Rock of Gibraltar

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The Rock of Gibraltar

Friday morning, we were off for the "tour" of the Rock of Gibraltar. What AMAZING views! We found it was easier to park the car at a marina in Spain and walk across the border. The entire country is only 3.85 square miles, so it wasn't really a long walk. The border sets at the edge of the Gibraltar airport runway. A few of the pictures don't seem like much until you understand we are walking across the runway!

We arrived early in order to avoid the crowd up the mountain. As we approached the border, I noticed a huge cloud hanging over the island. This cloud is apparently a characteristic of Gibraltar's weather and is called a Levanter Cloud. Moisture-laden Mediterranean air is pushed by the wind against the Rock. The water condenses, forming a cloud. The oddest thing I noticed was the circular formation of the cloud. You can see that in the pictures. There was originally a signal station on The Rock which was closed in 1922 due to this cloud often obscuring the view leaving workers unable to use the station.

We had a brief walk through town (down Main Street) and, because we were so early, had a chance to visit the Trafalgar Cemetery and the Botanical Gardens. Both were very pretty.

We sat outside the entrance gate of the Cable Car and waited for it to open. During that time, we saw a worker checking out a cable car. You can see him on the outside of the car riding up to the top!

We were actually the first 2 visitors to the top. It was great to be able to walk around unhindered by other tourists. The ride up was quite nice

. The cable car terrace is at 412 m (1351.71 feet) above sea level. Once we arrived at the top, there was a Barbary Macaque ape there to greet us (ha!). He was setting on the railing and once our car stopped, he jumped on top and climbed over to the other side railing.

A little about these apes... they are not exactly sure how they came to be on the island, however there are only about five or six thousand of them in the world. Approximately 200 of them live on the Rock. There is an old superstition that if the apes leave the Rock, so will the British. Rumor has it that when Winston Churchill was told that only three apes remained on the Rock, he arranged to have reinforcements brought over from Africa. :-)

The Gibraltar government provides them with a supplement of fruits and vegetables to try and control their movements and keep them from straying too close to inhabited areas. Their natural diet consists of berries, roots, ants and small grubs. There were several babies around the park. In one particular area there were 3 males squabbling. It looked apparently like one of them had invaded the area and the other 2 were trying to run it off. They were really quite vocal, hissing, screeching, and swatting at each other. We kept our distance from that scuffle. There are a couple pictures of them with their infants. A little later we saw several of them playing in a pool of water.

We continued our walk around the Nature Reserve, down to St. Michael's Cave. It is a network of limestone caves located 300 m (980 ft) above sea level. Historians say is was named from a similar grotto in Monte Gargano in Apulia, Italy, where the archangel Michael is said to have appeared.

The cave was created by rainwater slowly seeping through the limestone rock, turning into a weak carbonic acid which gradually dissolved the rock. Through this process, tiny cracks in The Rock's geological fault grew into long passages and large caverns over thousands of years. The numerous stalactites (formation hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites (formations on the cave floor) in the cave are formed by an accumulation of traces of dissolved rock deposited by water dripping from the ground above. The colors in the photos are created by the colored lights present in the cave. There was music playing while the lights flashed different colors across the rocks. As I'm sure you can imagine, it was quite cool and wet in the cave. They, apparently, have concerts in the cave at different times (the reason for the seating in the one area).

After we finished our walk around the reserve (about 2-1/2 hours), we headed back down into town for lunch, a cold beer and then back to the car. As we approached the runway, we noticed traffic backing up into town. It was, as we soon found out, due to an outgoing aircraft. We waited until the jet took off and we walked out onto the runway. As you can see in the video, traffic (foot, autos & motorbikes) coming back across the runway was much different than from when we initially walked across.

When we got over to the car, we noticed an EasyJet preparing for takeoff.

All in all a very exhilarating day!

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Photos

09-01_02b_Levant Cloud
You can really see the circular motion of the cloud.

09-01_03a_Gib airport runway
A couple cars as we walk across the runway

09-01_03b_Gib airport runway
A view down the runway

09-01_08b_Gib cable car
There is a worker on the outside of the cable car.

Comments

[dilt]

I am so envious!!
What a great vacation. I really enjoy your pictures.. Like being there!! Thank you. Love, Barb

[CynXyn]

Rock of Gibraltar
Amazing!!!