Just south of the border

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Another early start, we need to catch a bus to the Spain-Gibraltar border, but not before we have taken advantage of the ‘free breakfast’ that Holiday Inn is offering its guests. I’m sure it’s not really free as the rooms cost double what we’d pay in the UK. :-)

It’s only a five minute walk to the bus stop but that’s not easy in the dark. They do have street lamps here but they are not switched on…energy saving?

We’ve arrived at the stop about 15 minutes early, but that’s nit a bad thing as the bus does arrive 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Google’s assessment ‘crowded’ is thank fully incorrect and we’re glad we didn’t rush to get the earlier one. We could have driven of course, but the bus us so close and cheap that it hardly seems worth the hassle of driving through te heavy traffic and finding a car park.

We have arrived at the bus station of ‘La Ligna de la Concepcion’ - here we have the border crossing into Gibraltar. It’s literally a five minute walk from the bus station. A lot of people are walking, passport in hand, to the customs office. Most are putting their passports through an e gate but we need an ink stamp in ours. Obviously the officers can spot tourists a mile off as he is waving us over and sending a junior off to find the stamp!

All done, we walk straight through customs and in the space of five minutes we are greeted by a bright ‘good morning’ from the Gibraltar officer and we find ourselves on British soil once more. There’s a huge black cloud hanging over the rock and there’s a twenty percent chance of rain. We didn’t bring rain gear but judging by the roads I think they may have already had their downpour!

A bunch of bright red buses await and we jump on a number 10 which takes us across the airport runway (they close the gate when planes are taking off or landing) and on through the crowded street to the cable car station. On the way we pass two petrol stations…the first is charging £1.65 per litre whilst the second is charging a staggering £1.26. How come that other petrol station had customers, we ask ourselves!

It’s just a short walk from the bus stop to the cable car, which is still closed. We’re doubly glad we didn’t get that early bus now! We only have to wait fifteen minutes and we’re right at the front of the queue so pretty good timing overall! Now we have to choose our tickets…do we want to ride up only or both ways? And do we want to go into the nature reserve? Well the nature reserve contains all the bits we want to see so we’d better include that. It looks like an almost vertical drop so I guess we need a return ticket? Yes, they think that would be best.

The car is crammed, you couldn’t squeeze another in by the time they close the doors. Seven minutes later and we all tumble out…inti the big thick black cloud. Ian says we should take the steep path up first up we go fir amazing views of…nothing! We are right in the thick of the black cloud.

Everyone else has gone to the skywalk. The rough map that came with our hefty £34 per person entrance fee is pretty rubbish and nothing is signposted. Ian thinks we have to come back this way anyway so we skip the queue there and trot off down the hill to St Michaels Cave.

The cave us spectacular. A huge cavern of stalactites and stalagmites, created in the limestone rock by rainwater, which are all lit up in different colours. The cave was known to the ancient Greeks, but the site was not fully explored until the 1860’s. Neanderthal skulls found there suggest that the cave was used around 40,000 BC. They have created a stunning light and sound show which brings the rock to life.

Emerging from the cave, we now have to retrace our steps up the steep hill to reach O’Haras Battery which we missed on the way down. Annoyingly it is closed. Oh well, we’ll do the sky walk then! I,m not quite sure how I will get on walking on a glass walkway but I give it a go. There are amazing views and the heavy cloud is now starting to lift.

We are having to be very mindful of our bags as we are surrounded by small groups of the Barbery apes that inhabit the nature reserve…they are good at stealing bags from unsuspecting tourists…especially if they think they might contain food!

Now we are making our way down to the Great Siege tunnels. It’s at this point we realise we have been stung on our tickets. There is no way I’ll be climbing back up that steep track to take a 7 minute cable car ride down! It’s now obvious that if you want to see the sights in the rock you really need to walk down! Ho hum.

It’s another uphill track to the siege tunnels. These were started during the siege of 1779-1782. The Spanish, and later with the French, attacked Gibraltar in support of the American War of Independence - an example weird 18th century politics. In order to be able to shoot down onto the Spanish positions, a tunnel was dug and blasted into the upper part of the south facing rock. This was extended throughout the siege, with heavy guns being emplaced at regular distances; the final length was not completed until after the siege ended. The guns remaining are of Napoleónico and Victorian vintage - the military value of the position meant.

Now back down still further to reach the WW2 tunnels and a settlement exhibition (not really my thing and my feet are killing me so I let Ian explore those on his own while I watch planes taking off and generally admire the view!

We pass a Moorish Castle. Now neither of us have the will…so we continue down, out of the reserve and down some steep steps until we reach the town. Here, in a side alley, we find a kind of English pub. We both order shepherds pie and veg for a late lunch. It’s very nice to eat some traditional British food again!

Now we are are off for the bus to take us back to the border. It’s an open top double decker. That brings back some memories of childhood seaside holidays!

Back at the border and we are through within minutes…none of the horror stories that are flooding the internet about post Brexit hassles from the Spanish. A smiling officer stamps our passports and we are back in!

Back at the bus station, there is a long queue for our bus…it looks like the college kids are on their way home. We do secure seats but it’s not long before it’s standing room only. The bus even refuses to admit new passengers at some of the stops. I am monitoring the journey on google maps as it’s a different bus stop on the return journey…due to a motorway being in the way! We disembark at the right place and manage to find our way to the footbridge over the motorway - fortunately there’s a very distinctive tall building near our hotel so it’s an easy find.

Back to the room for a shower and a cold down. Tomorrow is another if those days that has been causing me some anxiety. We have to drive along the busiest set of roads in Andalucía, fill up the petrol tank and make sure that our hire car is returned before noon. Google says two hours but I’m allowing four!

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