Goodbye Tarifa and back to Gibraltar

Sat 7^th

Very muddy underfoot so we moved to another free spot on the edge of Tarifa where it was dry. Our last day in town so we went for a long stroll along the shore into the port and town. The sand dragon was most impressive.  We really like Tarifa , the town has a nice feel and the views across to Morocco are so impressive.  We will be back………

sand dragon

Tangiers 35 mins

Sun 9^th

Gibraltar part 2 – we decided to give it another try as we had been so unimpressed before Christmas.  The weather was less than helpful – it absolutrely poured down as we drove down to la Linea and the border. The Levante wind from the east was howling across the water and buffeting us around. Welcome back……….  We parked up then decided to cycle across to Morrisons for some provisions. Ok getting there, but coming back was like cycling into a movie set wind machine whilst being hosed in cold water! Still it was worth it as we had enough “UK goodies” to last us until the end of our trip.

post cycle drying

Mon 10^th

After a noisy night due to rain lashing down and very strong gusts we awoke to a much better day weather wise. Still very windy ,but DRY!!!!

Scoot out we rode across the border and around the south side of the rock. What a difference from the congested centre, great views of ships seemingly parked up in the boiling sea. We stopped at Europa point and were almost blown over. After a look at the huge replica gun carriage at Hardings Battery we headed for the nature reserve up on the Rock itself. The roads are very narrow and steep, great fun on scoot.

south of Rock

europa point

Gib harbour across to Algiceras

First stop was St Michael’s Caves, this is a natural limestone grotto which is now used as a music auditorium.

cross section of stalagmite 

Next we scooted up to O’Haras Battery on the highest point on the Rock. The gun was  being painted – what a job and a half. The views were brilliant, you could see why they placed it here as the gun’s range was longer than the width of the strait.

bit windy, ships parked up

view from O'Haras battery up coast

We walked back to scoot and headed on down to the Great Siege Tunnels. Wow – what a feat of engineering, starting in 1779 and continuing until 1968!  There are over 30 miles of tunnels under the rock with only some open to the public. Very impressive and gives you a good idea of what made the Rock so difficult to a place to conquer.

great siege tunnels

long tunnel right through rock

We finished the day with good old fashioned fish & chips. We are glad we gave Gib a second chance as getting out of the centre and up onto the rock was worthwhile. On the way back the roads were very busy, it was like a Moto GP on the scoot. The Spanish customs were backing up the cars which were all hooting their horns in disgust. We saw one scoot being stripped to reveal lots of cigarette packets that had been concealed. The girl rider did not look happy.