There were 3 things I learnt about the Mediterranean Sea last year;
Firstly its name. If I had thought about it and used my Spanish, it would be obvious that it’s derived from Latin for sea between land. The 2nd is that not all of Southern Spain runs along the Mediterranean Sea. The 3rd last year in Andalusia on holiday, the water is f’ing freezing despite being perhaps the hottest part of Spain.
That’s because, from the Straits of Gibraltar, the Alboran Sea runs along the coast of Andalusia and it’s freezing as the water is coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. It’s not the warmer water Mediterranean Sea I’m used to in North Eastern Spain.
This explained why I hardly saw many people in the water just outside of Mijas. That and because of sea urchins. The water was the clearest yet I could only handle 10 minutes before my hands were too cold to swim and beginning to shake all over even with a rashie on. The sand on contrast to the freezing water was hot coals. Now I understand why pools are king down south. A little further up the coast, the water is a little warmer, sea urchin free but couldn’t see anything.
Of course snorkelling in the clearest water’s yet, I have the wrong settings and googles that weren’t playing game. Two days before I got wiped out snorkelling, the sea taking my snorkel and googles. It’s okay, I got to see sea cucumbers! They look like poo! Nat!
I think these are the same fish I couldn’t ID from my local beach.
Thank you for stopping by!