Gibraltar

Since we were so close, we just had to visit. Now that we’ve been here, we can truly say that we’ve been to the UK, other than just a layover in London’s Heathrow airport. We did a day trip out of Jerez, on a Monday, when basically everything was closed in Spain. The view as we approached was not very welcoming -

(I never did get a good shot of that vertical wall of limestone)

Upon walking across the border (and only getting our passports stamped with an exit stamp from Spain), we hopped on a bus that dropped us near the start of the hiking trail to the top of “The Rock”.

the signpost at the beginning of the trail to give you a little overview

This was along the road on the way to the trailhead -

This was near the beginning of the trail -

(it was not clear enough to see Africa that day, but we squinted and tried) ;)

Not for the faint of heart…

… but we were rewarded with a view like this:

The point of the rock in the upper center of the picture above was frequently obscured by clouds, but every once in awhile they cleared, so I grabbed a shot when I could! We actually couldn’t walk to that point (which is the top of the sheer face that is the classic shot of The Rock) and I was quite disappointed.

Enjoying the view from the top and off both sides -

The port of Gibraltar and looking back into Spain -

As we moved on from our summit, we started encountering the furry residents of the nature reserve -

That picture was not taken with my long lens; I was standing right beside him. (There are signs all over warning you not to feed the animals.) These are Barbary Macaques, originally from Morocco…

… and this is the only wild monkey population on the European continent.

I didn’t get a picture of them here, but as we started down these stairs, we had to step over several lying across the steps. One grabbed my pants leg as I stepped over it, giving me quite a start (not a comfortable feeling when standing on one leg at the top of a very steep set of stairs)!

Not a great video (at all) but it shows how the clouds were just racing up and over the top:

I really liked this guy’s ‘do -

We didn’t get the British fish and chips we were hoping for (due to the bus not stopping where we thought we requested)…

… but all in all, it turned out to be a great hike, and an excellent spur of the moment trip.