Day 5 - Gibraltar

Of course we couldn't go all the way to the Costa de la Luz and not go and visit the little piece of Britain that is on the south coast of Spain, the famous Gibraltar Rock. It is really rather a peculiar place, to get there you have to walk across the runway to the airport and when we were leaving we had to wait for a plane to land. Then the whole showing your passport and speaking English thing was strange too, we were only 5 minutes walk from Spain. Passing through the tunnel, which was once the only way on and off the rock, was like walking into England. Everything was so British, Marks & Spencers, the Royal Bank of Scotland, the pubs which spelt of pies and peas. There were Union Jacks all over the place and even the policemen were the same. The only big difference between the rock and the UK was the price of cigarettes, a mere 1€ 50 for a pack of Marlboro lights!

Unfortunately the chairlifts to the top of the rock were closed due to the wind and so we didn't climb up to the top and I didn't see any monkeys. On the whole I didn't think much of Gibraltar, it's good for novelty value and cheap tax free booze and fags and perfume, but not much else.

On the way back to the campsite we stopped off in Tarifa where you can appreciate, just how close parts of Andalucia are to North Africa. In this picture you can see the Atlas Mountains of Morocco as Jaime contemplates the view.

Tarifa is unbelievably windy, apparently it has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It's understandable that this seaside town is a haven for windsurfers and kitesurfers, in fact it is the kitesurfing capital of the world. There are so many people doing it on the beach that from a distance it looks like pretty tropical birds and swooping across the bay. I'd never seen anything quite like it.