After crossing the Spanish frontier we were taken round to the old rain-water collecting point, where a large area was covered with impermeable material to collect the rain-water into large cisterns, a system now rendered obsolete by the development of reverse-osmosis desalination technology. The site is gradually being restored to its original condition, and in fact converted into a forested area into which red foxes will be introduced.
We spotted a small Genoese fishing village and some inviting beaches, and then traversed a long tunnel, which occasioned the guides to inform us that Gibraltar had several kilometers of such tunnels, the oldest of them going back to the Great Siege of the place in the late 1700s. At Europe Point we caught sight of Africa in the hazy distance.
St. Michael's Cave, with its stalactites and stalagmites, and the concert arrangements deep underground with the sharp stalactites hanging dangerously overhead, was very impressive. While at the cave, a few of us attempted to communicate with the Barbary Apes (really monkeys).
We could also see HMS Tireless, the British nuclear attack submarine crippled by deterioration problems, a source of much uneasiness among the local population. In the end most of the guests spent time pleasantly strolling up and down Gibraltar's High Street, eating out in the restaurants and pubs and indulging in last-minute shopping.
The Caledonian Star departed in the afternoon, sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar, and past the famous Rock.
