Gibraltar; Friday, 19 August, 2005

After a disappointing cold shower and an equally disappointing breakfast I headed out from the hotel into the centre of town.

I had a little time to wander around the narrow lanes and alleyways of the city, many of which follow the fortifications that have turned this into one of the most protected rocks in the world before heading out to the Marina for the dolphin safari.

As we were the first tour of the morning to set off we had no idea where the dolphins would be. The skipper said that at times there could be groups of 50 to 300 common dolphins, who can swim in the wake of the boat.

However, after nearly an hour, and with our time almost up it looked as though we were going to be disappointed. Then, as we started to head back to the marina, several other safari boats from other companies appeared to be converging on a point. A small family of the much larger bottle nose dolphins (think flipper) were out. With other boats chasing around to get the best views our skipper decided to keep relatively still, and it paid off. The dolphins came right up to the boat swimming past, diving and resurfacing for about 20 minutes before they wandered off, and we headed back to the marina.

After a stop for a bit of lunch I visited the Gibraltar museum which tells the history of the rock from its creation during the Jurassic era, through its periods of rule by the Muslims, then the Spanish (briefly) then by the Muslims again (briefly) then by the Spanish again, and then since 1704 by the British. The museum is built above the remains of a 14th Century Moorish bath house, and this is probably about the best exhibit in the museum.

After spending quite some time there I caught the bus round the top of Gibraltar to the East coast. Here the rock virtually plunges into the sea, with very little land that can be used. However, there are a couple of pleasant beaches, so, as it was quite humid, I took my shoes off and had a nice paddle for some time. With the heavy cloud cover stating to leach a few drops of rain I wandered back to the bus stop and caught the bus back to the main road. There I changed onto the small minibus (think large van) that runs up the narrow winding lanes to the top of the old town, the area around the Moorish castle.

The only existing part of the castle, the tower of homage, is currently closed for restoration, but from the grounds you still get stunning views over both Gibraltar, southern Spain and Northern Morocco. You also get lots of views of Apes as the rocks most famous residents, the Barbary Apes wander free over the whole of the area.

With the clouds now looking very threatening (according to the Gibraltar tourist board, on average on 3mm of rain falls during August. I think I was about to experience all 3mm today) I headed back to the hotel, stopping off at the Trafalgar cemetery which was built to house the remains of members of the armed forces killed in battles in the area (in fact only 2 people who were injured at the battle of Trafalgar and later died of their wounds are buried there, the rest are from other battles.)

After a short break to wait out the heavy drizzle I headed back out briefly for a bite to eat, sadly, finding that by 9pm, unlike their Spanish neighbours, most Gibraltarian restaurateurs have decided to close up and go home!