia, and can even be found for sale in fish markets: however, incidents such as the one in La Marina are extremely rare, and worries that there may be a sudden invasion of killer bluefish along the south-eastern coast of Spain are unfounded!

 

Other items in the news this week

British man spent a year in prison after 1.4 tons of hashish was found in his Airbnb rental property: Robert Mansfield-Hewitt was "unaware of the drugs in the property near Gibraltar " and now seeks compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

A litre of petrol is now 11 cents more expensive than diesel in Spain: petrol companies respond to increased demand as diesel car sales fall and increase their profit margins on petrol.

Man drowns in the River Segura in Calasparra: the victim disappeared while swimming in the River Segura and his body was recovered on Monday. Unfortunately his name is now added to the list of 12 people who drowned in the Region of Murcia during July.

No-deal Brexit threat hitting Murcia exports: with the exchange rate down to below 1.08 the purchasing power of UK importers is being reduced.

Fugitive African ground hornbill recaptured and back home at Terra Natura: the hornbill was loose for months before being recaptured close to the wildlife park in the outskirts of Murcia.

No improvement in Mar Menor water quality as measurements remain similar to 2018: experts warn of the danger of a relapse if further steps are not taken to protect the lagoon although conditions in the lagoon are far better than two years ago.

Meanwhile, the Mar Menor Town Halls present a united front in efforts to regenerate the lagoon, calling for immediate action from the national government and the CHS to prevent runoff in the event of heavy rainfall this autumn.

Mazarrón water company introduce automatic notification of breakages and repairs: users will be informed by SMS in the event of a cut in the mains water supply.

Spanish government confirms that AP-7 motorway toll charges will be scrapped at the end of 2019: unfortunately, the change does NOT affect the Cartagena-Vera stretch of the AP-7!

Upcycling stall opens at Terra Natura Murcia wildlife park: unwanted clothes converted into saleable items as part of the Proyecto Abraham initiative in Murcia.

17 African migrants brought to port in Cartagena: the would-be immigrants were intercepted on 2 boats off the coast of Cabo de Palos on Tuesday.

Spanish airports step up security vetting on employees: anyone who has committed one of 47 offences listed, some of which bear no relation to drugs or terrorism, will be declared unfit for employment.

100,000 euros to consolidate Roman remains on the Molinete hill in Cartagena: the museum at the Molinete is reported by the Mayoress to be close to opening.

Plastic fruit and veg bags replaced by cotton sacks at Carrefour supermarkets: another measure to reduce the threat of plastics contamination in Spanish food stores although users have complained that the sacks are expensive!.

Clean-up of Roman remains in the Puerto de Mazarrón: there are several Roman sites which can be visited in the municipality of Mazarrón.

 

Murcia and Spanish property news

This week has seen the publication of the latest monthly reports from three of the major sources of information regarding the Spanish property market, all of them coinciding in indicating that at a nationwide level the recovery may be slacking and the situation stabilizing after 15 years of sharp ups and downs.

This is not necessarily the case quite yet in the Region of Murcia, though, as the latest sales figures from the government’s central statistics unit show. They report that during June 2019 the number of transactions was 9 per cent lower than in the same month last year, with significant falls in the regions where the recovery began earliest – the islands, Madrid and Catalunya, and as a result the overall total of sales registered in the first half of 2019 is almost exactly the same as at the same point last year.

In Murcia, however, a 7 per cent rise in June property sales was observed, and the running 12-monthly total of transactions registered in the Costa Cálida stands 12.6 per cent higher than a year ago, meaning that there has been an increase of as much as 79 per cent since the market bottomed out in August 2014.

The other data published during the week are unfortunately not broken down into regions, but even so they make for interesting reading. One of them was released by leading property valuation firm Tinsa, who report a year-on–year increase of 4.5 per cent in Spanish property values, the sixth consecutive rise of under 5 per cent. Again the trend appears to be towards stability, with the national index now 15.6 per cent higher than when the market bottomed out in February 2015 but 33.7 per cent lower than at the height of the boom in late 2007.

Finally, Spain’s notaries also published their figures for June, reporting a sharp year-on-year decrease of 18.9 per cent in sales figures and a corresponding fall of 16.2 per cent in mortgage activity in June 2019 across the country as a whole. At the same time they observe an average increase in the price per square metre of residential property of just 1 per cent, although this is a hard figure to analyse: variations in average price are not necessarily due to any nationwide trend, as they could be caused by more properties being sold in different regions of the country where prices are higher or lower, distorting the national average.

 

Spanish news: refugees rescued in the Mediterranean cause headaches for the Spanish government

Spain’s acting PSOE government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, faces a difficult decision at present regarding its attitude to the rescue ship Open Arms, which has picked up 124 Libyan migrants as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean and is requesting permission to bring them to port in this country.

Three of the migrants have already been airlifted to shore in Italy after the Italian government agreed to take in two heavily pregnant women, one of them in labour, and the sister of one of them, but the Spanish government has refused to allow the other 121 to be brought ashore in this country. This refusal has met with considerable opposition and criticism, not least because when the government came to power last summer one of the its most publicized early gestures was to allow the Aquarius rescue ship into the port of Valencia with 630 refugees on board, and the attitude towards the Open Arms seems to be highly contradictory.

One of the reasons for this stance having been adopted by the government is that in theory the Open Arms should not be at sea at all. In January the government banned it from leaving port to continue its rescue mission, but on the other hand some PSOE regional governments have made it clear that they are willing to take the refugees in. This means that on the face of it Pedro Sánchez has been placed in an impossible situation, and that criticism of any decision can (and no doubt will) be made with some justification.

61 under-age migrants intercepted on two boats in the Mediterranean: 53 out of 59 of the occupants of one boat in the Strait of Gibraltar were minors.

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