Gibraltar
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
213
219
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Gibraltar,
Gibraltar
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Gorgeous sunny morning and we set off on the reasonably quiet roads (great to get away from all these bloody tourists (!!!)) heading westwards. We rounded a bend and got our first view of a 'big chunka'. All round the world our term for a seriously large or impressive rock formation was 'a big chunka'. Now this one was the 'Rock of Gibraltar' - totally on it's own and sticking out way above the land around it.
Turning off the A7 towards 'La Linea' we entered Gib, with only the customs people showing any official presence. We were not really interested in the shops or anything else but just wanted to see the Rock and it was really an anti-climax to be back on British soil after so long. There was a cable car to the top, which we couldn't find and so finished up driving to the 'Upper Rock' area, through a climbing, narrow, twisty road up the side of the Rock. Remember the James Bond film which started on Gibraltar? Was it with Timothy Dalton and he had a punch up with a Soviet spy on the top of a Land Rover, whilst hurtling down the roads on the side of the Rock? Well we were on those roads. Just think, I wouldn't even need to grow my hair long to be a Bond double!
We paid our entrance fee and (oh come on, this is good old British entrepreneurial skills (yes, I did spell it first time off!)) and there's a charge to enter. Driving up we saw our first Barbary apes, brought over from Africa by the Moors and stopped at 'St Michael's Cave', a fabulous limestone cavern set inside the Rock. The formations were magnificent and quite impressive.
A quick lunch at the café, surrounded by the apes, who were curious and friendly but equally on the lookout for a quick bag snatching session or grabbing some food and then we drove down, having seen where the cable car station was.
We spotted policemen with the old, English 'Bobby's' tall helmets and all the cars were left hand drive, the change over coming in the 1990's as a measure of convenience with the closeness of Spain. Arriving at the cable car we found it was closed for maintenance - Aardvarks - but there was an alternative minibus tour which took you back up the Rock roads to visit St Michael's cave, etc and the top. OK, off we went and passed a sculpture, showing the 'Pillars of Hercules', reputed to be the opposite sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, which separated Europe from Africa and also the Atlantic from the (originally) dry Meditteranean valley, which broke open millions (?) of years ago allowing the Atlantic to pour in and create the Meditteranean Sea.
At the highest, publicly accessible point on the Rock (the very top is a military communications station) we stopped for photos and a look at the apes, who gather at this feeding station (to stop them wandering into town). There are some 340 apes living here in six territorial groups. They were non aggressive and let you get quite close to them, whilst ever on the lookout for a bag snatch. We could see the north coast of Africa, just fourteen miles away as the afternoon sun slowly burnt off the clouds and decided to pass up the one hour fast ferry trip to 'Tangier'. We'd had enough excitement just recently thank you!
Descending down the mountain we stopped at the 'Siege Tunnels', originally started into the limestone Rock in the 1780's and then extended to a system of some 34 miles during world war 2, so as to be able to house the whole population of the Rock. The cannon ports looked out over the town and the airport, where the road in from Spain crosses the runway. Only half a mile of tunnel is open for viewing but it gave a good idea of the life and conditions here.
The Rock visited, we continued back into Spain, our passports being merely glanced at by the Spanish border guard.
Answers: I found them eventually!
1960's Pop group, recorded "On the road again" - it was 'Canned Heat'.
The James Bond film was 'Living Daylights' with Timothy Dalton.
