Gibraltar is not technically in Spain, it is a territory of the UK. However, it is a territory that is basically in Spain, with a huge amount of history and fighting to keep it that way.
It’s also just a massive interesting rock.
Journal Entry
Today was all about exploring the Rock of Gibraltar.
We walked across the border, which was near because you also walk across the airport runway.
After finding our hostel and getting a much appreciated room upgrade, we set up the rock.
First obstacle was a ticket gate we didn’t know about, that cost us £50.
The places we went were:
Moorish castle
- An old islamic style fort
Old caves (the notch)
- Caves with cannons built by the British to defend against Spain
- Kai gave a monkey a banana
Cable car building
- The terminal of the cable car, closed that day bc of wind. Monkey there.
- Kai climbed to the edge just before that, I was a bit scared.
Skywalk
- Glass floor sticks out over the edge
WW2 bunker
- On a side path, we found a ww2 bunker that lead right out to the edge of the cliff
Big Guns
- At the summit there were some massive guns used in ww2
St.Micheals Cave
- An amazing and huge cave with lots of rock formations and a light show/theater inside
Backside Stairs Down
- Went back up to the summit to take the secret stairs down the backside
Pillars of Hercules
- Small statue. The pillars are the gate at the end of the world. One of them is the rock.
Windsor Bridge
- Walked back through the park to do the last attraction, a scary suspension bridge!
We started the day across the border in Spain, in a town called La Línea de la Concepción.
The first thing to do is walk across the border. Gibraltar is so small, the only place they could fit an airport is right next to the border, so there is a pedestrian walkway right across it.
At this point, We didn’t really know what was up there, but I figured we could just walk.
We quickly ran into a gate charging tickets, and realized this was a huge park, not just a nature area, with tons of history and places to visit.
Moorish Castle
The islamic castle is prominent on the side of the rock, and you can explore the inside. It is a hollow shell with steel stairs bolted to the walls to get up.
Great Siege Tunnels (the notch)
After finally seeing a monkey (he stole kai’s banana), we made our way much higher up to the Siege tunnels.
On the way at a viewpoint on an old battery, there was a rock that said something like “Here the Queen herself enjoyed the view”.
These are an extremely long tunnel system built right inside of the north cliff during The Great Siege of 1779–1783. During this period, the Spanish attempted to take back Gibraltar from the Brits.
The tunnel had holes drilled out of the cliff every 50 feet or so, with cannons poking through each one.
Eventually you reach “The Notch”, which is a part of the cliff that juts out and allows for a full 180 degrees of cannon blasting.
There was a record in there of the Spanish announcing their assault and the neighboring towns building grandstands so they could watch the “show”. What they actually ended up witnessing was the British basically destroying the entire southern Spanish fleet.
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Cable Car building
At the top, about midway through, there is a cable car station for those that don’t want to hike up. It was closed today due to wind.
Here there were tons more monkeys hanging around, as well as the first spectacular views of the steep west side cliff.
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Skywalk
The skywalk is one of those glass bottomed platforms that juts over an edge for no good reason.
WW2 Bunker
The cliffside stairway that leads up from the skywalk area was closed, so we took another way up to the summit. There was a sidepath, however, that lead back to where the stairs would have gone.
We found an old WW2 bunker that went straight through the rock to the other side.
Big Guns (O’Hara’s Battery)
At the summit of the rock was a huge gun battery from WW2.
There were two massive artillery guns right at the tallest point, able to shoot stuff over 25 kilometers away.
From the summit, there was a path that went down the steep side of the rock.
However, we missed a cave.
We back tracked to see if there was something there..
St.Micheals Cave
The cave was one of the most surreal places I’ve seen. It was a limestone cave where every surface was covered in detailed rock formations that look like flowing water.
It was huge as well, and it was a total surprise.
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| The “Angel” |
Mediterranean Steps
This is a less used, very steep path down the back of the rock.
There was tons of little things to find back here, like more WW2 outposts, caves, and old buildings.
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Pillars of Hercules
At the bottom there is a small statue for the pillars, which refer to the two mountains on either side of the Straight of Gibraltar, thought to be the gates to the end of the world in ancient times. One being the Rock of Gibraltar, and the other being Jebel Musa in Morocco.
Even though the sun set, we decided to walk back through the park up high to see one last thing.
Windsor Suspension Bridge
This is just a fun bridge that spans a high gap. It wasn’t so bad at night when you couldn’t really see the bottom.
We we’re exhausted from a long day of hiking up and down. The next day we flew from the Gibraltar airport back to London.
Map
