The Ham Nomads

13 Feb 2015. <GI> Gibraltar; <ES> La Linéa de la Concepción, Cádiz, Andalucía —

Today is Gibraltar day! We moved the van to a street park near the border and walked in. Because we only had 6 hours of parking, we took the bus from the border checkpoint, across the airport and in to the centre of town. We called in to the Tourist Office for a map and directions, then took a pause at a café in Casemates Square for the inevitable coffee before starting on our walk.

Our original plan was to take the cable-car up to the top of the Rock but unfortunately it was down for maintenance. So we had to rely on Shank's pony, and walk the whole way! And walk it was — into Main Street, then left into Engineers Lane, and up a few stairs (a few??!! — understatement!) to the Moorish Castle. Here we bought tickets to get into the tourist destinations on the Upper Rock — but we decided to skip the Moorish Castle (done enough castles)

and go instead into the World War II tunnels. We only saw a small part of these tunnels, but this much was very impressive. Apparently at the start of WWII there were about 4 miles of tunnel in the Rock, and by the end, about 24 miles! From August 1940 to November 1941, some 3 million cubic feet of rock was excavated, and all the excavated rock was put to good use somewhere else.

View of airport (and across to Spain) from near the WWII Tunnels

From here, we went to the Siege Tunnels. These are most interesting historically. Apparently, at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713), in the Treaty of Utrecht, Gibraltar was ceded by Spain to Britain 'for ever'. But Spain later decided to renege on the deal, laying siege to Gibraltar in 1727, and again in 1779 when Britain seemed to have been weakened by the American War of Independence. This latter siege, the "Great Siege", lasted four years. It was in part defended by incredible tunneling work within the Rock.

By the time the siege was raised, the hand=dug tunnel within the Rock was 113 metres long, with six gun embrasures! Work continued, and by 12783 the Gallery was over 200 metres long. Far more extensive galleries were created below them between 1788 and 1797, and the later WWII tunnels — so today there are over 30 miles of road inside the Rock, as well as a potential underground city. Totally amazing!

From the tunnels, we walked along Queen's Road (and Old Queen's Road) to a set of steps near the cable car, up to the Apes' Den, virtually at the top of the Rock. This set of steps seemed to go on forever, but we had the continuous company of the Barbary Macaques. Two of the youngsters took a great interest in Suzie's fluffy coat, and one actually climbed onto her head to suss out her hair and to get a better feel of her coat! The 'apes' have a great interest in human hair — we were told later that they have learned to use it as dental floss. Although they are wild animals, they are very gentle — but we were very careful not to get onto their wrong side! There was a group of tourists we met who had their lunch stolen on the way up! The macaques were great fun! They are possibly the most healthy group of wild animals on the planet — they are checked regularly, and there is more chance of them catching a disease from a tourist than the other way round! They are VERY protected, as there is a strong tradition that the Rock will remain in British hands as long as the macaques remain in residence!

From the Apes' Den, we walked the road down to a little café at St Michael's Cave. This huge natural grotto was used as a hospital during WWII, and is now used as a natural auditorium for musical performances — apparently the acoustics are phenomenal! There are paths and steps leading you through the cave, and if you book ahead (we hadn't) you can take a guided tour through the lower parts of the cave. The cave was reputed to be bottomless, and a few people have disappeared into its depths never to return. The lighting effects in the cave are spectacular!

By this time we had been walking about four hours, and needed to get back to the van before our time ran out. But the signage on the roads didn't make for easy navigation, but Suzie was delighted, because this meant that we were able to walk the full length of Main Street, a long, narrow pedestrian precinct where tourists flock to do their shopping. Our parking time had already expired before we got on the bus to go back to the checkpoint. Luckily, the Spanish Brown Bombers (or whatever colour their parking police are) weren't much interested in our van, and we got away with it!

We departed from our roadside carpark, drove about 200 metres, and saw a whole pile of motor homes pulled up in the parking area of the local football ground. We went in to investigate, and found we could stay there overnight for €3 — and so we did!

Distance driven — today, 11 miles ( 17 km ); to date, 13,045 miles ( 20,994 km )