My Birthday in Gibraltar
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2008
1
52
56
Trip End
Dec 17, 2008
Where I stayed
Camping La Casita
Gibraltar,
Gibraltar
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Well, after driving around looking for a campsite that closed 12 years ago, we eventually found an alternative one - that's what you get from looking at a camping book that is from 1996 - oops
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! We did struggle to find a campsite close to Gibraltar, and there certainly wasn't any on our usual ACSI bible, which is why we seeked help from our other campsite books! Unfortunately in our infinite wisdom, we didn't think for a minute that between 1996 & 2008 a campsite could have closed down - maybe look into that a bit more in future to avoid any unnecessary disappointment & driving around aimlessly! Camping La Casita, although not very busy at this time of year & unfortunately without the best sanitary facilities - it is definitely the best located for reaching Gibraltar.As you can imagine, we are both beginning to miss home now & for all that's wrong with England at the moment, it is still home! Nothing makes you appreciate it more than doing what we have been doing for the past 5 months! We were excited about the prospect of stepping on British soil again - albeit hundreds of miles & a few countries away from what we know as Britain - but Britain none the less & with the added benefit of much more sunshine - let's just hope it shines for us on my birthday!
So, when my birthday arrived, Paul & I stuffed our faces with cake after I blew out my candles & opened my birthday card! It was a lovely breakfast for 8am in the morning - the perfect start to the day in my opinion
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! We then caught the shuttle bus provided by the campsite to Gibraltar, where we got dropped off just before the border. It was quite bizarre crossing the border on foot - one minute you're in Spain, the next you're in Britain - very weird! So, once we had passed the border, we hopped on a bus to drop us off in the centre - a very short journey as you can imagine, with Gibraltar being so small! Well, once we stepped off the bus & into the square, it was just like being back home - the high street was just like you'd find anywhere in England, with all the high street shops, banks & proper pubs - it was so exciting (oh the little things eh!)! I had already decided what we should eat for lunch - it had to be fish & chips of course - yum yum, but that was after our visit to see the famous Apes of Gibraltar.We headed to the Cable Car, via all the shops on our way & sneaking a peak of the tax free prices -excellent on electrical items, alcohol, tobacco & jewellery but as for as the high street clothes shops go, there's nothing really tax free about them as all the price tags are the same as those in the UK! There were a number of different options when going up to the top of the rock, as to whether you want to go up with a guide in a car or just take the cable car up, where you can select what things you want to go and see up there, i.e. St. Michael's Cave, World War II Tunnels, Great Siege Tunnels, Museums, etc. We wanted to do our own thing, so just paid £8 each, which allowed us to go to the top of the rock and back down on the cable car. We also wanted to visit the caves, but just paid for that additionally when we got up there.
There were some amazing views over Gibraltar, Spain & also Africa when we reached the summit, & what a beautiful day for it
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! I couldn't believe the sunshine & gorgeous temperatures we had whilst in Gibraltar - considering the constant rain we had previously! Typically I had a woolly jumper on being prepared to be cold, so ended up sweltering for the most part of the day! Anyway, as I was saying; amazing views & I was astonished when I saw the apes & just how close they were to us! They were incredible, just rummaging around going about their daily business, wondering what all these strange people were doing staring & flashing funny things in their face - although they'd be happy to take any food stuff anyone may have lying around in their backpack! They look so cute & cuddly, but of course they're not really & we didn't get close enough to give them any opportunity to swipe anything. Such a special thing to see though - these animal's have not been caged or been given boundaries, but have simply been allowed to remain in their natural environment & everyone else around them adapts & accepts this fact - fantastic! They are so human like its unbelievable, & when you just stand watching them for a while it's so easy to tell where we come from! So, we gradually made our way down to the mid-way cable car station - visiting St. Michael's Cave on the way down. To be honest we weren't overly impressed with the caves, as we had seen a few on our travels - very few will match up to those that we saw in Postojna, Slovenia. After losing each other for a few minutes in there, we eventually found one another again & continued our walk down to the mid-way station. It was quite amusing whilst waiting for the cable car, as we were watching all the buses below making their way down the rock, all of which seemed to have an ape hanging on to their wing mirrors - must be tradition!
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After reaching the bottom, we headed back to the square where we had some delicious fish & chips for lunch! They were soooo nice & just what we needed - who needs fancy food when you can have traditional fish, chips & mushy peas - mmmmm! We were absolutely stuffed afterwards but we didn't mind! We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon browsing around the shops & having a couple more drinks before heading back to the campsite! It had been an excellent birthday & definitely one to remember! We made a proper day of it & were completely shattered, so after Paul made us a curry, we tucked up with a film for the rest of the night, ready to make our way towards Portugal tomorrow!
