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Horses to courses, we check out one of Spain’s most exclusive enclaves...see our Sotogrande supplement inside
owned residento T’S the largest privately in Andalucia, home tial development and famous, and a the discreetly rich on the coast of Cadiz. beacon of luxury farmland. was Sixty years ago it Joseph McMickBut, an American-Filipino ing had a vision. Zobel de Ayala and Ayala Married to Mercedes family empire, the Mcpresident of the (the Philipines), luxury Corporation in Manila responsible for a Micking had been Forbes Park. property development,about creating a simNow he was dreaming
then richest man, owned by Spain’s How a seaside farm, country’s most privileged resort, transformed into the the Guaat the mouth of aircluster of farms writes Sorrel Downer the community in ilarly exclusive residential Mediterranean. his cousin Alfredo ‘Fredy’ tickIn 1962, when Air frequent flyer Melian used his SwissMcMicking told him to et for a trip to Spain, for a suitable location. keep his eyes peeledon a motorbike, Melian a Travelling dirt roads estate comprising found a 1,800-hectare
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international diaro, close to Gibraltar’s sucport, El Peñon. been owned by a The farmland had famous – the Duke of cession of rich andfamily and then finanArcos, the Larios Continues overleaf
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OLIVE PRESS
The Mijas Costa
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Vol. 16 Issue 399 www.theolivepress.es July 27th - August 9th 2022
Scorched Spain
Tel: 952 147 834
See pages 11 & 16
Climate change blamed as country suffers worst summer of fires ever recorded - and it’s only July countryside converted into a dangerous tinderbox. Firefighters on the Canary island of Tenerife are currently battling a blaze with a 27km perimeter, flames are encroaching on protected biosphere in Donaña, while in Valencia, smoke stacks are visible from the Costa Blanca as woodland burns in Calles.
By Fiona Govan
farmer was caught in the blaze as he attempted to get his flocks to safety after it suddenly changed direction. While the blame has been laid on unusually high temperatures and the usual array of arsonists, few deny the role of global warming. Tragedy Spanish prime minister, Pedro SanTwo wildfires have scorched the hills chez, was emphatic about the conseabove the Costa del Sol in the Mijas quences of the climate emergency as area over the last month, with yet an- he surveyed the aftermath of a blaze other new blaze reported on Tuesday. in Extremadura last week. The tragedy was greatest in Losacio “I want to make something very in Zamora where two people died clear,” he said. “Climate change kills: in a blaze that destroyed more than it kills people, as we’ve seen; it also 13,000 hectares of land in just two kills our ecosystem, our biodiversity, days. and it also destroys the things we as Firefighter Daniel Gullon Vara, 62, a society hold dear – our houses, our died tackling the flames, while Vic- businesses, our livestock.” toriano Anton Raton, a 69-year-old Ironically, even those dedicated to fighting climate change played their part in the lastest devastation after it emerged that a Dutch company tasked with planting trees to offset carbon emissions had been responsible for starting a wildfire. Land Life, a reforestation company with plantations in Aragon admitted one of its NARROW ESCAPE: Farmer defies death workers was to blame
CATASTROPHE: Fire frequency increasing for starting a blaze that destroyed 14,000 hectares outside Ateca when a spark escaped from a mechanical digger preparing land for seedlings. One of the starkest images of this month’s fires was the miraculous escape of a farmer who was attempting to dig a fire-breaking trench to protect his local town, Tabara in Castilla y Leon, when his tractor became engulfed by flames. Angel Martin Arjona was caught on camera running from the inferno with his clothes alight. He survived with burns on 80% of his body. Astonishingly, authorities believe that 85% of the wildfires come about as a direct result of human actions, either set deliberately by arsonists or because of human error or negligent action. On Sunday in Catalunya, a man was
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BLACKENED earth, smouldering trees, the charred corpses of wild animals barbecued to a crisp. Such apocalyptic scenes have been repeated over and over across Spain, from Mijas on the Costa del Sol to the wild forests of Zamora in the northwest of the peninsula, to the hills just outside Madrid. Dozens of wildfires have devoured tens of thousands of hectares and forced thousands to be evacuated from their homes in what promises to make the summer of 2022 the worst wave of fires since records began. An estimated 200,000 hectares of Spanish countryside has already been ravaged according to the latest figures released by the European Forest Fire System, overtaking the carnage of 2012 when some 189,000 hectares were destroyed in what was until now the worst summer on record. Even as temperatures drop as the latest heatwave subsides, much of Spain remains on high alert for wildfires, its
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arrested for setting three blazes while in Mallorca on Monday, a German resident is in custody suspected of sparking seven fires in the Calvia area over the weekend.
Heatwaves
While the veracity of the fires this year may well be stronger than anyone anticipated, it should hardly come as a surprise. “For a long time we have been warning that climate change meant more intense heatwaves and more forest fires in the Mediterranean,” said Nuria Blazquez, a spokesman for Ecologistas en Accion. “But maybe they’ve arrived sooner than we were expecting.” Opinion Page 6