Gibraltar
Monday, 27th June 2005 by James Turnbull
Gibraltar is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom on the southern tip of Spain. I visited Gibraltar while on a Spanish holiday a few years back and, just like the rest of the UK, it rained a lot.
We'll start today's tour (hopefully rain free) with the famous Gibraltar rock and the monkeys that live there. The Barbary Apes live in a cave near the Charles V Wall and tourists can walk up the rock to see the monkeys. Most of the paths up the rock are off-limits to the public but from the satellite viewpoint we can see on top of the rock there are various look out points with gun batteries.
A fair amount of Gibraltar is built on reclaimed land and the lack of space is apparent when you look at Gibraltar's only airstrip. Stretching the full width of the land (and plus some) it even intersects a road. At either side you can see a few cars waiting for the runway to be clear. Lastly on our little tour we visit the the most southerly point of Gibraltar where you can see Europa Point Lighthouse.
Thanks: Carson Diltz, Caius Toneriko, Keith T., damian, Rob, Jan Brasna, David de Hora, Teseo, Daniel
look at all those cargo and oil tankers to the left! busy ports
what are these 4 square in the ocean NE of gibraltar?
View Placemark
these circles offshore are odd also.. View Placemark
View Placemark
The cars are waiting on this airliner on approach to land so they can cross.
I’ve read on an aviation site that when the road gates on the runway sides are closed for an aircraft movement, strips containing tire-shredding spikes are places across the ends of the roadway just in case someone has any ideas about driving onto the runway and trying to crash into an aircraft.
Chris the offshore circles could be clam, oyster, or shrimp farms. Just a guess
Today’s New York Times has an article about Gibraltar’s monkeys:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/international/europe/28monkey.html?hp
In Gibraltar rains like in the rest of UK, in the same way the rest of UK is full of monkeys.
moisty70 – the UK is full of monkeys:
http://www.safalra.com/temporary/gorillas.jpg
robert) Yes, they’re huge, the cities there are all some kind of petrochemic industry…
Peter) It’s true, however I’m not sure how’s it with pedestrians, AFAIK they were standing just in front of some rail or something.
moisty70) :DD ROFL (BTW I was there in August and it was raining :/ …)
It doesn’t always rain in the UK. Well, not much anyway. I liked it there. Probably because I’m English.
In reply to Chris, the square are large barges moored permanently off La Linea. Don’t know what they’re for but I could see them from the beach at La Linea when I was there last week.
going to live there then. Great fun
if there was a natural disaster in Gibraltar what would happen to the buildings built on reclaimed land?
return soon as possible because my project is for next Wednesday thanks
Recent bad weather in and around Gibraltar saw several boats sunk. Extreme weather and the rapidly rising sea levels could well render reclaimed land around Gibraltar expsoed to severe damage. I am no expert, but check with the internet sites dealing with climate change, rising water levels and weather patterns. You may well have exposed a danger that has not been considred seriously before good luck
Ok, where do I start. I was born and bred on Gibraltar so I guess I know what I am talking about. 1 Yes, the port is very busy with a lot of bunkering activity and ships stopping off to resupply and await orders. 2. Thise would be ships 3. Those would be parts of the oil refinery in nearby spain. 5. I have never seen any spikes in the 18 years that I live there. There is simply a barrier and a simple gate for pedestrians. 6. No oyster or shrimp farms in or near Gibraltar 8. Total rubbish. Although it rains in winter, the average temperature is summer is arounf 30 degrees centigrade. In december it can be as high as 15! 13. Having been to Newcastle several times, I can say that living in Gibraltar WILL be great fun compared to what you are used to. Cheap beer, cheap fags, great weather, amazing food and the south of Spain to explore. oh and there’s the small matter of hardly any crime at all. Does this sound just like the UK?
I had one of the rockiest boat rides ever the last time I was in Gibralter. We went looking for dolphins and got sea sick instead.