6th March. Journey to Gibraltar, UK
The sun came out today, I went up to the view point to take some more photos of the Griffon Vulture in the good weather and saw two other birds of prey while I was up there.
In the meantime Darren started emptying and refilling the van. The Tourist Information lady suggested he used an alternative tap to fill the van with water. As I came back down he was desperately trying to turn it off (there was no handle and he’d had to turn it on with pliers) as he pointed out when things had calmed down, it was VERY lucky that we had a tap to turn the water supply off at the van otherwise we would have been flooded out because it took a good 15 minutes for Darren, the Tourist Information lady AND a work man struggling with the tap before it was finally shut off!
We drove to the other side of Casares to another view point which involved yet another climb up a steep hill but it meant we could look down across the valley to where we’d been staying, there was a shelter at the top with a picnic table underneath it, unfortunately we weren’t organised enough to bring even a drink. It was a lovely walk in the sunshine, the hills were covered with thousands of yellow, white and purple wild flowers scattered amongst the vivid green grass and Darren spotted a unicorn up on the hillside opposite us, or was it a white horse!
We left Casares, Darren had chosen to take the scenic route (for scenic read windy but amazing views) we were so lucky to spot a restaurant overlooking the valley and the road we had just driven up. We were the only customers at that point and the waitress kindly showed us to the largest table in the room because it had the best view. We had a gorgeous meal, with a very tasty bottle of red wine in a restaurant with far reaching views across to Gibraltar and Morocco, what a result.
During the meal I’d been chatting to Darren wondering why we hadn’t seen any storks when I was under the impression they were commonly to be seen nesting on chimney pots in Spain and very strangely as we were nearing Gibraltar I suddenly saw a load of storks standing in a field, then a bit further on saw a few more flying overhead and a bit further down the road near a railway line there were loads of huge nests perched on top of poles alongside the line with the occasional stork popping its head out. What a fantastic sight.
We arrived at the aire by the marina beside the Rock of Gibraltar. It was a lovely sunny day and we parked facing the water. We had a lovely view of the boats lined up in the blue water. We made use of the two washing machines and a very nice British man gave us a Euro to put in the washing machine when Darren asked if he knew where he could get some change. The man said he had a Euro and when Darren offered him the 20 cent coins the man said he had enough ‘shrapnel’ already and to consider it his good dead for the day, isn’t that kind. While we were waiting for the washing to do we popped into the local cafe for coffee and to get more change for the dryer. It was obviously a meeting place for the police and there was a very loud bunch of them sitting at the large table in the corner, they were having such a lively discussion that we couldn’t hear ourselves speak! In the evening we were treated to a great sunset.
