The Intrepid Explorers are up and out at the designated waiting place for 7.30am as arranged. A total shock to the system after all our lazy mornings. Andrew drove down there asleep, I am convinced of it. We waited shivering, as the sun is just thinking of emerging, and it's surprisingly cold. A man eventually appeared around 8am "Are you waiting for the coach? The driver has been rushed to hospital with burst appendix. We are trying to find another one." We assume he's finding another driver rather than appendix, continue to shiver till 8.25am when the coach appears.

Looks like we are off to Gibraltar after all. We climb aboard, Andrew reads and I go back to sleep on his shoulder till the coffee stop one and a half hours later. A good espresso and I am thoroughly awake. We arrive at Gibraltar about 12pm. We are told to be back at the coach, which will be just round the corner at Safeway {you can't miss it} by 4pm. sharp. We were warned by microphone earlier in the journey that missing the coach will cost us around �100 as we are 150 miles from Nerja!

Off we trot to find Main Street, lunch seems necessary as we have been up for hours, we find Copacabana which serves Moroccan lamb stew - delicious. Time to head for the cable cars and the view from the top of "The Rock." as it is advertised here. We find them after a mile or so trot. They look a bit rickety to me, the sort that fall off the wires in the old films, where the hero airlifts the pretty lady and the rest of the passengers crash down the mountain to horrendous deaths! "Oh dear," I think as Andrew buys the tickets. Up we go, squeezed in like sardines, the Fat Controller says it takes 30 people so move in. Does he not think of weight restrictions at all? We are not small people but there are Giant Haystack and Big Daddy in here too + the other 26 passengers! We judder upwards, stopping to sway perilously at almost the halfway mark, before creeping, still swaying back down to the landing stage. No one exited here so we trundle on up, solid ground has never felt so good. I wobble up the stairs to the summit after Andrew, seem to have developed sea legs in the cable car!!

The view is worth it, we can see all of Gibraltar, lots of Spain and Morocco is hazily in the distance too. We take lots of pictures, we intend going to see St. Michael's Cave and the Barbary apes next, at the halfway down point. An ape appears up the steps, he glances at us then leaps on to the railing, I shudder, it's a long drop if he falls. He sits looking nonchalant, then "walks the plank" looking at us for applause. A stupid woman walks up to stroke him, he retaliates, just missing her with his teeth, but manages to slap her. He then strolls into the restaurant, but comes out rapidly, I think he's been told off for this before.

Another 2 apes join us, one steals a woman's make up bag, he opens it and fishes around, holding it just out of her reach. She tries to grab it several times so he gets fed up with her and throws it over the railings, the sarcastic look on his face was priceless! We were all warned that the apes will steal if they can, it's so funny to watch.

It's time to go back down, the cable car goes passed the halfway point, again the sickening swaying as we stop too suddenly and head back up. The young man operating the doors says reassuringly to us "I don't know what the operator is up to today, none of the cars are working properly," as we exit the car!

There are lots of apes down here, camera frenzy again, a mother is feeding a tiny baby, father sits proudly watching them. Mother goes for a walk with the baby having a "piggy back" ride, people are feeding them nuts. A coach driver who obviously visits regularly feeds them crisps, then shares some bottled water with them. We have spent so much time ape watching that there is no time for the cave.

 We do our last descent safely and thankfully exit the car. That is beyond doubt the worst cable car we've ever been in, we have been in lots of them over the years in Scotland, Norway etc. We buy 2 CD's to play in the car, the new Moby 18 and a 70's hits and some duty free bits  {cigarettes are �6.90 for 200 here for example} the tax in Britain is way over the top - but then we all know that already.

It's 3.45 time to go to the coach. Just around the corner turns into a trek through an industrial estate at high speed, we find the coach about to leave without us at 4.06pm. Andrew gets clapped on board, I follow to derisive hoots and angry mutterings! Our coffee stop on the way back is at Dunne's {Up North's favourite department store} I buy a swimsuit as I forgot to pack mine. We find a beer in Dunne's cafe, {something you wouldn't find in Northampton's branch} a young man from the coach says that he can't believe that they were leaving without us. I think that these people lead very sad little existences out here, if  Safeway's and Dunne's once a month are the high spots of their lives, we can cope easily with the clapping and hooting if it gives a little extra pleasure to some ex-pats out here.

We were dropped off near our car at about 8pm. drove back to the villa and dropped off our shopping. We decided to walk to Terraza la Passa, a local restaurant, 2 streets down to give Andrew a break from driving in the evening.  Lovely Parma ham, fresh tomato soup, mussels and the house special chicken with the house red wine. The waiters are polite and friendly too we really like this restaurant. We strolled back uphill and go straight to bed, it's been a long day.

We enjoyed Gibraltar very much, it's definitely worth a day or so visit, they do half day boat trips to see the Dolphins too, but we didn't have time to do this. 8 hours in a coach is surprisingly tiring, with hindsight I would probably have preferred to go by car as we only got 4 hours in Gibraltar for all the travelling we did.

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