A few options are available for exploring the Rock of Gibraltar. The most common way tourists usually ascend the
small mountain is by cable car, however, that is out of commission for the next
year or two as they do extensive maintenance/renovations to it. In lieu of that, taxis are commonly used. However, they aren’t cheap, plus a lot of the
roads are one-way, single lanes where no passing is possible. Therefore you are rushed by your driver at
the various stops as they don’t want to hold everyone up. Private vehicles are not allowed to ascend
the Rock.
Then there’s the good old tried and tested method of hiking
up, which is what I chose to do. The
most popular trail is called the Mediterranean Steps, which starts at the far
south end of the Rock. They were built as part of the military communications system built by the British to allow access to their various defence posts.
I took the bus from the border and had to change to another bus, which happened to be right by the Trafalgar Cemetery. As the sign say, those who made it to Gibraltar after the battle but then succumbed to their wounds were buried here. Those who died during the battle were buried at sea.
It was a nice cemetary, but I thought that a bit more maintenance of the tombstones would have helped to make more of them legible.
The "Pillars of Hercules" are the two promontories that flank the Strait of Gibraltar. The Rock of Gibraltar is the northern pillar with the other pillar being in Morocco.
Those buildings and that soccer pitch with a running track are part of a British Department of Defence installation.
Looking towards Morocco.
Haven't even broked a sweat yet.
It's hard to gather from the photo, but that's a road down there.
Looking up at the goal.
Walking through a tunnel on the path.
A WWII bunker.
Looking out from inside the bunker.
This is why it's called the "Mediterranean Steps"! When climbing a trail like this, where steps and railings have been installed, I often think about the effort that was required to haul up the rocks, cement, metal posts etc...yikes, and thanks to those who did it!
Near the end of the hike, the steps zigzagged their way up the steep section.
Now that view was worth the effort.
I didn't see another person on the Med Steps...which was quite nice. I think the hike took me about 45 minutes.
At the southern point of the top of the Rock, is O’Hara’s
Battery. It was constructed in 1890 and
was only decommissioned in 1976. It is
named after a former governor general of the colony, Charles O’Hara, who
actually died in 1802, long before the guns were installed. It was his idea to build a tower so the garrison
would be able to observe the enemy at the Spanish port
of Cadiz. The tower was erected, but Cadiz was too far
away so it later was known as O’Hara’s Folly.
It was demolished and later replaced with a gun battery.
Over the years, the guns were upgraded and the last ones in
use were 9.2-inch barrelled Mark X BLs, which could fire a shell 29,000 yards
or almost 26 kilometers. The Strait of
Gibraltar is not that wide!
The entrance to the engine room.
The tunnel from the engine room to the ammo depot.
The front gun (the one furthest south on the Rock).
That's a shell that the guns used to fire. It was kind of lucky that there happened to be a car parked there to give its size perspective...imagine gettng hit by that!
Unfortunately, the gate to walk up to the gun was locked. A lot of the "exhibit" seemed to be in disrepair and instead of fixing things or doing upkeep, they just locked it off.
You can just make out the second gun a bit to the left of center, seemingly touching the clouds.
Zooming in on the bottom right of the last photo...interesting little beachfront properties with their own little bay. There really isn't much on the east side of Gibraltar since the Rock's slopes just run right down into the ocean.
Closer to the second gun...that was as close as I was allowed to go.
My first macaque sighting on the Rock. I knew to expect them. They were brought here hundreds of years ago from Morocco.
No, he's not a "zen monkey"...I think I caught him just as he was blinking.
Another tourist stop on the Rock which wasn't even on my
radar was St. Michael's Cave. The entrance is located 300
meters above sea level and even the Romans knew about this impressive limestone
cave. There are supposedly around 150 caves on the Rock, but this is the
most visited with around one million tourists checking it out, and for good
reason. I’ve spelunked a number of caves
during my travels, but the stalagmites and stalactites were amazing in their
size and shapes. There were some
large caverns too, including one that has been transformed into an auditorium
for around 400 people!
The St. Michael's Cave...disco-style.
The were impressive.
The lights alternated from disco to this, more normal type lighting.
And this is only the portion of the caves open to the public...there's a lot of it not open for tourists.
Impressive stalagtites!
Do you see the angel? The lighting helps...but it still looks cool.
The start of a light show...
...which was set to some dramatic music.
Quite the auditorium in the cave. It's definitely not tourist season at the moment here as there were maybe 5 or 6 other people watching the light show with me.
It looks like this monkey is a tourist agent!
A little rainbow peaking through.
Working my way along the Rock, heading north towards the airport and the border.
I just love a good cumulus cloud...
There's that beachfront community again. That light coloured line coming up the hill is a set of stairs...talk about a serious stairmaster!
It's serious grooming time. This was a feeding area. There are signs for tourists to not feed the macaques, but staff must bring up veggies for them as there were carrots and some other half eaten, unidentifiable vegetables on the ground.
This little guy was a bit mischievious.
That's risky business Baby Macaque!
The non-functioning cable car.
A baby macaque getting spooked by an adult.
Just after I took this photo, I turned around and started to walk away...then the macaque jumped on my day backpack! I quickly twisted from side to side and shook him off as I heard a female tourist gasp. Luckily my backpack was zipped up properly. It sure got my heart racing. These guys are known to bite and scratch. Pesky bugger.
The main area of Gibraltar town. You can see the airport on the right and on the other side of that bit of water is where Octi is parked at a marina.
Yet another cannon. It's definitely a great place to put them!
A young Polish tourist took this photo for me, in exchange for me doing the same for her. We had a nice chat for about 10 minutes about travelling and even the situation in Ukraine.
An EasyJet taking off for Bristol.
The first one was called the “Great Siege Tunnels”
and they date back to the late 18th century. They were constructed by the British in their
defensive effort against France and Spain who tried to seize Gibraltar during
the Great
Siege of Gibraltar which went on for 3½ years. In the end, the British succeeded in maintaining
control of the isthmus.
Inside Gibraltar's Great Siege Tunnels.
There are 5 cannons in this chamber. Must have been crazy loud, smoky and chaotic during a battle.
The tunnels seemed to go on forever.
The other set of tunnels were from WWII defensive efforts by
the Allies. It was recognized quite
early in the war that Gibraltar was a key in controlling the shipping lanes of
the Mediterranean. Two Canadian engineer
companies, the only soldiers with diamond-tipped drills and 5 British engineer
companies, dug 30 miles tunnels, a feat thought impossible at the time. That was enough to house 30,000 troops! Today, the Rock has more tunnels than roads,
although most of the tunnels are closed off to the public, or completely closed
off.
Outside the entrance to the WWII tunnels.
Why not stick a Spitfire inside? They've got the room for it. Obviously this was just for display as they didn't store planes in these tunnels as they were about 1/3 up the mountain...but many Spitfires were stationed at Gibraltar during the war.
Just inside the entrance was this little bar. Interesting spot to sit and have a drink.
Unbelievable that there were 30+ miles of tunnels. You can only access a fraction of that now.
Behind the brick walls on the right, there were dorms with beds for soldiers and others for patients recuperating.
This was "Victory Lane" with speakers piping in a speach by Churchill when Germany had surrendered.
I liked this photo of the Rock during the war.
What a day! Lots of walking up and down the Rock...but well worth it.
