Joshua Parfitt
NUDISTS are angry about an apartment block that has sprung up behind their strip of Costa Blanca beach, claiming it will subject them to voyeurs and peeping Toms.
The women’s group Aquarela, who organised a naked protest bathe last week, say they used to enjoy the seclusion offered by tamarisks and pine trees on the L’Almadrava beach in Denia to go about their hobby in peace.
But now a concrete block of five floors with 68 apartments has stripped the nudists of privacy, and will bring unwarranted ‘stares’, ‘aggression’ and ‘judgements’.
“I arrived here 15 years ago. This beach has remained virgin until now and it was a joy to enjoy its tranquility,” an Aquarela member told Levante.
“We have bathed naked without problems — but now we have to defend what we have done with naturalness and freedom.”
The nudists say L’Almadrava has long been neglected due to its thick sand and posidonia seagrass.
But it was precisely this undesirability that has kept the ‘last virgin beach’ in the comarca of Alta Marina quiet, secluded and untouched.
“Here we had a bit of wild coastline” said another Aquarela activist.
“The sea brings to the shore the oceanic posidonia and does not bother us the least because we know that this plant is a blessing: it oxygenates the sea and protects the beach from the storms.”
The women from Aquarela not only railed against the invasion of onlookers, but also the degradation of natural environments in general.
A post shared through social media inviting guests to the ‘women’s naturist’ bathe said the protest was in support of an ‘ocean free of plastic’ and a ‘coast without touristic exploitation’.
“We want to be able to do what we like with our bodies, without fear or accusations – to swim naked or in pyjamas if we please, without judgement, assaults or voyeurs,” the post said.
The apartment block is set to be finished this summer.
