The water tasted fine...

When we stopped for coffee and cake in Melilla, there was a local newspaper, Melilla Hoy, on the table. The biggest piece of news, aside from the latest storming of immigrants to the fence (sadly a recurring event, to which, arguably, the residents are now desensitised), was that there had been a crash in the middle of the night between a freight boat and a Balearia passenger ferry in the Med.

My friends were also talking about this at tapas on our last night in Melilla and, whilst this was a freak accident, it didn’t fill me with all that much confidence for the Balearia passenger ferry journey we were going to be getting! It's kind of unfathomable, how something like that happens with the technology/radars/lights/eyes we have these days(!). I’m interested to follow the story and get the scoop on the root cause analysis. Needless to say, we were delighted to be safe on solid ground when we disembarked in Almeria!

Oh, by the way, theme tune.

We braced ourselves for similar thorough searching upon arrival (I’d explained to Anf that “pateras” – small boats carrying immigrants – follow the ferries across the sea and people try and get into Europe that way too). Security seemed to be super light touch upon arrival and we were released into the dark streets of Almeria almost instantly.

 

It was 6am.

When exiting the city, it was clear that the sandstorm hadalso hit the south coast of Spain, as we passed parked cars covered in an orange dust. We’d spray our windscreen to clear the hazy view, only to have the glass covered in sand again just a moment later. It was like it was raining sand… Good job we sorted out that screen wash pipe back in Finland!

 

We’d decided to go from Almeria direct to Gibraltar. Anf hadn’t been there before and I was excited for him to experience something else I knew and loved. As we approached the border, Tony asked what side of the road he should drive on and if we were in Gibraltar already. I think he was excited. :-D I explained we weren’t in Gibraltar yet and that it’d be clear when we were.

 

He knew!

We hit the border and were greeted by the Spanish police (to check us out of their country – they stamped our passports too), and then 1m later instantly greeted by the English border police, complete with distinct cockney accents, (to check us into their country!). The familiar sight of the English police was… “quirky”.

I was excited for Tony to see the road through the runway and when we drove across it, past the “DO NOT STOP” sign, Tony shouted “Ooooh. Stop. Stop! I want to take a picture!”. He’s such a naughty boy. I was driving so he could take in the sights a bit more and because I’m an anal stickler for the rules, I didn’t stop. We are such a funny pairing in so many different ways!

We discovered, whilst we were visiting Gibraltar, that we will be some of the last to cross the runway as the military have come to an agreement with the government for the road to now pass through a tunnel underneath the runway. I gather the tunnel has already been built.

I was also excited for Tony to enjoy understanding what’s going on around him again as there was a fair amount of Spanish in Melilla!

 

We got to Gibraltar at lunchtime, parked up and headed for the main square. I’d had my moment in Melilla and so this was now Tony’s time to indulge. We stopped for fish and chips (when in Gibraltar!) and I had a cup of tea as we watched the pigeons in the square harass the people dining outside. Tony also enjoyed a cheeky prawn cocktail (with toast…?!). Very chilled vibes indeed. It was so calming to just sit and watch people going about their daily business. Watching the world go by, we calmly hypothesised about the make-up of the Gibraltan population. 5% tourists, 5% passing by for work, 90% residents? Maybe another thing to research… More streams of consciousness.

Bellies full (we’ve been doing a lot of belly filling – Anf’s belly ant never bin so big – his words, not mine), we returned to the van. We were going to head up to the cable car: it was monkey time!

Driving around town centres in a Transit van is generally not a small feat and (thankfully Anf was driving), we managed to whack off the winch hook whilst turning around in a car park after dropping off a curb. Anf’s breezy way of living meant that there was no drama and we went on our way to the cable car station.

Whoops!

From my experience, parking in town centres is even harder than driving around town centres. Especially in a Transit van when you can’t park in underground carparks. We’d had a bit of a pickle in Melilla when trying to get somewhere near the launderette (the guys running the bar nextdoor ended up moving their stacked chairs so that we could butt up against their canopy) and we ended up moving the van a few times when we got to the cable car station too (white spaces are free, blue are pay and display, yellow are residents – thankfully this was in English but they really don’t make it easy, eh?!). We tend to chance it in most places…

Van parked, we found some guys next to the cable car station selling tickets for guided tours up to the rock in a minibus. They explained that they will stop at the cable car station and can give more information. It seemed the easiest option so in we jumped. A few photos from our tour…

 

Monkeys!

It took us a little longer to get out of Gibraltar than it did for us to get in but once we were out (passports re-stamped), we made our way towards Cadiz. We didn’t really know where we were going but thought we’d not retrace our steps, and stop where and when we wanted en route, to make a plan.