Pointing
The plan for the day was simple: head down to Europa Point and stare meaningfully at Africa. You know, as one does. Breakfast happened at my now‑traditional hour of 9am. No need to rush — especially when the day ahead would inevitably find ways to slow me down.
The adventure began at Cathedral Square, where I waited for a bus. And waited. And waited. When the correct bus finally arrived, the driver refused to open the front door. I didn’t have a ticket, so I needed the front door. He then opened the rear doors for approximately five seconds — just long enough for me to not get there. Then he drove off, having clearly seen my “Are you kidding me?” shoulder‑shrug.
Next bus: half an hour away. So I started walking. And I made a mistake.
Wrong Turns and Right Attitudes
My map suggested I could escape from the southern end of a particular road. My map lied. I ended up trudging back to Trafalgar Cemetery, muttering darkly. Eventually I caught the next bus one stop further on. Kind of at the end of the car park that used to be around the bottom of the cable car.
While I was waiting, a group of about eight tourists from a certain global superpower arrived. When the bus arrived they attempted to shove past and board first. Four got past me, but no more. Not today. I held my ground, wedged myself back into pole position, and when one of them said “We’re all together,” I replied, “Not now you ain’t. Wait your turn.”
I broke up their party of eight like a bouncer at closing time. No regrets. The bus journey itself was painless, if crowded. The party of eight had to stand up too.
Europa Pointing
Europa Point was busy, but it’s a big open space so it didn’t feel crowded. Down here Gibraltar offers a full tasting menu of cache types: the only Wherigo on the Rock, a multi, two virtuals, three EarthCaches, a trad, and two lab stages. A proper buffet. All were pretty easy to do, aside from, obviously, that earthcaches take a while to type up.
What’s also great at Europa Point is that you can see Africa. Technically you can see another bit of Spain too. On this particular day though, there was an annoying layer of low cloud with some orange dust above it, which obscured much of the African coast all day. There was a clear view of the top of Mount Sidi Musa for much of the afternoon, but the actual coastline was obsurced all day.
I’d somehow entered the wrong coordinates for the multi, so after finishing everything else I sat in the café with a drink, realised my error, and wandered back to the correct spot. Easy find. Mild embarrassment. Standard geocaching procedure.
With the day still young, I walked through the tunnel towards Camp Bay and Rosia Bay. There’s an artificial waterfall with a cache at the bottom — quick and painless. Rosia Bay has a trad that seems to require low tide. I looked at it, considered my life choices, and decided “not today.” Well, it was closer to high tide than low, so it wasn’t the right day.
Steps, Missteps and Mediterranean Steps
From Rosia Bay I climbed past a puzzle at South Barracks and up to the Pillars of Hercules memorial, near the “Jews Gate” entrance to the nature reserve. My plan was to follow the lower path, collect three caches, and pop out onto the East Coast Road for the final two.
This plan was, in hindsight, optimistic. I was not on the lower path. I was on the Mediterranean Steps. There is no descent to the East Coast Road. There is only ascent. Steep ascent. The kind of ascent that makes your calves file formal complaints. The phantom convergence of path and road was, in fact, a point where the path is directly above the “other” tunnel.
I realised this just as I reached the last cache — which was fortunate, because it meant I could simply turn around rather than accidentally climbing to the highest point of the Rock again. It was also fortunate because it was an earthcache with two waypoints, the second of which was 300m back in the direction I’d come from. So I retraced my steps to Jews Gate and then walked all the way down Engineer Road and Europa Road to the Botanic Gardens.
Cooling Down and Carbing Up
Before returning to the hotel, I stopped at The Angry Friar for a cooling beverage. It tasted like victory. Or possibly dehydration. Hard to tell. I felt like I needed some salt too, after a day in the sunshine. My chosen method of salt delivery was to spread it liberally onto some slices of fried potato, and to accompany it with some vinegar flavouring. The strong taste encouraged the consumption of cooling beverage. Say no more.
Dinner was at Jury’s Bistro: nachos and pasta, both well‑earned after a day of bus battles, wrong turns, unexpected ascents, and a whole lot of pointing — at Africa, at caches, at maps, and occasionally at bus drivers. Not a bad day. By the end of it, I have 3 caches left unfound in Gibraltar, plus, of course the two of Simply Paul’s that aren’t actually in Gibraltar. Not this Gibraltar, anyway. So tomorrow could be quite relaxed.
Random Musing
Europa Point has a monument to Polish General and Prime Minister in Exile, Władysław Sikorski. He died in a plane crash shortly after take-off from Gibraltar Airport in 1943, probably due to poor loading of cargo. His body was taken to the Polish War Cemetery at Newark-on-Trent. I reckon the Six Degrees of Separation rule works with places too. Who’d have thought that a memorial here links back to a place near where I was brought up.
