The Custom House

Although referred to locally as the Custom House, I have been unable to uncover any of its history. It’s a pleasant walk along a dirt road that once provided access to the building that stands overlooking the sea. We start from the Cantina in Campillo de Adentro, a tapas bar. The greasier the tapas, the more authentic the bar. This one is really authentic. 

On the outskirts of the village we pass an abandonned Spanish military building. In this area there are many such buildings, all associated with the gun batteries on a headland several miles away that operated from the late 1920’s to 1993. They all look like Foreign Legion filmset forts.

A short way along the gravel road we spy a huge bright yellow mound, emitting a sweet sharp smell. Rudi investigates and finds that it’s a pile of dumped minced-up lemons. Just one whole specimen survives that Rudi has claimed. There are no lemon trees within several miles so some processing plant has clearly fly-tipped them. 

But let’s move on as we have three miles to go and some 800 feet of elevation to climb before we drop down to the Custom House itself. This is the highest point on the road from where we can now view the sea and rugged coastline. The road surface is little used but quite good.

The Custom House setting is idyllic. There is no natural water on this part of the coast so perhaps the customs men had to make do with beer or wine. Working conditions were tough then.

The building itself is securely boarded up, presumably to prevent squatters, but is in good condition. What a shame that it cannot be used as a walkers hostel, being on a major coastal footpath route. 

The views from the large front patio area, railed off for safety, are spectacular. It would be a wonderful location for backpackers and ramblers to spend time at.

To one side of the building are several small stone structures that could be animal shelters if they were larger. They aren’t shrines either – any guesses? 

We look along the coast path we now need to follow. It’s certainly picturesque, but where’s the path? We are heading for the small bay just visible before climbing up to the rocks on the skyline.

A look back at the Custom House shows what an isolated place it is. Let’s hope the customs officers had plenty of smugglers to catch to avoid boredom.

We eventually find and follow the waymarked path to the beach where there are some interesting rock formations on the exit track. 

After this, the going isn’t so easy on the ascent to the rocks. This is typically how the path looks and was even steeper in parts.

We plod on, to hit a point on the military road about 900 feet above sea level where we had parked a second car. We can just pick out the beach, where we started to climb, way below in the distance.  That was some walk!