Many, if not the majority of riverbeds and former streams along the southern coast, tend to be used as local car parking areas these days, but it does occasionally, as with the recent flood alerts, lead to mad dashes to clear them of vehicles before they potentially get swept away.

I well remember the devastating Great Flood in Nerja on September 21st, when the heavy rains (understatement) completely overwhelmed local drainage infrastructure and caused massive flooding to homes and businesses. The local rio Chillar became a raging torrent, cars were submerged all over town and public toilets on the beaches could be seen bobbing out to sea, a bizarre and surreal sight.

This major disaster prompted the complete rebuilding of the urban stretch of the river to hopefully prevent anything like it from happening in the future.

The river, once with a steady stream of water which attracted all sorts of wildlife, basically dried up as the flow was regulated due to drought conditions, and birds such as various plovers, sandpipers and other regular visitors became a thing of the past. It now only tends to have a generally short-lived trickle (day or two) after heavy rains.

Still a nice place to wander and a variety of birds are still to be found – including wagtails, hoopoe, serin, siskin – but not in the numbers one was used to. There could, of course, be other factors at play here of course. A lot fewer reptiles and amphibians, too.

It is amazing what people chuck in the river and often within a few metres of the sea – fridges, toy cars, bottles (glass and plastic) by the score, plastic bags, bags full of rubbish and countless other items. Amazing, in some respects, when you consider that refuse collection is DAILY.