Monkey business

Thursday 02 August 2018

Today’s adventures took us up the rock of Gibraltar. Headed to the cable car just after 10 after visiting the tourist info to find out about the walks we could do. Short cable car trip with us shoved in like sardines, didn’t have to queue long though. The fog was in at the top of the rock so we decided to walk down to see the Barbary macaques (tailless monkeys) which are native the the rock. Had our backpacks on our fronts and nothing in our hands as we approached their spot, many a review had warned about the feistiness of these monkeys due to being encouraged by mini bus tour drivers who make them pose with their bus loads (we were disappointed to see a lot of this). There were heaps of monkeys and their antics were amusing to watch. I particularly enjoyed watching a little baby which got passed around between the adults and always had at least two adult protectors at all times, there’s a photo below where I got him pulling a shocked face. 

After our first look at the monkeys we headed to St Michael’s caves which were ok as caves go. Had a coffee afterwards and then headed down to begin the Mediterranean steps, a long way to go down which gave us a hint of what was to come! Had lunch at Jew's gate before we headed up the steps, a very humid day of 28 degrees today and full sun, not the best walking weather at midday! Lots of battery’s below and above us on the walk and a very steep incline with large steps. It took us close to an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the top of the rock, neither of us had trained for a walking holiday this year so we were red faced and sweaty! 

Headed back down via Douglas path/ lookout and came out at the skywalk which had been opened earlier in the year by Mark Hamill, the original skywalker! This was a glass platform which hung over the cliff which ironically already had a big crack in it. Had another good look at the monkeys before we left and watched one of them jump onto a lady and steal the packet of tissues out of her pocket. It was clearly disappointed with its find and ripped them to shreds. When the ladies daughter tried to take them back it jumped on her too to see if it could get something better! The monkeys become much more aggressive as the day went on and by the time we got back to the cable car station there were two of them sitting on the gateway entrance ready to pounce on anyone who came through. We timed our dash carefully although one of them nearly jumped on mum! 

We enjoyed our time up on the rock and celebrated with ice creams and showers once we got back to the hotel. Dinner by the water again tonight, an exhausting day!