Vilarrube

One of our favourite beaches Vilarrube playa, seen here looking down from Vilarrube village, is very sheltered lying on the North Edge of Valdovino, there are 2  rivers one at each end of the beach and a long stretch of sand between them.

There are some lovely trees on the walks from the car park to the beach, there used to be a whole village on the dunes, when the houses were removed many of the trees were left behind so there are apples, lemons, figs, walnuts, grape vines and a range of maturing ornamental trees and palms.

Sun and salt bleached walkways snake across the dunes they are a bit artificial but they take the weight of many feet and consequently the dunes are in good condition along the main routes.

Looking East towards the main estuary the dunes have remnants of wild stocks still flowering, lots of euphorbias, sea holly, a huge range of fine dune grasses and wafting on the wind that curryish aniseedy smell dunes from the North of France down through Spain and all around the Mediterranean have.

The beach is quiet, there are strong currents where the river twists and turns and pushes against the sand bar before it meets the sea and some fairly active sinking sand too. It is all fine as long as you are aware and don't be silly, it can be great fun swimming fast with the current and flying along or swimming against the current and going backwards. There is our stuff in a pile, a couple of people in the far distance and not a lot else looking this way and...

oh dear a few people at the busy end; ah well we managed to cope with the crowds.

Looking back at the town again it is perched on a fairly steep hillside as with most coastal villages here there have been a lot of new builds but most are in character family homes; high rises or rows of chalets are a rare sight outside of large towns.