anyone live near abouts ? seen a fair few properties for sale that seem reasonable, do most forum members live up river from tortosa [ seems more scenic] or anyone nearer the coast/delta ? are Uldecona props cheaper because of the lack of views or possibly proximity to the motorway ? does anyone live near the motorway ? never considered anything close to a motorway but at some distance they've got to be a little bit more bearable, sorry for the many questions, have a good year, regards Calum

Don't know about Ulldecona but there are quite a few english living in and around Freginals. Some like it's proximity to the motorway as the noise makes them feel they aren't living in the middle of nowhere.

Nigel

cheers for the reply, I suppose it depends how near to the rd , it always amazes me how some houses literally back onto the A1 near me in yorkshire, literally front doors  right on whats now a motorway, scary thought, seems like its worth a look.I prefer the hills myself but the other would like to be as close to the sea as possible ,

Something worth bearing in mind is that 'up in the hills' in summer it gets extremely hot - much more so than near the sea - and the occasional gusts of wind you get are extremely hot as well and don't bring any relief.

I went up to a house in a place called Cretes - near Val de Robres (just in Aragon) and compared with Tortosa it was intolerable heat.

It's certainly worth thinking about if you haven't yet bought anything. The other thing is the flies - inland and away from the towns and villages they are a real pain (to put it mildly!) - something you can only imagine when you actually live here. Last year was the worst for quite a few years - supposedly for two reasons;

1. The weather pattern - it was very dry for quite a few months, then in September we had torrential rain.
2. I heard that since the change of government to the new 'greener' party they have stopped spraying insecticide. I don't know if this is true or not so stand to be corrected!

Nigel

No, they haven't stopped spaying! We were bombarded twice in L'Ampolla campo with planes spraying insecticides and one of our dogs got quite ill the first time round. But I think they are spaying because of the tiger mosquito and less because of the flies (which by the way are already appearing again!). The flies tend to come in their thousands if the land that surrounds a finca is not kept clean and the olives are left to rot on the trees! The smell attracts the critters and they then hover around human beings as well as any other living creature. There are products available in hardware stores which smell vile and should be hung in the trees, away from the house. The flies go for the smell and drown in the stuff, which helps to keep them at bay.

If you want to live near the coast, bear in mind the thousands of tourists flocking to the Costa Daurada every summer. They can be more of a pest than the flies!
The hills may be hot etc. but you do get your peace and quiet (sort of, if you ignore the hunters of a winter time and the olive growers the rest of the year).

Avoid Tres Cales as it can be sandwiched between motorway, N340 and railway! The noise is unbearable.

Cretas by the way is fantastic. Well, the surrounding landscape is. Very reminiscent of England and not so many flies up there as far as I can tell. You have the El Ports mountains and the waterfalls and Valderrobres is stunning (one halve of it) - quite Italianate and lovely restored old buildings plus a great castle at the top of the hill. People are much friendlier up there, I suppose because they don't get many tourists. It is becoming more expensive but still very affordable compared to Catalonia. And easier to obtain planning permission. You do need to speak Spanish though as there aren't many Brits or English speakers up there. If you are into mountains, solitude, green hills and vines/oranges then this is the place for you. If you love the beaches then it's obviously not so attractive.....

Sabine

Is the fly problem only recent ? I visted an old finca in september and noticed a lot but I was half expecting it as the olives hadn't been picked for a couple of years, as you say ''left to rot'' , wonder if this is the reason ie, lots of olives still growing but not commercially harvested or maybe its been one of those periods when you get plagues of insects , due to climate/temperature or what ever ? , does the winter get a lot colder in Teruel ?

The flies are always a pain.  Worst time is april/may then september/october but last year they seemed to be around from the end of august until early december - you really do need a fly free zone to eat outside!

Well, Teruel - it's fairly high compared to Tortosa.  Someone I spoke to who lives in that direction (and who used to live in Northern Scotland) said he had never seen a blizzard like the one he saw up there.  Expect hard frosts and snow in the winter and scorching heat in the summer.

Jools (who lurks round on here from time to time) may be able to add to this as she lives in Aragon.

For example, yesterday (10th Jan) the temperature in Teruel ranged from -3 to 14 Tortosa ranged from 6 to 16.

You can find out historic temperatures from http://www.wunderground.com

Nigel

Hi Nigel,

It's Jools here lurking around.........................lol

I think you might be getting a little confused about Teruel the city and Teruel province. Just over the border of Catalunya and into Matarrana, is classed as being in Teruel province, but it certainly wasn't -3 degrees, it was +12, and at one point in the sunshine i had just a T.shirt and jeans on.

You will find a lot of the ski resorts near Teruel city, as, like you say it has a very high altitude.

As for flies, it doesn't seem to matter where you go, they are everywhere. Some people we know have a place near Aldover, and to be honest, it's the worst place for flies i have ever visited.

There was some snow on 23rd December, but Valencia certainly had a lot more. It seems that the whole climate is changing. This time 2 years ago, i remember it was really cold in January, but look at it now.

I suppose everybody has their own plus and minus points about any area, but lets be honest, it's baking hot on any finca in the high summer months, whether it's Girona, Tortosa, Matarrana or wherever.

Regards
Jools

Hi

Ger and I live in the valley that runs from Freginals to Uldecona - yes the one the motorway runs through.  

It does depend on how close you are to the motorway whether you can hear or see it, fortunately for us we only hear it if the wind is in the wrong direction or there is a thick cloud cover which keeps noises in the valley, but even then it is only a background hum!  If we go up on our roof terrace we can see both train and motorway.

The valley is very green and fertile, mainly in olive, almond and orange.  I have seen peach and on the mountain, pine.  We have lots of wildlife and our fare share of hunters!

Views, again, it does depend on where you are, but we have beautiful mountains on both sides that change colour at different times of the day.  We have a view down to Uldecona castle which is very beautiful and was is floodlit at night.  From our roof terrace we can see the whole of the valley from Freginals to Uldecona.   We can also see Caro from our garden.  My friends house is about 50mtrs higher, they have far reaching views to Tortosa and Uldecona.

We bought in this area because we could get a reasonable sized property and still be close to the beaches (20mins drive), we have found the bonus is that we are also close to the mountains, via La Senia and also Caro.

If you have any other questions please ask

cheers Grace
PS: Jools, have you visited the valley?  I wonder if we have met?

Hi Grace,

If you are the same Grace (Sue's friend) then yes, we have met. I had one of her puppies and we called him Sox, because of his 4 white feet................lol

Jools

Hi Jools

I have not heard from you for a while, how is Sox doing. Well I hope and has settled in well. I still miss him loads.

Hope to speak to you soon


Sue
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