Thursday, March 8, 2018

Gibraltar - part 2 - at the top

The cable car set off shortly after I boarded.



Parking lot below.


It may help you get your bearings if you look at the satellite view of the Rock from Google Maps.

I had walked from the north down the west side through the town. The cable car is roughly half way down on the west side.

The east side faces the Strait and is very precipitous.



View from about half way up.


View from the top to the north-west.


View west to Algeciras.


Out of curiosity I enlarged the previous photo and I can make out my room window at the left of the white wall next to the tower thing. Cameras are amazing these days.


The northern tip of the rock.


Same view but I was wondering if the photo was better vertical or horizontal.


A plane took off far below from the runway I had walked across.


The east side is very precipitous.



There are numerous warning signs not to display any plastic bags since the Barbary Macaques associate these bags with food and will attack you to get the food.


You might remember I had seen the same Macaques in Morocco.


Africa in the distance with the Strait in between.



I started to walk south towards the southern most peak.


Probably used to haul heavy stuff up the hill side.


I watched a couple of tugs berth this huge vessel.


I am not as good at uphill climbs as I used to be and it is quite tiring. However I struggle on, one foot in front of the other.





On and on I climbed. About a hundred yards along is a viewing platform with a glass floor that protrudes over the deep drop. Unfortunately it was closed.


The climb seemed endless.



And then it got steeper.


I walk for a while and then take a ten second break. It's slow but I get there eventually.



Some sort of defensive pill box.


A rather long gun barrel.



Eventually I came to the large gun situated at the end that overlooked the strait. A nine inch shell would do a lot of damage.


It's not quite 'Guns of Navarone' but it's still impressive.


Fifteen miles to Africa and the other Pillar of Hercules.






It was not the only gun up at that height. You can see another gun off to the left.


Some of the area is still cordoned off by the Royal Navy.




The other gun. It is the same size as the first gun.


It was near here that a secret tunnel was built to serve as a secret observation post in case Gibraltar was captured in WWII. It was only recently rediscovered.




Snow off in the distance to the east. It's probably the Sierra Nevada south of Granada.



There is a loop you can walk that eventually takes you to the north end of the Rock so I proceeded downhill along the road. By the way, some of the roads were used in the opening scene of the Bond film 'The Living Daylights'.

You can see a group of cyclists pushing their bicycles. Yes, it is very steep.




More of the monkeys.





It's mostly peaceful walking along except for the occasional tourist van or taxi.



Part of Charles V Wall which was built to prevent attacks by pirates.




The cable car.


Meeting half way up.



There were a few houses about half way up the rock.



The Rock is still used as an active military base.




A ring.


View north over the runway.


The British were more worried about an attack from the north than the south in WWII so installed batteries of guns.


By now I was feeling quite tired so I decided to give the siege tunnels a miss. They are apparently quite impressive and extend for miles inside the rock.


The other end of the runway.



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