Subtropical rock Print E-mail
Written by Penny Kitchen, 2004   
Penny Kitchen spent a busy long weekend in Gibraltar, which in 2004 has been celebrating its third century under British sovereignty From time to time Gibraltar grabs the headlines. Two years ago the dispute over ownership of the dramatic piece of rock jutting out from the tip of southern Spain threatened to turn nasty. It's done so before. But the issue of whether the UK, Spain or the people of Gibraltar themselves should be in charge of the Rock's destiny was put on the back-burner during the Iraq conflict.

Intensely loyal to the UK, Gibraltarians have been quietly beautifying their sunny peninsula - not an island as many people think - to attract more visitors. They've been toning down the 'fish and chips' tackiness, wooing the world's luxury cruise liners and hoping that along with their eventual self-determination they might even succeed in creating a 'new Monaco'.

Only six years ago Main Street in Gibraltar city was an off-putting mix of souvenir and tax-free shops and 'British pubs' - and a few do still exist - but today's visitors are pleasantly surprised by the facelift. Of course, no one has ever had cause to complain about Gibraltar's lack of sunshine - the subtropical climate is warm and welcoming throughout the year.

This climate supports over 600 varieties of plants and trees including ten varieties of orchid. In the spring and autumn the Rock is a staging post for millions of migrating birds, in particular eagles, vultures and buzzards. Resident species include Peregrine falcon, Blue Rock thrush and the rare Barbary partridge.

Gibraltar's five beaches - Catalan Bay, Camp Bay, Eastern Beach, Sandy Bay and Little Bay - enable locals and visitors to take part in water sports, but don't expect expanses of sand in Spanish proportions. Sailing and dolphin-watching are widely enjoyed, although when I was there last year the dolphins eluded our boat.

Surprises in store

Before setting down on Gibraltar, I couldn't conceive how a modern jetliner could land there or how this inhospitable-looking chunk of limestone actually supported a resident human population and infrastructure. I learned that GB Airways pilots are specially trained to land the A320 Airbus on the airstrip that separates Gibraltar from the Spanish mainland. When an aircraft is due to come in, the traffic is stopped. Once the plane has taxied in, up go the barriers, and traffic to and from the mainland resumes across the tarmac.

From the summit there are uninterrupted views in all directions from Africa to the south, westwards to the City of Gibraltar, Spain in the north and the Mediterranean to the east. You can look down on the airport runway from one side and on to the impressive harbour on the other. Once of immense strategic importance, today it provides services to the international merchant fleet.

My second surprise was the fact that Gibraltar is as big as it is. There is room on the 6.5km2 Rock for a small city, with suburbs, as well as a nature reserve. There are hotels, pubs and restaurants, schools, churches, a shopping street and tall apartment buildings (modern building in Gibraltar is mostly skywards because of space limitations).

The Government is encouraging the preservation of unique traditional architecture with tax incentives. Maltese stonemasonry, Portuguese tiling, Neapolitan and Genoese jalousies on Venetian-style window shutters and wrought-iron lacework from the 18th and 19th centuries have all been spruced up.

Besides the 20,000 Gibraltarians (and the famous Barbary apes), some 8,000 ex-pats reside here, many of them ex-service people who fell in love with 'Gib' in the days when it was an important British military base. Some six million day visitors arrive each year - it is only a five-minute drive from La Linea in Spain and 40 miles from Malaga - and now these day-trippers are joined by the cruise ship passengers who disembark at the special passenger terminal. It is a tax-free port where a litre of Scotch can be purchased for £5 and 200 cigarettes for £6.80.

Mini-Britain

Gibraltar's judicial, accounting, education, banking and conveyancing systems are all modelled on the UK and with sterling as currency, everything has a comforting familiarity. Even the electric sockets are British. Businesses on Main Street include M&S, Tesco, BhS, TopShop, Barclays, Norwich & Peterborough Building Society among others.

Palm trees sway incongruously beside red 'ER' pillar-boxes, Union flags hang from apartment balconies along with the washing and British bobbies stop to answer tourists' questions and pose for photographs. They may well have Italian- or Maltese-sounding names - one of the charming incongruities of the Rock.

For me, the appeal of Gibraltar was discovering its amazing history and pre-history, beginning with its violent creation, when Africa and Europe converged, forcing the limestone upwards and creating the mountain ranges of southern Spain. This was followed by an unimaginable kilometre-high waterfall as the Atlantic poured via the present-day Strait of Gibraltar into the huge basin that became the Mediterranean.

Gibraltar was occupied by Phoenicians, Carthaginians and the Romans before being inhabited by the Moors who invaded Spain in 711. In 1704, the English captured it from Spain hence the 300th anniversary being celebrated this year. There is an excellent film on show at the Gibraltar Museum, which takes you through the millennia and illustrates just why this outcrop of rock has occupied such a strategic importance.

No one visiting Gibraltar should miss the Siege Tunnels. Some 30 miles of tunnels dating back to the Spanish siege of the 18th century and many to the Second World War make up part of the most impressive defence system anywhere in the world. Whole hospitals and barracks were set up underground here and to see the rusted remains of beds and chairs and cook stoves is an eerie experience. A guided tour is well worthwhile, as is a visit to St Michael's Cave where concerts and theatrical events are held amid the dramatically lit stalactites and stalagmites.

When you come blinking out into the sunshine again, treat yourself to some ape-spotting. In fact, these entertaining semi-wild macaques are everywhere you look in the nature reserve on the rocky slopes above the city. They have been known to steal pens from pockets, jump on to car roofs and bite if you scare them, but mostly they groom each other and pose obligingly for the tourists.

Like the tax-free booze and perfume, a photo of a Barbary ape or two, atop a centuries-old British cannon, with the bay and Spain stretched out below, is an essential souvenir from this unique place.

How to get there

GB Airways flies direct to Gibraltar from Gatwick - visit www.gbairways.com

If you are driving to Gibraltar from Spain, take the N340 or the A7 (Cadiz - Malaga highway) and turn off at Junction 119 into the N351 to La Linea, the border town between Spain and Gibraltar. The border is open 24 hours a day. You will need your passport.

Further information

Visit www.gibraltar.gov.gi or www.gibraltar.gov.uk
 
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