In the shade of the Rock
Are you in Paris or are you “a la sombra del Peñon”? José Maria Riba, a great journalist friend of mine who left us prematurely during the Covid months, would say to me over the phone.
He knew I was often at our Andalusian home.
“El Peñon” is the name given to the rock of Gibraltar south of the Pyrenees, overlooking the little-visited beaches of the southern spanish peninsula, where I’ve been coming from a long time.
Swamps, remnants of barbed wire from former military zones, blockhouses from the last war, cold waters like on Portugal’s Atlantic coast, dark sand, high winter tides, violent winds, shipping lanes for super tankers… all potential reasons why these beaches in the province of Cadiz have remained wild.
A hint of enigma still floats over these stretches of land that are lost before Africa.
Strange landscapes, the shadow of the Maghreb so close on the horizon, behind the strait which is only 10 miles wide.
The mysteries of a historic traffic zone between Morocco, Gibraltar and Spain, where fog can suddenly darken a summer afternoon in august.
In winter, during the 2nd World War, the humidity ate away at the spies’ joints… wrote Georges Simenon.
You can see the Moroccan coastline at a glance, and on a clear day you can make out the first peaks of the Atlas Mountains.
These contrasts fascinate me, and I love observing them and capturing their emotions.
