Get yourself down to the Oasis Benijofar, grab a table outside and settle back to watch the driving at the junction. If you know what I am talking about, you’re probably chuckling already, but if you’re not familiar with this area, you are missing out.
So if you’re not quite sure of where I am talking about, head into Benijofar along the CV-920. and you’ll see the Plaza de la Constitucion on your left, the church ( Iglesia Santiago Apóstol )is on the right. The bar is in front of you, on the left.
This is where things get interesting, as a spectator. The CV-920 carries straight ahead towards Benimar, however the road itself goes around to the right, up the hill on the Av. Federíco García Lorca. This means the church is still on your right, but if you wish to carry on along the CV-920, you need to do a left turn across the traffic coming down Av. Federíco García Lorca.
What this also means is drivers, cyclists coming from Benimar along the CV-905, come to a junction where they have to stop. To be honest here, a lot of drivers have zero idea as to how to navigate this junction.
Today we saw at least 5 different cyclists who came along the left hand side of cars, which had stopped at the junction, with the intention of turning left up the hill, only for the cyclists to set off and go straight ahead, almost causing accidents. I would say that at least 75% of vehicles don’t use an indicator, meaning they are turning without indicating, thus causing people at times to guess second, meaning some set off and pull across traffic when they should not have done so.
Another common issue is the line of vehicles coming in along the bottom road, wanting to turn left to stay on the 905 but finding the traffic is at a standstill and backed up due to pedestrians on the crossing. Now, normally, if you were a thinking driver, you’d leave space for the first couple of cars that had already passed the crossing to turn left up the hill and let them pull out. But oh no, the majority today cut across the road, and so blocked everything from moving, until the crossing was clear.
We had people edging out and then trying to set off in second gear in their dinky little 500cc car, then wondering why the car they cut up wasn’t happy. We had the woman who just sat there, despite there being at least 3 clear opportunities to turn eft up the hill and ignoring the car behind blasting his horn twice. We were awaiting him pushing her, to get her moving.
There were at least 8 different cars who came along the CV-905 from the old Hamiltons Bakery, got to the church junction, wanted to turn left and basically just pulled across the cars coming down the hill.
One saving grace here is the vehicles are not travelling at speed, so it’s easy enough to avoid any crashes. You can tell you’re in Spain, as there are not many people sounding their horns, making hand gestures or shouting abuse at the other drivers. I think back in the UK, there would be regular punch ups at this junction. What did surprise us today was there were at least 3 different sign written, local government vehicles who cut others up.
We used to pop into the Oasis Bar in Benijofar quite often when we first moved into this area, as it has a nice outdoor seating area, it’s next door to the cash machine at the bank too which is a help. Sitting in the sun, admiring the water fountains and enjoying a refreshing drink, what can be better?
Today we enjoyed between the 2 of us, three cafe con leche, a Coke Zero and I asked for a pint of draught beer. I was given the choice of San Miguel or a Blonde gluten-free option. I opted for a San Miguel, and the bill came to €9.10 in total. The owner of the bar kindly offered me a taster of the Blonde and I have to say, it wasn’t too bad at all, in fact it was much nicer than I had expected.
We also noticed that quite a few people were having breakfast, and that looked pretty tempting. Had we not had a table booked for a lunch, we’d have given the breakfast a try. One for another day.
Oasis sadly weren’t taking part in the Benijofar Tapas Trail last year, but we’re hoping they take part in the one later this year.
