Trip to Gibraltar

Thursday after I got out of work Jeff and I headed to the coastal town of Algeciras, Spain. We left from Seville around 3:30 pm and got into the port town of Algeciras around 500 pm. We went from one bus directly to another. We hopped on a short 30 minute bus to the town of La Linea to walk across the border to Gibraltar. We had a lot of luck and didn't have much down time on the way there. We crossed the border and took a bus to the center of town and headed towards the rock. 

The rock of Gibraltar is one of the "Pillars of Hercules", the other being Africa. It is debated which mountain is the 'other' pillar in Northern Africa, some say Mount Hacho in the Spanish territory Ceuta and others say it is Jebel Musa in Morocco.The gondola up the mountain was closed so we decided to walk up. The top of the rock is 1,400 feet tall and we had to walk up to about the 1,200 foot mark. We took a rode up for most of the way and then caught a trail to a large long stairway that cut up the mountain to the 'Ape Den.'

Pillar of Hercules monument with African Pillar in background

Stairway up the mountain

We got to the top of the mountain at the perfect time. The sun was just setting over the mountains and we were right in the Ape Den taking photos of the apes. We hung out at the top for sunset watching the monkeys and taking photos.

sunset

looking on towards Africa

We headed back down the stairs back to the path and took a trail through the old town of Gibraltar instead of the road, the way we came up. We headed through the trails and old town in the dark and got back to the border to take a bus back to Algeciras for the night.

Overlooking Gibraltar

We got back to Algeciras and packed up everything for our ferry ride the next morning. We had a 9 am ferry across the Straight of Gibraltar. Our next destination was Chefchaouen, Morocco. It would be a long trip but worth every second.