Gibraltar, UK and El Palmar, Andalucía, Spain

Last night someone tried to pick the lock to Steve’s van, whilst he was in it. He shouted them off and saw them run away. No doubt this was one of the guys who were looking in. The cute Aussie girl from last night said La Linea has a high car crime rate.

We decide to move our vans. We checked out a large car park by the airport last night and drive over.

Last night someone tried to pick the lock to Steve’s van, whilst he was in it. He shouted them off and saw them run away. No doubt this was one of the guys who were looking in. The cute Aussie girl from last night said La Linea has a high car crime rate.

We decide to move our vans. We checked out a large car park by the airport last night and drive over. It costs €13 per month, and not €3 per night as we though. We deicide to park on a road a little further up, which seemed safe enough.

We grab our laptops and headed into town for coffee. We stop at the Nelson bar, where we watched the rugby, order coffee, and try out the WiFi. The WiFi doesn’t work well and we soon give up and go back to the Horseshoe pub, where we had our first full English breakfast a few days ago, and have another full English breakfast. Whilst there we spot an old chap who we talked too in the Nelson pub last night, and an English girl that one of the marines was seeing. I spot the barmaid from the ‘party’ pub whilst we are walking. We have slowly realised how small Gibraltar is, and how quickly one bumps into the same people. However, I still like the place, and I am especially tempted by the good work possibilities here. We drop the laptops back at the vans.

We head back into Gibraltar once again. We take a long walk around the town and head up to the rock itself. Walking takes longer than we think. We don’t get to the top but we do get to see the Gibraltan Apes. The landlord from one of the bars told me that he would be showing the F1 race today. We go to the bar at the right time, but football is being shown. We have a beer and decide head back to the vans. One the way I mention that perhaps we should head back to El Palmar. Steve agrees and we agree to meet at the beach.

I intended on taking the across-country route, but ignore my satellite navigation unit, which is giving me the right directions, and take a wrong turn. I find myself going on the coastal Tarifa road. The views are amazing, and I am glad I went this way. Particularly good were the views of Morocco. I had read that the countries are separated by just 8 miles (14 kms) of water, but I am surprised by how close it seems when I drive by. I follow a beautiful sunset to Vejer, where I take a wrong turning again. I end up on the edge of Conil, and head back to El Palmar on the coastal road.

I wait for 30 minutes in El Palmar before Steve arrives. He took a wrong turning also and drove for 30 minutes in a big loop. He also had a near miss with a bus. He is a bit shaken from it. We eat tuna baguettes and have a beer intending to go up to the lively Sunday bar. After a beer we decide to give the bar a miss, and settle for another beer and smoke at the van.

Posted by Darren

I'm a huge campervan enthusiast, and the maker of CampervanLife.com. I believe everyone can convert their own campervan, and enjoy a great lifestyle with it.