Bolonia beach by Bryan Appleyard

The Sunday Times feature writer Bryan Appleyard made a trip to our coast last year. This excellent article will give you a great feel for the dunes, monuments, beach and mountains of one of our favourite local beaches. The beach of Bolonia (also known locally by its roman name of Baelo Claudia) is a 25 minute drive from Vejer.

I can just imagine the hard sell 2,300 years ago. “The beach, by Jupiter, the beach! And the sea is solid with tuna! You can walk to Morocco on the backs of tuna. You can feed the empire!” Dumbstruck by the view of the bay, by the blue-grey humps of the Atlas Mountains across the straits, by the warm breeze rippling the sea, by a ­comfortable distance from the strictures and office politics of Rome, the centurions looked at each other, nodded and established Baelo Claudia. Within a few years, the empire was gorging on salted tuna and garum — fermented fish paste.

Now read on (click for the link)…

(The pictures are mine)