24th June
First stop Saturday morning was across the border (about 5 minutes walk from the marina) to a supermarket where we'd been told we could get a lot of British products. Eroski is just across the runway and has a good stock of Waitrose own-brand products as well as many other products we've struggled to get elsewhere in Spain and Portugal such as salad cream.

Laden down we recrossed the border, our rucksacks going through the security scanner but our open bags we just carried through. Having stuffed the cupboards full it was time to head out for some fun celebrating John from Riverdancer's birthday with a trip up the Rock.

We walked through the main street spotting all the British high street brands such as BHS, M&S, Next, etc. but unfortunately they are all closed on a Sunday so any shopping had to be done now. Colin needed new shorts so a brief shopping interlude began.

Back on track we headed for the cable car being harassed by the tour touts along the way. Telling them we really did want to go in the cable car didn't shut them up, walking away worked though. The cable car seemed a little pricey at £8.50 one way or £10.50 return but it was too late in the day to start walking up and we wanted to go up to the top so off we went.


At the top

It's only a few minutes up to the top with the views getting better the higher we went. Out at the top where a breeze was blowing and looking down from the viewing platform over the other side was breathtaking and a long way down! We looked towards our next destination about 120nm away - a bit too far for us to see!



We headed down to the road in search of monkeys (I think technically they are Barbary mackaques but I can't spell that properly) and ended up walking back down to town, with plenty of monkeys to entertain us on the way down and many, many photos taken. They must be so used to having their photos taken as I'm sure some of them were pulling a pose for the camera. Some just looked a bit weary and rested in odd positions or laid their heads on uncomfortable looking lumps of rock or sprawled in the shade on the road, not even moving when the tourist vans drove past. A lot of defleaing was going on as well as hugging and two young ones had a fight. We passed a monkey that had been given a packet of crisps by a passing car (naughty people). It hugged the crisps possessively to iteself before burying it's nose right inside.



It is a couple of miles back to town with the road zigzagging its way down with stunning views to Africa and back up the Straits. Every so often a bit of history is thrown in in the form of old defences and big guns. There is even a commemorative plaque for when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh stood on a particular spot looking at the view, which may be taking commemoration a bit far. Colin counted over 30 big ships anchored in the bay down below and a submarine was moored in the military harbour.



Back at the bottom, weary and thirsty we found The Star (claims to be the oldest pub in Gib) was the closest pub, they had Speckled Hen and room outside to sit. Perfect. The pints of proper beer went down far too well. Then it was curry time, which was alright but nothing special. Back to Riverdancer for celebration fizz and at some point we staggered to bed.



25th May
Morrisons was calling Sunday morning. It's a bit of a walk (30 minutes or so, it is possible to get a bus from the border to right outside the store) and we detoured through Ocean Village to look at the mega yachts and to check out the fuel point.

Entering Morrisons was like being transported back to Britain as it looked just like one of their stores there and we got a bit over excited over all the lovely things we haven't been able to buy since we left - coleslaw and dips (yes we now make our own but sometimes its nice to have them made for you), proper sausages and rashers of bacon, hot chocolate (the stuff you can buy in Spain is so sweet i'm sure it disolves teeth on contact), pork pie, a big choice of healthy cereal, cooking sauces and so many other things we were in danger of not being able to carry it all back. Plus where would we put it all as we were already full up from the Eroski shopping trip. The only thing we couldn't get was KP dry roasted peanuts as they'd sold out.

A Cornish pasty for lunch and a dash back into the shop for something we'd forgotten and I saw some Roddas Cornish clotted cream. Oh yes! We made it a Cornish trio of loveliness with a couple of bottles of Doom Bar. Proper job!